Lots of Fun on Halloween

One of the girls asked me the other day, "Why do we celebrate Halloween if it's about evil spirits and stuff?"

My answer was a question: "Do we celebrate evil spirits?"

Of course not.

We celebrate candy! :)

We don't really "celebrate" anything, except for the fun traditions of carving pumpkins, eating goodies, and dressing up. We celebrate good times with family that go way back. My Grandpa James started it, I guess. Maybe enjoying Halloween goes hand in hand with enjoying a good prank.

This is my grandpa with Katelyn, on Halloween several years ago.

Notice Doug's costume above...the family traditions continue!

My mom sewed the best, most beautiful, and elaborate Halloween costumes for us when I was growing up--until we turned 12, and then we were cut off from homemade costumes and Trick-or-Treating. (What a great mom! She went the extra mile to make things special for us, but she knew when enough was enough!) Some of my favorites: a purple Maid Marian costume in 2nd grade; a lacey bridal gown, complete with veil and bouquet of blue flowers; and--my most favorite of all-- a gorgeous, satiny Miss America evening gown, complete with a real hoop skirt.

I tried to follow in her footsteps, and create beautiful and unique Halloween costumes for my own little girls. I hit my peak with this little number

and believe me, we have gotten many years of use out of it! I've made sure of that--it was a royal pain to make!

So after that, I succumbed to the racks of treasures at second-hand stores and after-Halloween clearance sales. But even if I don't sew the costumes myself, we take great excitement in choosing our costumes each year. Come August, it's time to bring down the chest of costumes from its storage spot, and start hunting for any new items we might need to add to it.

For example, I found these dresses at D.I. one August, and was inspired with that year's costume idea.

A little accessorizing and....Adorable, right?

My daughters take after their mother, and love to dress up in something flowing and beautiful....most of the time. This year, Hannah chose to be a witch. But next year, she'll be wearing the gold dress I made. It's ok, I have faith that she'll come around. In fact, I recall wearing a witch costume in Kindergarten. My mom even found some black tacky stuff to put on some of my little teeth. (Like I said, the extra mile!)

And of course, a big part of the anticipation of dressing up is adding a touch of make-up. This year, as an added bonus, we have Aunt Jennifer in the house, who can create a princess hairdo extraordinaire.

She can even help a spooky witch look glamorous:

And there's nothing evil about that.