Imagination, Flights of Fancy and Growing Up

This is really the best Halloween picture I could get. CE was a ghost bride. Z was Where's Waldo, CW was Harry Potter, Bam was a Red Mystic Force Power Ranger and M was a Ballerina Cinderella (very fancy dancy, she said when she saw the costume).

As usual, Bam was planning and replanning what he would be for Halloween from the beginning of summer. I had to find his costume on ebay, but thankfully it was inexpensive. Z really didn't want to dress up, so his costume allowed him to wear mostly real clothes and carry his candy around in a backpack. CE had to dress up for school, since she's in Leadership and they were in charge of the dance. As a result, we found ourselves trolling the Salvation Army thrift shop and Hobby Lobby in order to pull together the look she was hoping for. M was easy, we walked into the scary store (those pop-up Halloween stores that appear in otherwise vacant strip mall spaces), found the fancy dancy costume and we were on our way within moments.

We are in various Halloween stages--Bam and M are still in the throws of Halloween wonderfulness, costumes, candy and all the (non-scary) stuff the holiday holds. CW is edging his way out of those years. His costume was easy--we had everything. He was casual about the whole thing and just seemed to love to run around with friends collecting candy. Z is pretty much done. He likes candy and he likes walking around with friends, so that's why (I think) he suffered through the costumed aspect of the event. I don't thing he and Halloween are in it for the long haul though. CE has passed into that second stage of Halloween, that of parties. She worked her school dance, she hung out with friends at the ward trunk or treat and on Halloween night she went to a party.

As much has Halloween isn't my friend (I don't like to dress up; I'm not creative; I don't get into creepy and I HATE the candy haul we end up with, even though I "redistribute" what we get at the trunk or treat both during the trunk or treat and on Halloween night), I am a bit wistful about this change in how things are. It seems another marker of how my family is aging way too fast to even put a finger on it. For now, Bam is more into Halloween than any of my older children ever were. I wonder how long that will last and how the holiday will morph for him once he begins to believe less fervently in the power to become whatever he is wearing. And then there's baby M who is no longer a baby at all really. How will it feel when she is no longer placated by anything twirly or pink?

Never thought I could get wistful about a costume. Motherhood does strange things.