I Almost Ruined Halloween

I don't consider myself a lazy mom. Make no mistake, I'm not very good at this. I have few if any maternal characteristics and zero natural instinct, but lazy, no I don't think it's that. To get to the point, Jack had been talking about being a crocodile, since the first of August, for Halloween. He loves all things crocodile. He pretends there are crocodiles in every spare body of water (even his cup at the dinner table). The dude lives in a fantasyland where he rides, defends, thwarts, and avades numerous crocodiles. It is HIS thing.

And, hey, for the record, I am fine with him being a crocodile. But, I'm also not a big fan of the pomp and circumstance of Halloween...so I'm not forkin' over $20 for a EBay version of a crocodile costume. Which led to the frog costume that Aunt Sara already had, which led to the whole thought that I would let him put on the frog costume and just 'THINK' that he was a crocodile (you know, paint his face and put little sharp teeth on it). I seriously thought that he would just BELIEVE that this was a crocodile costume because I said so. AND, he's 2 years old--he would NEVER know the difference.

So, (I know this story contains a lot of 'so' and 'which'--I don't really know why, it's just happening) I got Lachlan all pimped out as a world-class fairy. I mean, pimped, as in a 4-year-old with a Jheri curl and body glitter. To be honest, she was so cute I took a million pictures. Here's a sample:

She wouldn't even stop to let me take a picture on her way into her preschool Halloween party. Here she is running from the car.

At the preschool party with her classroom treats. Right after I took this picture she asked me when I was leaving. It was probably because of how I was dressed...I would have been embarrassed if I had any dignity left at all.

On the way home from the preschool party, Jack begged to put on his crocodile costume. I thought it was probably a good idea because I had never even tried it on to see if it would fit.

When I pulled it out of the closet, I made sure to make a big deal about how this was a crocodile costume...we put it on and then went to look in the mirror. While looking in the mirror, he suddenly got huge tears in his eyes and looked just devastated--no, devastated doesn't even cut it, he was heart-broken--crushed. He looked at me with those tears rolling down his face and said, "Mama, this isn't a crocodile, it's a frog!" And then he sobbed.

I felt like a turd. And that, my friends, is edited for content.

I haven't been that sick about a bad decision in a long time. Oh, I felt terrible. And to make matters, worse I started saying that we would go to the store and find a costume and I would make it all better...and the whole time I'm thinking, "holy crap, it is the day before Halloween and the only thing that is going to be left in this town is a bad mask left over from the George Bush years."

And then I prayed the prayer of desperation...and then I prayed it again, and again, and again.

I really don't know who was helping me out on the 'other side'--who is the angel that is in charge of helping idiot mothers fix their own stupid, miscalculated mistakes the day before Halloween, but that ANGEL should get PROMOTED! Because we found a 2T dragon costume that frankly, I would have paid $75 dollars for, but due to the eleventh hour only cost $10 bucks.

My boy was thrilled because I threw in a brand new plastic sword (an additional, $3.50) and told him that it was "Puff, the Magic Dragon". [sigh] I can't imagine that there was ever greater relief felt regarding a purchase at Shopko.

And that, is the story of how I almost ruined Halloween, but was saved by a last minute miracle purchase and learned a good lesson about what is acceptable when trying to fool your own children and save a few dollars.

Thank you Hallow's Eve angel. Gold star for you.

Here he is, "Puff, the Magic Dragon":

Lastly, a postscript: I still had enough time to make my favorite Halloween treat. I tried a few new things this year. I used double-stuff Oreos over the carmel and chocolate. Oh, it is soooo good. I wasn't sure if I would like it, but it will be a mainstay from now on. I also tried candy-corn. I actually like candy corn, but it wasn't very good on the apples because you couldn't get the pieces to stay on when the apple was sliced. It just didn't look appetizing. Just a little FYI for my fellow apple dippers out there. Reese's pieces seemed to stay on better and they tasted very good.