Boo!

Halloween has always had a special place in my heart. I love the time of year, with the smell of drying leaves and the chill in the air. I love carving pumpkins and baking the seeds. That reminds me of my Dad; he loved the baked and salted seeds and so do my kids.

The first time my husband and I flirted was at an engagement party of my roommate and a fraternity brother of his. We clicked immediately and I invited him to the Halloween party we were having the next weekend. It was a great party...lots of college friends as well as work ones came and many of them really went all out on their costumes.

I had visited my parents a few weeks before and my mom made me a "Wilma Flintstone" dress out of an old beaver coat that had seen better days. Yes, even when I was 26, my mom made my Halloween costume! I bleached a chicken leg bone and stuck it in my hair to complete the look.

Dave showed up dressed as Robin Hood. Now this impressed me. Not only did he look good in tights, but I was impressed he had the nerve to wear green tights! Plus he had a sword, that was fun to play with. So for us as a couple, Halloween is special.

Once the kids came, it became even more fun. There were several years when we'd go to a local farm and take wagons into the pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkins. We'd get one for each of us. When we returned home we would put on a "Halloween" themed CD, that had old rock songs like Monster Mash, and Time Warp...I remember the four of us dancing around the family room to these funny songs.  The theory was that everyone would carve their own, or at least the kids would sketch their design and I'd carve it. Somehow over the years though it has devolved to me doing all the carving...which I don't mind though I've scaled back the number in the past few years.

My kids were never into the candy so much and so dressed up only until they were about 10 or 11.Then we started have a "post trick or treat" party with the neighbors, on the back patio, with the chiminea going and marshmallow roasts.

One of my favorite costumes was their first, which was passed down from Billy to Bobby. I bought white baby sized sweat shirt and pants, and made two black felt pillows stitched to look like Oreos. I velcroed each pillow to the front and back of the white sweat shirt and then we carried them around as our little cookie!

Billy, our older preferred animal costumes, while Bobby liked to be super heroes or ninjas. I wonder what says about their personalities?

One of the funniest years was when Billy broke with the animal theme and went as Darth Vader. The visibility of the helmet was poor and he kept walking into trees, poor guy.

For me Halloween is all about kids, neighbors, autumn, silliness and Dave in his green tights...