I hate Halloween

OK, for the longest time I have LOVED the season of fall - the leaves changing color, the cooler weather, the wonderful fall festivals, pumpkins, and Halloween. Halloween has always been one of our favorite holidays. I don't know why, really, it is just a great holiday. That is, until you have kids. Now, I know that like Christmas, Halloween should only get better once you have kids. After all, you can go trick-or-treating again and you get the chance to really get into costumes again. Ah, the costumes. Today, that is why I hate Halloween. Like my crazy attempts to make my kid's birthday cake, I like to also make their Halloween costumes. So, I always start asking way in advance. Last year Alex wanted to be a Jedi Knight. He saw a costume he liked on-line, so I broke down and bought one. This year, Alex said he wanted to be a Jedi Knight again. No problem, saves me time and money. Jenna said she wanted to be a zebra. Great I thought, it was Alex's old costume from two years ago that my mom and I worked very long on. What an easy Halloween for me!! Yay!! Here comes the bubble burst, two weeks ago, Jenna started to say that she wanted to be a ghost for Halloween so that she could scare people. I didn't mention that a three-year old dressed up as a ghost was only going to be seen as cute and not scary. I kept on her and she was persistent about the ghost. So, Tuesday night Jenna and I set out to the store to buy our ghost making supplies. Wednesday night we started to make the costume - which, to say the least, was HORRIBLE!!! She wouldn't hold still, I cut the hole for her face too big, and everything ended in chaos with lots of yelling and tears and hostility. Jenna ended up saying she didn't want to be a ghost anymore. Feeling like a failure of a mother for fighting with my three-year old and in the process killing her dream of being a ghost, I sent Joe out to the store to buy another sheet. I then stayed up very late trying my best to get this costume done in time for the Halloween party at the library today. (Once again, I owe it all to Joe - as usual, he is the calm in the middle of a storm and worked so patiently with me to get it done. I love you, hon!!) So, I wake up this morning feeling a bit better about myself, feeling a bit more like an acceptable mom, anticipating the beaming smile on Jenna's face when she sees that I have made this great costume - only to descend back into chaos. All I had to do was cut the bottom for an appropriate length. All Jenna had to do was put the costume on and hold still for just a bit while I cut the bottom. But she went right into tantrum mode and the fighting started all over again!! Here I was, yelling at my three-year old about how late I stayed up working on this and couldn't she at least give it a try. Does she really care how late I stayed up? No. Is she going to give it a try if she doesn't like it? No. She's three. So, after her storming off and me gathering myself, we had a heart-to-heart and lots of hugs and kisses. And then we only had 30 minutes to come up with a new costume for story time. (Note: the zebra costume was not an option as part of it was dismantled to become part of the ghost costume, which is now lying in a crumpled pile in the corner of our unused room.) Now, Jenna and Alex have lots of dress up clothes, so we had things to fall back on. Jenna has lots of princess dresses, which look beautiful on the hanger because that is where they always are. But the hopeful mom-of-a-little-girl in me thought, well we just got back from Disney, so maybe, just maybe she will want to dress up as a princess. NO. At first she wanted to be Darth Vader. Jenna, the cape is too long and I don't have time to hem it up. Then, she wanted to be a solider. Jenna, all there is to that is a vest and a helmet, how about something else. Finally, she decided on a pirate. She went all out, donning the sword, eye patch, and hat. And, you know what, she was a great looking pirate. She loved it and, most importantly, she had fun. To be honest, so did I. So, I guess I don't really hate Halloween. Well, not until Saturday when she has to dress up again for a party at our friends. Hmm, wonder if she will be a pirate again, or if our battles over a costume will start all over?

Where Dreams Come True

We embarked on our first family vacation on September 20th of this year and we went to the most magical place in the country...Disney World!!! It was a wonderful trip, full of very happy memories. If you ask Alex what his favorite part of the trip was, he would say riding the Buzz Lightyear ride at Magic Kingdom. For Jenna, it was all about the Dumbo ride!! Both kids really enjoyed the parades. I loved watching their faces light up with excitement as they yelled "Look, look, there's (fill in the character)!" And I love how Alex sees the beauty in the elements of the parade. "Mom, look. Isn't that butterfly so pretty?" I loved watching Jenna's eyes widen and her smile get bigger as she met Pluto for the first time. The big hug she gave him and then, the absolute pure delight on her face as Pluto held her Dolly for a picture. (One of her wishes was for a princess to hold her Dolly, but she settled for Pluto). Rounding the corner at MGM to find a huge AT AT staring at us was magical as Jenna screamed "ALEX, ALEX, do you see that!! Do you see what is there?" But Alex didn't hear her because he was already running ahead to get a better look!! And my heart was bursting when Alex came face to face with Darth Vader. I saw the hesitation in his eyes, felt it in his body, but it was Darth Vader after all. He walked up, handed his clipboard over for an autograph, and bravely posed for a picture, then high tailed it out of there! It was good to expose them to new things, also, like live shows. In general, I think they liked them and it is something I will continue to do with them. We also really liked all the different dining we did. Alex's favorite restaurant was the Sci-Fi Dine-In (pictured at top). It was certainly different...we sat in a car and watched movie clips of old "B" sci-fi movies made in the 50's. It was unique and entertaining. We did so much on this trip - flew in an airplane for the first time, rode buses, boats, and monorails. We stayed up late, ate too many desserts, bought way to many weapons (2 storm trooper blasters, 2 small Buzz Lightyear blasters, 2 pirate swords, 1 large Buzz Lightyear blaster, and 1 Buzz Lightyear mechanical arm grabber). It was a good first vacation, yes, we had tears, tantrums, meltdowns, but for all the bad, there are very good memories. It is not a vacation we will take again next year, but we will go back. Alex wasn't quite ready for all of it. He is scared to try new things and sat out a lot of the rides. Hopefully, next time he will be more willing to venture out. Jenna, our fearless one, would have gone on everything if she were tall enough. We need to give her a few years to grow and then watch out, an adrenaline junky she will become!! Now, it's time to look over our 900 + pictures, yes, that is correct 900, and pick out the best for our scrapbook. Funny thing is, Joe says we should have taken more pictures!!!! I've got my work cut out for me, but am itching to get it started. I'll post more pictures as I weed through them all!