The Ghosts of Halloween Future

Only four days till Halloween! And only two days till I go to the hospital to have our baby! So I am putting pictures of the boys' costumes up now, instead of next week, when I do not plan to be blogging.

Truman told me in September that he wanted to be a tornado for Halloween. My initial reaction was, "I don't think so," but then I began thinking of how I could construct a tornado. I thought of all the fun things I would glue to the costume--like a witch on a broomstick and some cows and farmhouses. Predictably (but fortunately before I began purchasing materials), he changed his mind and said that now he wanted to be a volcano. Well, as natural-disaster costumes go, this one would be easier to make than a tornado, so I agreed.

I could wax tedious with my experience in constructing this costume. Instead, I will highlight only two main points:
1) It is painful to sew for lengthy amounts of time when one is 8+ months pregnant. My ribs were threatening to crack each time I sat down.
2) It is possible, though it defies laws of physics, to use your seam ripper more than your actual sewing machine. I picked out all of my stitches several times, muttering all the while about what sorts of things I would be expecting Truman to mention when he is asked to speak in church on Mother's Day . . . or on any day, for that matter.

Anyway, it turned out to be pretty cool. And he loves it--which is the best part. I was worried that it would be hard to walk around in, but he does just fine. And though he has been needing a haircut for quite a while, I have let it grow long on the top so that we could spray it up and dye it red, like so much exploding hotmoltenlava. (I like to say "hot molten lava" as one word).

We took the boys to get their Halloween pictures taken on Wednesday, before our ward Halloween party, so I only have low-resolution copies right now, till the prints I ordered arrive, but you can still see the cuteness.


I didn't let Brigham choose what he wanted to be, figuring that this would be my last year to force him into whatever I wanted him to wear. How wrong I was. I spent a great deal of time and effort making an orange octopus costume for him, and was almost finished with it, when Allen came home from work with a frog costume that a co-worker gave him. It was too small for her boys, and she told Allen he could have it. Well, he showed it to Brigham before consulting me, and down the toilet went all the appeal of the orange octopus. Actually, I'm not that upset about it, because the octopus will fit him next year, but the frog is fairly snug this year, and it's very cute . . . I just hope I'll be able to force--er, persuade--him to wear the octopus next year.

We borrowed some flippers from Nana and stretched green socks over them to complete the ensemble. What a cute little chubby-cheeked froggy!

Both boys got to wear their costumes to our ward party, and then again last night at Truman's school's Fall Festival (it's apparently out of fashion to use the word "Halloween" at school functions). Allen and I are turning into real grownups, I guess, because neither of us dressed up at all. I feel lame admitting it, but at least I didn't take it a step further and wear one of those dumb t-shirts that says, "This is my costume."