Halloween 2014

Being the stay-at-home parent I currently am, I had the privilege of attending the Halloween parade at Eddie and Peter’s elementary school. Beegy went with me. He spent some time playing with the kid standing in the hall next to us, and also some time trying to get that same kid to leave us alone. It was an on-again, off-again friendship during the hour or so that we were there. Overall, we had fun.

Beegy and the unknown boy whom he loved to hate and hated to love.

After the parade was over, I realized how many costume types I didn’t see. When I was in elementary school, you were always guaranteed to see at least a few doctors, babies, punk rockers, 50s outfits (greasers or poodle skirts), hippies, flappers, mobsters, and devils. I wasn’t thinking about it during the parade, so maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t recall seeing any of those costumes this time around, with the exception of one baby (a boy). I guess times have changed. As Melanie pointed out, kids dressing like the 1980s today is equivalent to kids dressing like the 1950s when we were young. Weird, but true.

At night, we went trick-or-treating. Melanie’s brother Tom came with us. Creegan was really into it, which was fun. This was the first time he’s been old enough to be this enthusiastic. Melanie and I wore Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man costumes we ripped off from our good friends in Tallahassee. I didn’t mind the plagiarism because the costumes were so cute and reflective of my personality (because of the old school video game motif, not because Pac-Man is a glutton). We ran into one of Eddie’s school chums while trick-or-treating and ended up walking with the friend’s family for a while. The friend’s name is Dakota, and Eddie has nicknamed him Koko. Beegy seemed determined to stick next to Koko and kept running up to him, calling, “Koko! Koko!” whenever they’d get separated. It was cute.

Uncle Tom, dressed as some sort of character from something called Magicus (I'm guessing at the spelling).  Our kids have decided that anybody with a staff is Jack Frost, and they insisted on calling Tom that, much to his chagrin.

The end!