Clowning Around with a Mouse

Every year Halloween ends up being a bit off kilter from the plans I make. But the one thing that is never different is the fun we have despite straying from my plans. Trying to change our fate from last year we decided to avoid costume shopping online and headed out to the costume store in early October to pick our perfect costumes.

My Plan: Pick out something coordinating for the whole family, like Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach and Toad. Kind of like these people, only we'd be much smaller and cuter.

Photo Courtesy of rustytanton.com

Reality: We enter the costume store and they are completely out of Mario and Luigi costumer even though it is only October 9th. Unwilling to face ordering online we press on. Family costume dream is out the window. Now we're just focused on the kids. We point McKenzie towards a wall of princess costumes in every color of rainbow. Something catches her eye, her face lights up and she says quite clearly "I want to be a clown."  Matt is aware of my clown phobia as he jumps right in steering Kenzie's eyes from the brightly colored clown costume on the bottom row towards the array of princess costumes. Undaunted she points again and says "A Clown." I give it a try, "What about Jesse from Toy Story" but get interrupted by a firm, "A Clown." So we cave, there is genuine excitement surrounding the clown costume. We ask for her size, hoping they are out but imagine that they have her size. Next we are directed to the clown accessory section where we are sure we can end this plan. No luck, she loves the nose, the wig, the shoes, even the giant fake lollipop. Then she suggest that Mommy dress as a clown too. I agree thinking that we are going to have some serious buyers remorse over this clown costume purchase and that 'match - match' clowns will be a much better selling point later when I'm trying to force her into the clown suit on Halloween. I should have never doubted her. She loved every minute of it. I dressed as a clown for nothing or maybe it helped me get over one of my phobias.


Visiting with Aunt Bonnie who was in the hospital on Halloween. Such a fun way for a kid to visit someone in the hospital and fun for Aunt Bonnie to get cute visitors.


Ben on the other hand is much simpler. We look at the boy options and try to buy Superman since it has a cape but they are out of his size so we leave empty handed. Then Matt takes the kids to the Disney store and they come home with an adorable Mickey Mouse costume for him. Only issue is he hates the ears and also the gloves.  So we end up with just the puffy body so he looks like a little fat man with a tail. Oh well, he's still adorable and even more so when screaming "All Done" every time we got the ears and gloves on for a second.


Here is where the silver lining kicks in. Aunt Jennifer saved the day by actually capturing all three kids in their costumes somewhat looking the same direction. Adorable. Claire the Park Ranger, Kenzie the Clown (has a nice ring to it!) and Benny the Mouse.

Photo Courtesy of Aunt Jennifer

The Fun: McKenzie did some serious Trick Or Treating this year. No more of this hit the immediate neighbors then head home. We headed out and ran into three of the older girls in our neighborhood and went around with them learning the ropes. At each house McKenzie would drop my hand in the driveway and hold her hand up saying "Mom, you wait here. I'll go with the girls and ring the doorbell and get some candy."  Then she would do just that. She wouldn't let anyone put candy in her bucket, instead she would take it in her hand and immediately turn and yell, "Mom, look what I got!"  The pure joy was amazing. She was also given a miniature can of pop at one house that caused her to look into her bucket when walking to check out that pop. That was big time! Looking forward to next year already even starting my plan!