Halloween 2009

The clearest memory I have of Halloween as a child is one year when Halloween fell on a Saturday. I was young, maybe 8 or 9. I had soccer games that morning and it was pouring rain. Pour-ing rain. We showed up at our games, but the organization cancelled all soccer games that day. We were all there in uniform, and already soaking wet, so the coaches asked if we wanted to play just for fun. Those who decided to stay ended up playing the best soccer game ever.

We run up and down that field slipping and sliding in mud like you wouldn't believe. Filthy from head to toe. We pushed and tripped each other and splattered mud on one another as much as we could. It couldn't have been more fun.

Okay, so it's not really a "Halloween" memory. I don't even know what I was that year for Halloween. All I remember was that it was Halloween, on a Saturday, and it was raining unbelievably hard.

Well, in all the years we've been in Washington you'd think that one year we'd have rain. I really thought this would be the year. The forecast said rain. We planned on rain. I finally, after all these years, bought the girls umbrellas (super fancy Ariel ones), thinking there would be rain. We were ready for rain. We were excited for rain. I envisioned having pictures of a true Pacific Northwest Halloween where the girls would be in their costumes with rain boots and an umbrella running through puddles trick or treating with gigantic smiles on their face. Loving every minute of being drenched and getting candy. I liked the image I saw. It would be a Halloween they'd never forget. And the girls had been dying to use their new umbrellas. We needed it to be raining.

I was ready to relive my rainy Halloween day from childhood. But the forecast was wrong. The rain did not come. So we suffered through, yet again, a perfect Fall Halloween evening of wearing no rain boots or using our newly purchased umbrellas. We didn't even put on sweaters. It was a painfully beautiful evening for trick or treating. And the girls loved it. Go figure.

We first went down town to trick or treat along the main street. It was fun meeting up with friends to get candy from the library, cleaners and Sushi restaurant we frequently visit.

We hurried home for dinner. Then the girls picked me to take them trick or treating. ME! I was honored. We hurried out and went right to work before it got too dark. Up and down walkways we went, running. I have never seen two little girls so excited. Gwen looked cute as a button as Little Red Riding Hood. She never once sat down her wolf dressed as grandma. She kept her hood on at all times. And she loved collecting her candy in her basket. I'm so happy she wanted to be that and didn't change her mind after I made her hood. I was worried.

Gabriella, she wanted to be a peacock. And not just any peacock, but a peacock princess. Any mothers to girls out there seen Barbie as the Island Princess? I think that is where she drew her inspiration. She was very clear on how she wanted things to go. Her dress had to be covering her toes. Her peacock feathers had to come from behind her shoulders and not out of her hair (that would look like an alien, and she was sure kids would laugh), and she didn't want the puff sleeves like the other princesses. So I did my best to accommodate, and lucky for me, she approved. She sure was one pretty peacock princess.

When the girls were tired of walking we went back home. Joe and Henry were about out of candy. In almost two hours, we had given out nearly 400 pieces of candy. One candy per child. That's a lot of trick or treaters. Our street is the mecca for trick or treaters. Luckily, there were a few pieces left for the girls to give out. They sat on our doorstep and loved handing out the rest of the candy, and some of their own that they didn't want (sshh, don't tell). They loved seeing all the kids in costume come to their house.

We had a great time. It was, by far, the best Halloween to date that I've had as a mom. Even without the rain.