Simpson Party of 5!: Halloween and A Birthday Boy

We took our annual trip to the Tulsa Zoo for HalloZOOeen with some friends. The kids had an interesting time picking out costumes this year! While shopping through the Halloween costumes in the JBF consignment sale this Fall, I came across a leather "biker" jacket. I just knew Kade would be excited to be a "biker dude" for Halloween so I decided to buy it for him, plus it was only $3 bucks! Mckynlee had been telling me for weeks previous to the sale that she wanted to be "Mary Had A Little Lamb". I wasn't quite sure if we could pull this off, but I was determined to try! While browsing through the girl costumes, I found a cute, ruffly, dress w/ matching ruffled pantaloons. Perfect!! I could make this work for Mary Had a Little Lamb and it was exactly Mckynlee's size (and a bargain...$3.00 too!!) Confident I had found the perfect costumes for Kade and Mckynlee, I returned home and announced my findings to the family. They too thought I had found the perfect costumes...until we went shopping for Jacob's costume! He initially said he wanted to be an "Army Guy" for Halloween. Easy enough (so I thought). One evening after school, the kids and I loaded the van for a shopping trip to Target to get Jacob's "Army Guy" costume. While walking down the never-ending aisle of Halloween costumes, Jacob spotted a Spiderman costume, complete with muscles!! That was enough for him to change his mind from Army Guy to Spiderman! We had the discussion that he would HAVE to wear the mask ALL night in order for the costume to be complete. He agreed and we started to leave Target. That is until Kade spotted the Black Spiderman from Spiderman 3 (I later learned the Black Spiderman is the "evil" one??) So a debate began about whether or not Kade should be the black Spiderman. I explain to Kade that he too would HAVE to wear the mask the entire night or he couldn't be the Black Spiderman. Not wanting Kade to feel "left out" (you know...the middle child syndrome) I gave in and let him pick out a Black Spiderman, also complete with muscles. Besides, I had only spent $3.00 on the leather jacket so I really wasn't out anything (I found another use for the jacket anyway...you'll see later in this blog!) So, w/2 happy boys with Spiderman costumes in hand, we leave Target. So far, Mckynlee was still content with her "Mary Had a Little Lamb" costume....until....we made a stop in Wal-Mart on the way home in search of Spiderman gloves to accent the costumes we had just purchased. Spiderman HAS to have gloves you know! As soon as we walked down the Wal-Mart Halloween aisle, Mckynlee spotted a Spider Girl costume and announced to all with in hearing range that she was going to be Spider Girl so she could "fight her brothers"! (Yes, my sweet baby girl!) So, I had already given in to Kade. What kind of mom would I be if I didn't give in to my daughter! How embarrassing it would be for her to be the only Simpson child not in a Spider "person" costume! So you guessed it...she was Spider Girl for Halloween! Don't worry...I did find cute Spider clippys for her hair. I tried to make it as "girly" as possible!

So the moral of my story is...no matter how perfect of a costume I think I have found for my kids, the only "perfect" costume in their eyes is the one they pick out themselves! So much for my thrifty, early Halloween costume shopping!

I have to say, the did make very cute Spider people. In case you were wondering, we did find the Spiderman gloves and all was well Halloween night!

My "Spider Children'

On the way to the Zoo

Trick-or-Treating w/their friends

Exactly a week after Halloween, my baby boy Kade turned 4!! I can't believe he is 4!! He had a Cool "Rock-n-Roll" birthday party with his friends! This was his first "big kid" party that we allowed him to invite several friends.

When Kade woke up the morning of his birthday, he ran in to my bedroom and woke me up to show me how much he had grown overnight! He announced, "Look mom! I'm so big now because I am 4! See how tall I am?" Yes, he is big. Too big! I'm so proud of him and the big boy that he is!

I'm glad to say that this birthday was uneventful in comparison to last year's birthday! On November 7, 2008, the day Kade turned 3, we spent the evening in the ER getting stitches in his head! I kept reminding him all day Saturday to be extra careful so we wouldn't get birthday stitches this year! Whew...we made it! :)