Trick or Treat

At our house things come to a halt for Halloween. Call me a procrastinator if you want, but usually the day before and the day of Halloween is a scramble to get the costumes together. It adds to the excitement and the children see the costumes come to life right before their eyes. The week prior I planed how to make the characters the children wanted to be and gathered materials.

This year Hannah wanted to be a Crystal Fairy and Daniel a Fire Breathing Dragon. We had a left over zebra store bought costume for Jonathan that has gotten 4 years worth of wear :) Three years ago we pledged that the costumes were to be made and not bought. It is lots of fun but very time consuming and often more expensive that it would be go out and buy one. It is a great experience for the children to see their character come to life and be a part of the creation process.

Hannah's costume was simple yet took the most time to make. The cape took much of Monday to create. Every year at this time I have a familiar phrase I say "I have to get the sewing machine set up and learn how to use it." I could have sewn her cape by machine in probably 15 minutes. She loves the sparkles on the cape and will use it quite often for play.

Daniel's costume was simply cardboard wings which he painted and a ball cap with an attached card board nose and a felt spine and tail. He was tickled to blow the red ribbon hanging from dragons mouth- pretending to breath fire. I am sure he will wear his ball cap decor for the next couple of days.

Jonathan did not want to wear his costume. He finally cooperated when his brother and sister told him people will give him presents for wearing it. We got the costume on, but no wings. This morning he wanted to be a Flying Zebra with painted blue wings.

This year we turned our lights off and we all went
out trick or treating. (I usually stay home and pass out treats.) We stayed in the community and visited people whom the children know well. Daddy and Jonathan came in at bedtime and Hannah, Daniel and I visited a couple more houses that were near by. The highlight for them was looking at all the interesting jack-o-lanterns and Halloween decorations. They were amazed with the spider web decorations hanging on some of the porches. This will be a fun project for next year.

Our children do not eat the candy they gather but truly enjoy receiving it. Their eyes light up when people give little toys or pretzels; things they associat with. We arrived home with Jonathan and Daddy asleep. Hannah and Daniel sorted their treats into piles; One pile to keep and one pile for the sugar sprites - They eagerly give their candy to the sugar sprites... heres why.

The sugar sprites - I don't know what the weather is like in your area of the country but here it is starting to be chilly. The monarchs have flown south as have most of the humming birds. The sugar sprites take the halloween candy and turn it into nectar for the humming birds that may be stuck in the cold weather with no flowers for nectar. The Sugar Sprites feed the last remaining humming birds this halloween nectar and help them to return to warmer weather. The sugar sprites will pick up their bag of candy when the moon is high in the sky, usually after midnight.

Halloween was a joyous ocasion for the children!...I am exhasuted...the children satisfied and already planning their costumes for next year.