halloween happened, too

This year, a series of unfortunate events led to us make the boys' costumes ourselves. It is definitely the first and probably the last time this will happen. They decided on a weather theme: Liam as a tornado ("That's Mister Twister, Mom!" shouts Liam in the background), Max as a lightning bolt, and Henry as a storm cloud. So I found basic directions, made a list of everything I would need, and checked with my mom to make sure that it wouldn't cost as much as it would to just buy them costumes at the store. "No way," she assured me. I'm assuming she left out the end of that sentence, which was "...because it will cost you WAY MORE than buying them costumes at the store, mwah hah hah!" Admittedly, this is because (unlike some people) I don't have a ready stock of cotton batting or black tulle to draw from, so I had to buy everything. And to add to the perfect storm (hah!) of costume making, my dad had this big secret plan to whisk my mom away on a surprise trip for their 25th anniversary (so wonderful!) so it turned out that Mike and I were on our own this year.

Anyway, we got out our stapler and our scissors and our spray paint, and each of us took a turn with needle and thread, and in the end I think we did a fairly respectable job. Well enough, anyway, that everybody they encountered on the street recognized what they were and complimented them. On that score, it didn't hurt that Tornado Liam insisted on twirling his way down the sidewalk to further the funnel cloud effect.

And for a special treat, this year was our Aunt Milene's first American Halloween! Since she and Greg live out in the country, we asked if she would like to come here to hand out candy since we get so many trick-or-treaters. She was very excited to see all the different costumes, and told us that it all looked just like a movie. It was really fun to watch her, and to get a sense of what this random ritual must look like to someone from outside the country. Milene says we don't have nearly enough holidays in the United States, definitely not as many as they have in Brazil, and we should get some more. If they're all as fun as Halloween, I could definitely be on board with that plan!