Monday, October 31, 2011

Halloween Memories from Tot to Teen

This is the last year my darling Teen will be home for Halloween. Oh, the memories we've made through the years. The costumes, the school parties, the candy, the parade of tots becoming children and walking into teen shoes. Now those teens are becoming young adults and walking away to university or to college or to wars.

But we all celebrate Halloween in our own ways as adults, too. First by attending parties and acting ridiculous and then by becoming parents and reliving our youth. Plus there's always the ready excuse to eat the candy that doesn't get given away. I'm trying to remember the costumes over the years--and the events.

Here are some highlights:

*First Halloween-a month a bit old. I think I dressed her up in a ladybug costume.
*2nd Halloween-13 months old and she was Nala with whiskers and ears. I got her pajamas that we used as a costume. She slept in them for a long time.
*A parade of Disney princesses for the next few years. Her first, and her daddy's first, pumpkin carving experience at 3 years old. Oh, I still have the photos of them carving the faces while outside on the driveway. So adorable. Such love in Daddy's eyes and such patience, too.
*Most funny princess was when she was Belle in her gold ball gown. I drew eyebrows on her face because she had such blonde hair you couldn't see her brows. Looked hilarious.
*butterfly wings and a painted face in 2nd grade
*Hershey's Kiss-twice
*A bride to a short groom with her 10th grade friend. Found her dress at the thrift store and paid $20 for it.
*Parties-Girl Scout parties, school parties, home parties, friend parties
*walking around the block with her daddy while I gave away the candy at home
*More carving pumpkins, elaborate detailed pumpkins which we lit up every year
*Jeremy-her tiny pumpkin that she refused to throw away long after Halloween ended.
*Jeremy becomes a tradition
*Halloween movies, mazes, haunted houses
*She giving away candy to the little ones and getting gooey about how cute they are
*Me getting all gooey about how much my darling Teen has grown up.

Halloween*Kids*Memories

What are your favorite Halloween Memories?

13 comments:

Patricia Preston said...

I actually remember getting together with a group of friends and walking all over town with our brown paper bags from the grocery story. It was like a Peanuts Halloween. We got a lot of homemade treats such as popcorn balls. Those days are long gone.

Christine said...

Oh, I remember popcorn balls!! Love them. And I remember going around with a pillow case to get as many candies as I could that night.

:-)

Anne Gallagher said...

The first year, my daughter was a ladybug too. Then, a cat, a dog, a princess, a ballerina, and this year a pumpkin princess.

Christine said...

I love the Pumpkin Princess idea! Fantastic. Enjoy the dress up years, Anne. They fly by all too fast.

:-)

Sandy Elzie said...

I have some great "Kid" memories of Halloween...my own as well as for my children. Yes, I think every baby has been a kitten or a bunny with their feet-in sleeper as the costume and whiskers drawn on their faces.
(I have the pictures to prove that I did it to ours :>)

Happy Halloween!

Christine said...

Happy Halloween Sandy! I think you're right. Every kid in America has had jammie costumes at some point. :-)

Have a safe and Happy Halloween!!

:-)

Alicia Hunter Pace (aka Jean Hovey and Stephanie Jones) said...

I've had lots of great Halloweens so I am going to tell you about the bad one.

It was the first year I was married. Godson's Mom and Godson's Dad were engaged, but he was out of pocket. Maybe traveling for work. I don't remember. But she lived in an apartment a few blocks away. So I called her come to dinner. I made some soup and a crust less pumpkin pie from a Weight Watchers cookbook that I'd never made before. Then The Guy came home sick with a stomach virus and went right to bed. Godson's Mom and I sat down to eat and it was the worst food I've ever made. Usually WW recipes are really good but this--not so much. Things were getting less festive by the second. But at least we'd have fun giving out candy.

Well, no, not that either. No trick or treaters. I think we said to hell with looking good for her wedding and ordered a pizza.

It's funny now--especially since two Halloweens later we had Precious Angel.

Katherine Bone said...

My best Halloween memory? We had just moved in to a wonderfully cool old house in Ohio, the day before Halloween. With little household goods at our disposal, my mom decorated our faces as ghouls, and my brother and I went around the neighborhood in hoodies and pants. Little work, but the best Halloween costume EVER!

With the kids, fond memories of Darth Vadar, Thundercats and Silverhawks. I made costumes like 2 Dinosaurs, Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, Princess Lea, a Medieval Damsel, A Knight in Shining Armor, Snow White, Raggedy Ann, A Native American Indian couple, and more. The best times! One of us would take the kids out Trick-or-Treating and the other would stay home to hand out candy. I always hated it when LTC was TDY, because that meant no one was home to hand out candy, but on the plus side, I got to take the kids out treasure hunting.

LTC always took the kids Trick-or-Treating because he was home so rarely that I wanted the kids to have those memories with him.

Good times!

Tami Brothers said...

Hey Christine! Love all these costume ideas. I bet she was adorable in all of them (even as a teen). Love that bride costume. The Kid's first year was Bam Bam to a friend's Pebbles. I made the costume myself out of leopard fleece material. It was complete with an old dried up cactus barrel that a friend of ours brought back from Arizona one year. It made the PERFECT Bam Bam club and looked just like the cartoon. Of course it snowed that year, so on the actual day, he was wearing little cream colored thermal underwear under it and a hooded jacket. Good thing I made it a tad big. :) The photography studio was doing photos for free if the kids were dressed in their Halloween costumes, so we have a picture of the two together.

The second year was a Tigger costume. I was MUCH better prepared for the cold Wyoming Halloweens and had another pair of long underwear under that one, too.

Man I miss those little kid days. This year he spent $60 at the Halloween Spirits store and came home with a long beaked face mask, a clown hatchet, a Friday the 13th t-shirt and a face cigar. No idea what he thinks he's going to be but he does look darn cute. (Don't tell him I said that. As a teen he thinks he's too old to be called cute.)

Thanks for this walk down memory lane. I'll have to look back through some photo albums and see what else he's had.

Happy Halloween!

Tami

Tami Brothers said...

That should be fake cigar. :)

Christine said...

Hi Jean: That is a sad Halloween memory. I've got a Valentine's Day memory like that. Seems like something yucky always happens on that day. So I never plan anything fun. I'm so glad you have Precious Angel. And sometimes it is out of the bad memories that steel connections are forged. Nothing can tear you apart.

:-)

Christine said...

Hi Kathy: I always think about how fortunate I am that the Physicist has never missed a major holiday with us. He did/does travel a lot and there was one year when he almost missed Christmas Day due to travel delays with weather situations, but he made it home. I love your childhood memory and your memories about the children trick or treating.

:-)

Christine said...

Hi Tami; Your Teen does sound adorable even with a Fake Cigar LOL. Mine wasn't able to go trick or treating this year, but I made 40 tiny goody bags for her theater peeps and brought them to the school along with her dinner. She was thrilled. Her friends were thrilled, too. I was glad I took the time -- something so small can make a huge impact.

Hope your son had fun last night :-)