Best Costume of 2012

I have already decided that the Best Costume of 2012 award is going to this man....

A baby giving his Dad a piggy back ride! Seriously. You can't get any funnier than that. I don't even have to see anyone else's costumes now.

I love Halloween. I love going to haunted houses & getting scared. I love dressing up & seeing my friends dress up. I love going out & seeing all the costumes & how creative people get. I love that Halloween is 3 days after my favorite holiday, my Birthday. I love that it's in the fall, my favorite season. I love playing makeup artist for the day & transforming my children's faces into whatever creature they're portraying. I love the fun of going out in the crisp, cool air & then coming back in the house to the pot of chili I made before Trick or Treating.

While I've always loved all of the above, I haven't always allowed my children to partake in the Trick or Treating side of Halloween.

When my kids were younger, I took them Trick or Treating a couple times & then I stopped. I just wasn't comfortable with telling my youngins that they shouldn't take candy from strangers...except for one night a year.

I really thought I'd be doing them a disservice by warning them, "If a person you don't know offers to give you candy if you..." but then on Halloween, I'd cheerfully tell them, "A stranger will give you candy if you dress up..."

2 years ago I decided to let go of my paranoia & trust that my children, at 14-7 years old, were old enough to understand the difference between the 2 stranger-candy scenarios. We dressed up & went around our small town Trick or Treating.

And had a blast.

A few times I had to take a deep breath & remind myself that they were safe but at the end of the night, looking at how much fun they had with the first Trick or Treating trip they'd remembered, I was happy I took them.

I'm still planning our costumes. I hate that I'm still planning them this close to Halloween. I'm trying to find a way to double the hours in a day but so far my efforts aren't producing any more than 24. Last year the hubs went as a Drama Queen. I'm thinking he would look great dressed as the Mad Hatter like this: click here.

The hubs going as Mad Hatter would be perfect since I want to go as my idol, the Queen of Hearts. Actually I'd like to dress like the Queen of Hearts every day. My children already know that I'm a Queen Mother, so I'd just like to look the part when I declare, "Off with your head!" I love to clap my hands & say, "I love my fat boys!" This is one of my absolute favorite parts of any movie ever:

"I need a pig here!! I just love a warm pig belly for my aching feet." I want to get a pig just to see if it soothes my aching feet too. It'd be great to find a help for my aching feet.

If you're as not-on-the-ball as I am, there's still time to head over to Amazon.com's Halloween shop  to order costumes. Send me pics of your awesome costume & maybe you'll make it in my upcoming Halloween post.