Halloween Costume 2008

What do you want to be for Halloween, Ana?
Peanut Butter Jelly!

Maybe you want to be a faerie, you think?
Nope. I think I want to be a Peanut Butter Jelly Sandwich!

How about Tinker Bell? You like Tinker Bell, right? Maybe you can be Tinker Bell for Halloween?
No, Amma! I want to be Peanut Butter Jelly Sandwich!

O-kay! Peanut Butter Jelly Sandwich it is.

And, so, I bought some foam and fabric and made this costume for her. Am glad she didn't ask for anything too complicated... thankfully, this was a terribly simple one to make and I had a lot of fun making it.

As mentioned last year, I have mixed feelings about Halloween: I do not approve of the candy-binge, I do not like the spooky horror stuff, however, I do like the fact that kids can get very creative and design their costume and even perhaps make it themselves, or at least help make it when possible... I know I couldn't make Ana's costume last year and I ended up buying one after severely knotting my innards with moral anguish...

And now that schools and neighborhoods are becoming very politically correct about it, this becomes a Happy Fall Festival! instead of Happy All Hallow's Eve! which is fine by me. Which makes carving pumpkins almost mandatory :)

Every year since D and I got married, we have carved pumpkins - we each get to design the features and carve as best as we can.

There is something very relaxing about scooping out the innards of a pumpkin, composting the pulp, roasting the seeds, and carving a Jack-O-Lantern, lighting a candle inside it and watching it take on a personality of its own in the dark...

However, this year, Ana decided to make up her own design - she wanted "circle eyes", "circle nose" and "crescent moon mouth" and that's what D made. And, she said the other one can have "triangle eyes". D found it very exciting and rewarding to try and carve a pumpkin to Ana's design...

D was very enthusiastic about showing off her costume in the neighborhood and he took her trick-or-treating, promptly stashing away the candy-loot out-of-sight, while I stayed home with Oggie who was running a 101.5°F temperature due to nasty ear infection and so was terribly fussy and unhappy, poor baby! He has been sick for quite a few days now, and I didn't really want to put him in any sort of costume when he is feeling so poorly... there is always next year...

We had fewer trick-or-treaters this year than last year, and I guess I was right about that invisible 'X' mark... And, to my surprise, instead of the traditional little loot basket or little bag, they all came with huge pillow cases as candy-sack... Of course, D bought a bunch of bulk candy from Winco which are not the usual Reeese's or Hershey's, but, fruit-flavored hard candy and sour gummy-worms this year, so, the 'X' probably got reinforced and doubled...