It's Just Tradition

Growing up my siblings and I would spend the day before (or sometimes day of) Halloween digging through our dress up clothes to determine what we would be. We were never ones to purchase Care Bear or Cinderella costumes with plastic masks (remember those plastic masks? If you had two friends dressed up as the same character there was no way to tell them apart.). Nor were we the kids decked out in original costumes lovingly hand-made by mom in the late-night hours leading up to the big day.

Oh no, if it couldn't be found in the dress up box, mom and dad's closet or garage it wasn't a part of our costumes. Here's a run-down of a few of my last-minute masterpieces that come to mind:
* Chinese Lady - sarong and sandals a friend had brought us after an overseas trip
* unspecified "Bible Woman" - a bedsheet robe with waist tie and head scarf made from scrap material
* Fancy Lady - purple, ruffled, garage sale find bridesmaid dress, lipstick and heels
* Mom - at about 10 years old I thought it was funny to wear a robe and slippers, curlers in my hair, paint dark circles under my eyes and carry a coffee cup. I'm sure my mom was thrilled with my interpretation of motherhood.


The last minute scramble just added to the excitement. I remember waiting impatiently for the glitter paint to dry on the cardboard crown that would transform my flower girl dress into the perfect princess costume. Once we glued a googly eye from the craft box to my sister's forehead to transform her black-sweatsuited self into an alien. It is just the way things were done at the Jackson household.

Therefore, I simply claim that I was upholding tradition as I left the house at 4:30 Halloween afternoon to try to find something at Target to turn Bennett into a baseball player. Granted, I'd had the idea in my head for a few weeks and had even gone so far as to purchase an adorable, tiny baseball glove more than a week in advance. But beyond that I had done nothing to prepare.

At one point I'd envisioned buying matching baseball tees for our family and using iron-on letters to make little "Team Parker" jerseys with our names and stuff on them. But that didn't happen.

Thanks to some help from my mom we took a Cubs hat, Ranger's shirt, little girl's tights, too-small sweatpants, some construction paper and a sharpie to make a fairly respectable baseball player out of my little boy. And a pretty stinking cute one too. At least I think so.

Bennett didn't quite get the whole "trick or treat" experience. After some practice he would hold out his gloved hand to recieve treats and offer a "tanks" when prompted to show his appreciation. But he was truly more interested in greeting people's dogs and poking their pumpkins than collecting candy. Once he got that first Tootsie Roll pop in his mouth he was in hog heaven and found little need to continue knocking on strangers' doors.

We visited a few of our close neighbors and then met up with the Thomases on their side of the neighborhood to snag a few more houses. The best part of the night was hanging out on our own front porch and visiting with the neighborhood kiddos and parents as they came by.

Here are a few more pictures of our evening.

My mom ("Gran") transforms a pair of tights into some very manly baseball socks.

So it's not exactly matching family jerseys but do you see the baseball theme?


My boys. I love them.


Bennett trying to understand this whole trick or treat thing.

Knock, knock. Is anybody home?

Baseball Guy, Batman, Ariel (The Little Mermaid) and Robin. Aren't they adorable??

An overly tired little baseball player with PapaJ and Gran.