Hallowing and Hostumes

From the time Mattie could really talk, she has always called Halloween "Hallowing" with a "G" at the end. And costume has always been "hostume" with an "h". But this year, she had outgrown those mispronunciations, and she would gently correct me when I would say one or the other; "Mom! It's not HalloWING, it's HalloWEEN!". My baby has been replaced with a know-it-all.

We had the best Halloween this year. I looooove Halloween, and although I know that there is a bit of stigma attached to it, for Christians anyway, my personal feeling, for our family, is that it's harmless fun. We dress up, we indulge in candy, we decorate with pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns, and that's it. I really look forward to it every year, and this year was great!

I reaaaaally wanted my girls to wear matching costumes this year. I wanted them to be ladybugs, or bumble bees, or cats, or anything that matched. But, strangely, I could not get Mattie on board with it. She usually loves matching outfits with her sister, but not for Hallowing. I gave up on the matchy costumes, and we ended up with a Southern Belle and a baby zebra, and I personally don't think they could have looked any cuter.

We had so many people gush and comment on Mattie's costume, but the truth is it came off the Halloween aisle at Wal-mart and was less than $20. She LOVED the costume, although she really had no idea what a "Southern Belle" was, and even had trouble remembering that title when people would ask her what she was going to be for Halloween. She finally resorted to telling people she was going as a "Pretty Lady".


And my little zebra did not want to wear her hat at first. It is all I can do to get her to leave a bow in her hair these days, so I knew the hat was going to be a long shot, but I did not expect this protest:

She hated it, but once we got going, she forgot about it and left it on all night, which was good because it turned pretty cool outside for trick-or-treating.

Before I go any further with pictures, let me point out that Matthew is "in costume" in these. He LOVES Halloween, loves dressing up, and would actually never consider not dressing up. He had these "old school" coaching shorts that someone had given him years ago, that are from the days when coaches dressed in such a way...short shorts, tube socks, etc.....so, that's what he went as. And old-school Coach Nash. Please forgive me if you're offended by the amount of skin shown in the remaining pictures.

We pulled the girls in the wagon for trick-or-treating, which was the best idea we ever had. The neighborhood was swamped so heavily with trick-or-treaters, I don't think you could have maneuvered a car through. Plus we had a place to carry all the loot.

My cuties:

Zebra Presley...I added the bow to the zebra hair b/c I wanted to distinguish her as a girl zebra...but she still got called a "he" a few times:

Mattie as a Southern Belle...this costume seemed to fit her personality perfectly. She got called "Scarlett O'hara" several times, which was a reference that was completely lost on her:

The Family, including the "Mommy Witch", which is the scariest kind of witch of all.

Mattie needing a little coaching on the trick-or-treating the first couple of houses we hit. How lucky for her that we had a coach with us:

This is how we rolled:

Presley has not had a lot of candy in her short life, but she very quickly discovered it and decided she loved it. We let her have a few smarties and later even let her work on a sucker. She got to where she was frantically demanding candy like she was a baby crackhead and HAD to have it. We may have accidentally created a monster, I think.

Here she is when Mimi showed her the candy she was about to give her...all smiles:

Mmmm...candy!:

Our town did trick-or-treating on Saturday, so Sunday, the "REAL Halloween" as Mattie called it, we went to our church's "Harvest Fest", which is always such a fun time. We had a blast, got some more candy, played and played, jumped on the bounce houses, and came home exhausted. I did take my camera, but this was one of the only pictures I got...Presley playing in the duck pool, which she loved:

And that was Halloween 2010 for us! I kept looking at Presley in her zebra costume that weekend, and thinking how much it reminded me of Mattie in her cow costume her first Halloween. Mattie was just 8 months old, but I think they really favor here. It seems the older Presley gets, the more she is looking like Mattie...to me anyway.