This year, just days before Halloween, Hurricane Sandy rocked the East Coast slamming the Jersey Shore like a "90-mph freight train heading into the Philadelphia area, capping a day of unprecedented devastation and flooding the coastal barrier islands from ocean to bay ripping apart large chunks of the Atlantic City Boardwalk."
This storm took out many trees in our area and left us without power for 3 days. We were lucky, as many people, especially in New Jersey and on Long Island, fared far worse with extensive flooding and tree damage.
In many places, Halloween was cancelled or rescheduled due to the devastation. Luckily, Halloween in our area was not cancelled.
The kids were excited to see their friends, and of course, for trick-or-treating! Isabel wanted to bring a pillow case as she planned to get lots and lots of candy. Somehow, I managed to convince her to just bring a standard size reusable bag for candy.
Isabel struggled with costume ideas this year; she really wanted to be a baby! This was a very popular choice among her friends the previous year. I talked her into looking for a more unique costume. We went to the Halloween store and she decided on a blue morpho butterfly. She looked beautiful in the costume. However, some of the boys at school teased her apparently, telling her halloween costumes were supposed to be scary! Oh, boys!!
Her favorite part of the butterfly costume were the black, velour fingerless gloves. The first night she wore the costume was to the Girl Scout party at St. Annie's. Unfortunately, Isabel realized when we got home from this party that she left the gloves at the manicure station and instantly melted into tears. My heart broke for her and so we got back in the car to search for the lost gloves. By the time we got back to school the janitors were cleaning up and had already filled and lined up at least 15 contractor size bags outside the school.
Remembering my mom searching through trash for lost contact lenses and retainers (like searching for a needle in a haystack), I knew I had to look through the trash bags for these gloves. We searched and searched, but never did recover the gloves:( However, we did bond and I think she knows I would do anything to put a smile on her face!
Chloe decided to be a black cat for Halloween and a Gumball machine (compliments of the O'Reilly girls grand-dad!) This costume was a huge hit at the Girl Scout Party and in the school parade. Chloe, you just love to be different. You LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the attention!
Brayden was happy to be anything for Halloween (or so it seemed!) Originally, he asked to be a dinosaur, but we were unable to find a dinosaur costume that fit him. A friend gave me a bag of costumes for him....Iron Man, Spider Man, Mario (from Super Mario Bros.), and a pirate. He decided on the pirate. It had a hole in the knee, so we went to AC Moore and bought a skull and crossbones patch.
With my very limited sewing skills, I managed to fix the pants just hours before the Halloween Party.
Kellen would be a chicken, a hand-me-down from his sister, Isabel! He was happy to wear the fleece pants and puffy, feathered looking jacket. A solid choice given the cold night.
We would celebrate Halloween with the Stagnaro's, O'Reilly's, Parks, and some other friends. This year the Stagnaro's were hosting Halloween!
As soon as we walked in the door, Brayden saw his best friend, Jimmy, dressed as Mario. This was a game changer. Immediately, Brady asked to go home wanting to change into his Mario costume. He no longer wanted to be a pirate!!
This was just not a possibility. First of all, there was not enough time...he would miss a good part of the trick or treating. Second, the Mario costume was missing a button and needed to be fixed. He would not hear it and threw a major temper tantrum and I mean MAJOR! It was awful and broke my heart! I told him I could fix his costume later tonight and he could be Mario at his classroom party and in the Trinity school parade the very next day. He was ticked off and demanded we get his Mario costume. It got so bad, Andy had to put him in his car until he calmed down.
We finally got him to stop screaming and managed to get some trick-or-treating in that night, however, not without sulking which you can tell from many of our pictures...oh well!
That night, I rushed to AC Moore for large, yellow buttons, and by candlelight in our very cold house, managed to sew on two new buttons to the Mario costume. It was all worth it. He was very excited to be Mario for his Halloween party and at the school parade. A mother's work is never done!!
All in all, it was a fantastic Halloween, certainly, one to be remembered! Isabel, Chloe, Brady, and Kellen...just know, I always try my best and love you all to pieces! Happy Halloween, Love Bugs!
