Halloween 2009

Thank you everyone for all your thoughts and prayers for our sweet nephew. It's going to be a long, uphill battle from here on out, and all of our lives are changed from this. I can hear the resolve in my sister-in-law's voice on the phone. She's turned from grieving to "momma on a mission" and she's out to beat this thing.

Meanwhile, it's crazy Halloween/pumpkin time here and it's hard not to feel guilty for having fun when your family's world is being turned upside down. We did have a wonderful Halloween night. We had a chili dinner with our good friends and then trick-or-treated in the perfect weather. Presenting Clone Trooper Marky (i.e. security) and lovely butterflies, Margaret and Mary Hannah, and Princess Julia.

Isn't Julia's dress neat? I actually got it at HomeGoods. You know they sometimes have things like this. I got our McLaren umbrella stroller there too.
The trooper unmasked....

Daddy ended up carrying Margaret and Julia in between houses. They got so used to it they wouldn't hold anyone's hand or walk. Like I've said before, real men haul kids.

Did you think I forgot little man? He was Dumbo- and loved it! It's the same costume we had for Marky's first Halloween.

He was an angel baby and rode so quietly in the stroller and played with his feet. How about those ears?

Friday we had a church Halloween party and Tuker went as Poohbear Honeypot, another Marky hand-me-down. It took me a while to figure out that this costume is supposed to be Winnie the Pooh in a Bumble Bee suit so he can steal honey. :)

This was one of Tucker's first social parties and he enjoyed making the rounds. See his dimple- that means there is a smile under that paci. :) Here he is happy to see that Dinosaur Jonathan has a bag of pretzles.

Don't turn away from me Mr. Dinosaur.

Oooooh....a LADY! Hello legs. Is that hairbow edible?

And before we go, a shout out to my Godson Luke- I love this little bee-fella.

P.S. I want to add that I have NO PROBLEM whatsoever with my kids dressing up like their favorite things or people and trick-or-treating. I remember in high school being so shocked when my hyper-ethical english professor who hated the Easter Bunny and Santa said he had no problem with Halloween. He said, "c'mon...it's just kids getting candy". I argued that it was rooted in paganism and evil and should be completely avoided. Later, I've come to see that Christians have made it our practice over these past 2,000 years to redeem things begun in evil. The Church would go to a pagan temple and convert it to a Christian church. And people argue that Christmas and Easter have practices that include remnants of pagan celebrations. I have no doubt that my children are not dabbling in evil by dressing like a princess and asking for candy. I'm sure there are those who abuse it, but that can be said of anything. And Halloween is such a perfect prequel to All Saints Day. We are reminded of what the Saints were saved from. Today (Nov. 1st) we had an All Saints party and the kids got on stage in their costumes and gave clues to their Saint. They would say, for instance, "I baptized Jesus." Julia was St. Margaret of Scotland and Marky was St. George (of course!). In fact, all night on Halloween, when people would say "oh look a pretty princess", Marky would yell, "No, she's St. Margaret of Scotland." I might as well have put a big "we are Catholic" sticker on. :)

For more thoughts on the topic of Christians and Halloween see here and here.