Halloween - A Time For Kids, Bud, and Dumbo Ears!

If you've been following my blog for years you know that I absolutely LOVE Halloween.  So, it should comes as no surprise that I would write about some of my Halloween memories.  I wrote the following post on Halloween on October 31, 2009 and thought you might enjoy re-reading it.  Enjoy!

Today is Halloween and while thinking about my own childhood Halloween adventures or misadventures I concluded that Halloween was definitely a time for kids, and maybe, well Bud, too!

My Irish twin brother and I always went trick or treating together and there was always a competition to see who could get the most candy. The competition would always end with him punching me and my crying. Sometimes they were fake tears which, unfortunately, my Mother always saw through.

One particular Halloween when we were teenagers we seemed to get a lot of gum. For some reason my brother and I thought it would be great to see how many pieces of gum I could get in my mouth. So, he kept feeding them to me and feeding them to me until I couldn't chew anymore. I couldn't move my mouth either as there was so much gum in there and, of course, I started choking. My Mother had to pull the gum out bit by bit and she was not amused. Needless to say we didn't try that again.

In the family right now my two twin grandsons (who are 4) and my grandson, Noodles, who is 10 will be out trick or treating in a few hours. Like all kids I'm sure they're excited by the thoughts of all the candy they will get and all the candy they envision they'll be able to eat.

Of course, they think they'll be able to eat it when they get home! That's not gonna happen. But, they can think they will.

It's a magical holiday when kids get to dress up. When I was a kid my brother and I would help my Mom make our costumes. Sometimes we had a lot of time to put them together - other times they were kinda last minute this will do costumes. You know - the sheets thrown over your head with two eye holes for ghosts.

Nowadays kids costumes (and adult costumes for that matter) are big business. Kids get to dress up as their favorite superhero, favorite monster, or favorite cartoon character. Sometimes the costumes are simple and sometimes they're much more elaborate. Personally, for me - the simpler the better. I like handmade costumes. Store bought costumes have just become way too commercial and way to much of a money maker for the costume and party companies. But, in today's fast paced work it's hard to find time to make handmade costumes.

While thinking about Halloween and looking through some of the old pictures I was reminded about some of the stories behind some of the pictures shown in my post. The first three pictures of the little guy in the tiger outfit are of my grandson, Noodles - one with Bud! What you can't tell from the pictures is that he was sick that day. Really sick - fever and all.

But, he wanted to go to the grocery store to pick out the candy and wanted to help fill the candy containers with all the candy. He also wanted to wear his costume - which was a little hot for a little guy with a fever! So, we filled up 4 HUGE bowls of candy.

Now you might wonder why so many bowls of candy. Well, the simple answer is that my grandson lives in a neighborhood where they get hundreds of trick or treaters. Hundreds. The door bell never stops ringing.

The two pictures of the geisha girls are of my twin granddaughters when they were very small. What you don't know about this picture is why they are laughing.

You see, about 30 minutes before my granddaughters were to arrive I decided that my husband should have a costume, too.

So, I cut two huge Dumbo ears (you know Dumbo the elephant) out of white paper and made a little Dumbo hat out of the same paper and taped them to his head. It was a crude last minute costume - but, the girls laughed and thought it was great.

They, of course, had no problem recognizing their grandfather with Dumbo ears.

While browsing through some of the picture albums I also found a picture of my twin grandsons from Halloween 2008. They were pictured with their Dad, but I decided to crop him out and just show you the twins in their Halloween costumes.

I'm sure their Dad wouldn't mind. Halloween is for kids after all. Or, at least I hope he doesn't mind! LOL LOL Then again - he's always been a BIG KID, too. Maybe I should photoshop him back in! LOL LOL

I'm still looking for a picture of my other grandson from Halloween. He was in a period for such a long time where he didn't want to have his picture taken. I have lots of pictures when he was really small, but haven't been able to locate one for Halloween.

So I decided that maybe I should photoshop a picture of him with a fake Halloween costume on and then tell him it's a real picture. Do you think he'd believe it? Nah! I don't think so either. He's too smart for that.

I decided instead to take a picture of him and distort it. To my surprise it distorted him in such a way as to create Dumbo ears.

Kind of looks like his grandfather with his Dumbo ears but cuter. At least I think so. Let's see what he says when he sees this post.

In any event, it's getting dark and the ghosts, goblins, and witches will be out. Yikes! Is that the doorbell already? Bud's barking. Better get his costume on. Come on, Bud - every dog needs a Halloween costume. Bud, now don't run away from me. Bud.

Hmmm... if he won't wear a costume maybe hubby will. Where did I put those Dumbo ears.