So I scoured the internet, but all I came up with were patterns for making your own costume. I told Mark, who looked horrified, and shut me down with a simple, "Ummm...no!" I agreed, and we both exhaled, relieved, because on the list of super crafty people, I'm pretty much near the bottom.
But Mark never came up with a second choice--in fact, he seemed completely indifferent to the entire concept of Halloween.
"What do you want to do this year?" I asked. "Go trick or treating with your friends? Your cousins?"
He just shrugged, saying "I dunno."
"It's a whole night of free candy!" I reminded him. "You don't care about that?"
He just shook his head. He's done a lot of things to confuse me, but this was one of the craziest.
"OK," I said. "We'll figure it out when it gets closer."
And so there we were, the day before Halloween, with no plans and no costumes. I fixed the first issue by texting my friends Karen and Liz, who we'd spent the last four or five Halloweens with.
Karen said her son Jonah was going to scare kids at the house, and invited us to stop by. That solved our first problem.
"What about a costume?" I asked Mark again.
"I'll be a football player," he said, donning a jersey. I suggested wearing his flag football belt as well, and he looked at me like I was insane.
"What kind of a player wears flags?" he spat out.
"I don't know...a flag football player?" I spat back. Geez, it's not like I suggested tennis shorts or a basketball shirt. (Awww, moody teens...hours of fun, they are!)
When we arrived at the Koch's, Jonah's graveyeard looked awesome. Strobe lights were flashing, and the fog machine intermittenly went off, giving the yard a creepy, scary look. I would have totally skipped the house if I was a little kid!
Mark joined Jonah and the other five or six kids on the lawn. This picture doesn't do it justice, but when the strobe light was on and the fog was going, you could barely see the kids lying on the lawn.
The trick or treaters couldn't see them at all. And so whenever teens braved the path in search of candy, the kids rose silently rose from the fog, then shouted and scared the crud out of the trick or treaters. It was awesome!
I was especially proud of how our kids picked their marks. They refused to scare the little kids, and sat completely still on the lawn until the little kids left. They looked like statues, or part of the scenery.
Sean and Jonah devised a plan for really scaring the big kids. Sean (dressed below as a werewolf) sat stock still in front of the candy bucket. Whenever a teen reached in to pick some candy, Sean grabbed the bucket and pulled it toward him. It scared the teens half to death!
One nervous little candy seeker walked slooooooowly up the path, eyeing the scary stuff all around her. She picked her candy. Sean, not wanting to scare her, sat quietly until she turned to leave. He then walked over to his friends. But the sight of a walking werewolf scared the little girl nearly to death. She literally raised her arms in the air, let out a blood-curdling scream, and ran away, still screaming. She looked exactly like a cartoon character running off like that, and though I felt bad for her, I couldn't help laughing at the image of a cartoon character coming to life.
Our kids took turns running off through the neighborhood, and scaring kids. They'd run off, two or three at a time, to collect candy, or to search for people to scare. At one point, the whole group ran off, and I sat back, enjoying the evening, and chatting with Greg, Karen and Liz.
A few moments later, my joy turned to concern. I heard screaming from a block or two away.
"Is that our kids?" Greg asked, and I answered, "I think so." We couldn't tell if they were scaring people or being scared.
Mark explained later that it was neither.
"Sean was throwing packs of peanut M&Ms at our arms," he grumbled. "It really hurt."
Liz gasped--Sean may be small, but he's a star pitcher on his baseball team. Mark's told me before how Sean can pitch 63 miles an hour.
"He's got good aim," Liz said, and Mark nodded, repeating, "Yeah, and it hurt!"
I decided it was as good a time as any to wrap up the night.
"But it's only 9:30!" Mark whined.
"And you have school tomorrow," I reminded him. I also pointed out that nobody was gonna open their doors to trick or treaters this late. Mark started to argue, and I asked if he would open our door to someone knocking at 9:30. He allowed that he wouldn't, and that killed any further arguments.
I ordered Mark straight to bed, but he asked if he could sort his candy first.
"Nope," I said, then he looked at me, pleading.
"But it's my favorite part of Halloween," he said, and then I melted. It's every kid's favorite part of Halloween, and really, was 10 more minutes gonna make that big a difference? I decided it wouldn't.
Mark set about dividing up his candy. It was then he realized sorting is not as much fun by yourself--the fun part is actually trading the candy.
I pointed out that he wasn't exactly sorting by himself--he had a big fuzzy friend who was totally absorbed in what Mark was doing.
"Here, Fernando," Mark said, giving Fernando a little treat.
But Fernando was not interested--he wanted to play, or to at least distract Mark from ignoring him. So he stepped over the lollipops, and sat right on top of Mark's candy pile.
Mark just sighed, and moved him. Fernando might be a pain in the neck, but I smiled as Mark popped one last bite-size candy bar into his mouth. He might insist he's too old for Halloween, but watching him eat and sort the candy reminded me that he really is not.
And being reminded that my boy still enjoyed the spoils of one more Halloween...well, that made me very, very happy.
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