Getting Ready for Halloween

I love the holidays now that we have kids.  And Halloween is the beginning of my favorite time of year.  It is the time when we have survived yet another brutal Arizona summer and are heading into awesome weather.  Neighbors come out of the wood work and Halloween is the perfect excuse to hang out.

If I had more time and energy.  Oh and creativity...I'd totally make Chris & I dress up.  But  for now I just live through my kids excitement.  So far they were going to be minnie mouse, a mermaid, Ariel (specific mermaid), a bride, snow white.  In the end, Reegan is going to be Belle.  We have never seen Beauty and the Beast, but we walked into the Disney store after their sale started and I said "Who do you want to be?"  She chose Belle, we bought the costume and she still seems happy this is what she is going to be for Halloween.  I am not sure she even knows what Halloween is or realizes that she probably won't make it around the block after seeing the first scary costume.  Oh and neither of the girls can eat any of the candy due to the whole peanut allergy, but hey.

Riley was battling between being a bride (she loves playing wedding since going to Chris' cousin Jennie's wedding) and Ariel.  The problem with Ariel is none of them had REAL fins.  I tried explaining to Riley that if she had a real mermaid tail she could not walk.  But nonetheless this disappointment proved to be too much for her.  So I got on ebay and ordered a beautiful white flower girl dress (that Riley picked out with me).  It came and was perfect...no itchy costume.  But then on our first outing to get Reegan a costume Riley saw some pink dress and decided she wanted to wear that.  We got it.  But then it itched, so we took it back.  Now...she declared her costume will be a surprise.  I offered to pick something up at the store (accessories or such) but she tells me she has everything she needs in our house.  She is not even 5 but I am pretty sure she has thought this through.  Even though the controlling part of me wanted to jump in and say "this will not work", the mom I want to be says everything about this is right.  If it all works out and she has everything she needs then I can feel good about giving her this complete freedom.  And if Halloween day comes and she doesn't have everything she needs then we will show her how to be flexible and improvise.  And I mean after all it's only Halloween.  So here's to surprises and maybe a little anticipation makes this fun holiday even more exciting.  I can't wait for Monday.