Dress Rehearsal

We wake up early in our house. How early? Well when I heard the kids fumbling down the stairs at 5:50 yesterday morning I thought to myself, “Wow! They slept in!”  We usually spend the first few hours of our day just lounging around the living room, but Friday morning quickly turned into a full-fledged Halloween dress rehearsal.

We started by getting Josie dressed in her kitty costume, which is nothing but a black velour bodysuit with a tail safety pinned to her rear and a headband with two triangle ears. Simple as it is, she loves it! And when Jamie saw Josie getting into her costume he excitedly pointed to himself with both hands to communicate that he wanted to wear his costume as well. So I ran upstairs and fetched his adorable (Gymboree) puppy costume. Now that I had two kids in full gear I figured I might as well dress the third and snap some pictures. The night of Halloween always gets hectic and it’s difficult to get good pictures when everyone is in a hurry.  The kitty and the goldfish more-or-less cooperated but the puppy kept trying to yank off his hood and dash out of the pictures. Plus the lighting was bad because the sun still wasn’t up, so I didn’t really get any good shots and will have to hope for some on Sunday night.

Eventhough the photo shoot was a bust, we did learn some valuable lessons during this practice session.

1.)    The urge to yank Josie’s tail will be irresistible. Within the first hour of her wearing the costume the tail was ripped off three times- once by Beast, our new puppy, once by Jamie, who received a scolding by mommy and an even harsher scolding by daddy who was awoken from his sleep by the noise from the first scolding, and once by Josie herself.

2.)    Just because they’re dressed like animals doesn’t mean you should allow them to eat like animals. Upon Josie’s urging I agreed to let them eat “puppy and kitty food” (i.e. a bowl of dry cereal) on the floor with their faces in the bowl and on all fours. But what started out as a cute game of pretend ended as a living room strewn with Cheerios and Chex.

3.)    Johnny’s costume looks less like a goldfish and more like a baby who’s been swallowed by a goldfish. It’s definitely one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever seen. I won’t let it bother me too much though, since he’ll either be strapped in a stroller or bundled in a sling during trick-or-treating.

4.)    Face make-up does not wash off easily. Josie wore traces of whisker to our dinner party later that evening.

We got Josie off to her preschool Halloween party in full garb and with two sheets of decorated sugar cookies in hand. When all was said-and-done it was a successful morning.