Costume change

I bought a Jack a fluffy baby dinosaur costume from Gymboree the day I ordered Harry's no-longer-a-cute-little-baby Batman costume online. I was so bummed at the years of not-cuet costumes stretching before me that I packed Jack into the car and set out to find a Halloween get-up that would make him look like a living stuffed animal for one more year.

When we got home and tried on the costume, I noticed that the sleeves were a little short. Last year, Jack had to be a last-minute hand-me-down monkey because he outgrew his Woody costume between its purchase and the big day, so I ordered an extra dinosaur costume in the next size up, just in case the same thing happened this year.

The costumes came; Harry and Jack modeled Batman and a fluffy dinosaur respectively, and all was good.

Then, last week, the boys' preschool sent a note home reminding us of the Halloween parade next week and telling us that costumes with masks were prohibited because some kids are scared of masks. Harry freaked the freak out because his Batman costume, as you can see, has a mask.

I pulled out the bigger Gymbo dinosaur, and he tried it on. It's a little tight, which is awesome, and Harry gets red and sweaty really easily, so he was flushed within seconds-- also awesome in a funny/cute way. Jack tried his costume on, and I had 2 living plush doll children. It was great.
Until last night, when we were getting ready to get ready for a family Halloween party at the YMCA. Ben suggested that we each dress as a member of the Village People which would have been fantastic, but Harry wanted to wear his Batman costume. So Jack demanded, "Me be Batman too," and maybe it was his correct use of verbage, but being the wasteful sucker I sometimes am, I ran out and got him a teeny Batman costume, too.
Voila! Two small Batmen

Harry and Jack spent the whole night in line for the bouncy house--they bounced themselves silly and then ran to the end of the line to bounce again.

Except Jack couldn't go by himself, so my brother "had" to bounce with him (he said it smelled in there, but we think he secretly loved it).





Every time I thought I misplaced Harry, I'd find him in line for the bouncy


That's also where we could find Ben

Ben and I are both sick as hell with a terrible cold that the boys probably gave us. Look at me-- I have on eye makeup but you can't see it because the skin around my eyes puffed up and ate it. Poor Ben has to judge a speech tournament today-- he weakly dialed and texted all night looking for a replacement, but no dice. And we have to take the kids to a costume parade at church tonight (on a side note: it feels so wrong to me to call it church because that term denotes Christianity. Many UU congregations reject the church label because it is exclusive, but there's not another good, generic word to use. People in our society (that's what it's called technically here) say "the meeting house," so I guess I could use that term). Anyway, we're sick and here we are:

I love this picture-- he totally looks like Batman climbing a wall (or maybe Spiderman in a bat costume)

They even got to wear their Batman wellies.

The party ended with a kiddie magician. He was funny, and the kids all were amazed and screamed and laughed and cheered-- a great show. The only problem? The other adults! A very large man with a very large wet cough hacked all over Ben's shoulder and neck, and the large man's large son was practically on Ben's lap by the end of the show. Then some lady came and crouched practically on top of me, holding an orange balloon that she must have stolen from the stairwell (WTF lady?) right in front of my damn head. Here I am making my best WTF? face:

Here you see Jack beginning to lose his shit because he wanted a lollipop and all I had was a box of raisins (also it was 8, and he goes to bed at 7 and here we were all dressed up and far from the bathtub anhour after the routine should have commenced)

Harry and Jack, though, loved the show and sat nicely together in front for at last most of the time

I'll keep you posted-- I should have pictures of some fluffy dinosaurs at the UU parade tonight.