Twenty Five Halloweens
For the past 25 years, my Halloween Days have been spent as a Room Mom. When I started out, no one said "Room Mom" it was always "Room Mother". There were no e-mail lists or cell phones for contacting parents.....Just my home phone with a LONG cord so I could walk around the house as I called parents to arrange parties, activities, and fund-raisers. With this track record, you would think I would remember....

• Party City is NOT the place you want to be anywhere near on the day before Halloween. Not to mention, don't even drive into their parking lot, unless, of course, you thrive on chaos, crowds, messes, and hysterical shoppers who HAVE to find a costume TODAY.
• Plastic Spider rings are sold out by the time you decide they would be great for a game at your 3rd Grader's Classroom Party. Not a Plastic Spider Ring to be found during my travels yesterday (or the day before, or the day before, or the day before)
• Don't open the Halloween Candy for your Trick or Treaters until AFTER school on Halloween Day.
• Rely on past Classroom Party Experience (aka Common Sense) when a fresh new Room Mom suggests that EVERYONE have their OWN Pumpkin to carve DURING the party.
• Enjoy EVERY Minute of being a Room Mom. The days of volunteering in my children's schools and classrooms will be over before I blink.
• To be grateful for the opportunity to be closely involved in the activities of each of my children over the past quarter of a Century. (I am)

Happy Halloween Everyone!

Here's to hoping your children receive LOTS of YOUR favorite candy! What is the number one thing you look for in the Trick or Treat Loot? I would say...Almond Joy, Snickers, Twix, and Caramels.

Reality Check

How To Tell Your Children Are

Growing Up....

No longer do you have a voice when it comes to

what they will dress as for Halloween....

Ahhhh....That time has finally come with my not-so-

little-anymore girls.

You also know that if you want them to dress as something....

you for sure DON'T suggest it! Gone are the days of

Princesses, Queens, Pumpkins, Bumblebees,

Ladybugs, etc. We have entered the Vampire, Witch,

Ninja world.

I do have a say in this.....if they want my help....they must tell

me what they want to "be" by Saturday....No last minute

crazy running around town to pull a costume together.

Also...nothing TOO evil, gory, or with too much skin showing....

I will override anything that is too over the top

(they are still young enough for me to over-ride)

The other clue that my girls are growing up....

NO WAY will they wear matching or coordinating costumes.

The Matchy Matchy days are coming to a screeching halt....

Katherine will be 12 in March...it is time. I told her when she

went to Young Womens she would not have to dress to match

her sister who is still in Primary.

Unless it is our Christmas picture, the "Matchy Matchy" days

are few and far between...almost extinct.

Jeffrey and Curt in October 1985
Meaghan Smar, Katherine, and Becky J
October 1999

Did you dress your young children alike? Did you, as a child, dress like your siblings?

What are your children planning to dress up as for Halloween?

Do you dress up as an Adult?

Halloween on Orchid Court

Halloween 1997

This was our first Halloween at the house on Orchid Court. Andrew was 11 year old. Katherine was 7 months old and had been dressed as a pumpkin for a few days at this point. Dreyfoos School of the Arts, The Library, The Grocery Store, The Church Primary Party are a few of the events/places she went.

These are the neighborhood children ready for Trick or Treating...

Cathy, Annie, Andrew, Matt,

Katherine

Katherine went to a few houses in the stroller. After a lollipop or so, she was ready to head home and the older children were ready to pick up the pace and collect some serious Trick or Treat loot.

Learning From Photos Past

Every Picture Tells A Story....

These are some of the most fun posts for me to prepare.

The memories come flooding back as I search for specific photos of days gone by.

I have been reminded about a few things about family photos....

• Make Sure YOU, the mom or dad, are in a few photos once in awhile. I am mostly MIA in most of my children's early photos.
• Dont Crop Too Much Out of Photos...The Background, in many cases, tells another story. It also may help you place the exact time and place you were. On purpose, get cars, houses, furniture, buildings, etc. in the background of your photos without distracting too much from your main subject.
• If you live in the same place for a long time.... choose an area to photograph your family at the same time every year. We did this at Christmas for many years at the West Palm Beach Chapel.
• If you move a lot, choose an item you are planning to have for many years...photograph your children near that item and compare their growth from year to year.
• Take lots of photos...even when the kids complain! Other than the actual people in my life, my photos are the most precious possessions I have. My family complains when I want 20 photos of the same shot.... oh well... I am so thankful for these memories in print.
• Label photos while memories are fresh...especially those with multiple people in them. Trust me, with 27 years of photos... the memory of people and places I "will never forget" are a little foggy as I live this larger than life life.
• Dont just take pictures on holidays and/or special ocassions. The most ordinary days are some of the most fun to have recorded on film. Example...when the kids are sleeping, when our first van turned over 100,000 miles, doing dishes, waiting for the school bus, reading stories, etc.
• Store your photos in a manor you will be able to access and enjoy them often. Acid-free Albums, On-line photo services, CD and DVD, etc.
• If you make albums, keep them simple so you will actually complete the albums and have an enjoyable venue for sharing memories. When my older children and their friends come home, they all like to look through albums and photos. Thinking albums need to be elaborate or detailed stops many people from just getting them in a safe, enjoyable place>
• If you are not good at keeping a journal....remember Every Picture Tells A Story! You can literally tell your life story in photos at every stage.
• Remember-Today's Activities, seemingly average and every day, Are Tomorrow's Treasured Memories... Capture and Save Them Now!

With the above in mind.... Here is my story of Halloween with my little boys who are now, 26, 24, and 21. Married, In College, and serving a Mission. They went Trick or Treating until they Graduated from High School.

Halloween 1982 Curt and Wonder Woman..You did not know she was our next door neighbor. Her incognito name was Kelly. This Dracula theme would carry through many Halloweens...This was at our first Duplex Apartment in Lake Worth, FL. Jeffrey was on the way and I was sick, sick, sick....so sick that I can remember it will just looking at this photo.

Halloween 1984, Greenacres, FL

I made both of these costumes. Jeffrey was 20 months old, Curt was 3 years old. They are in the kitchen and I can see the living room in the background with one of their car seats on the floor. They used to beg for the car seats to come in the house so they could use them as seats for their Rocket Ships.

Halloween 1985
1985, Continued.... It was Super Boy and Super Man
Just seeing that while linoleum floor brings back the memories of how high maintanance it was. I had to strip the wax by hand and then re-wax the entire floor several times per year. No thank you to maintaining linoleum! I am thankful for the real stuff--ceramic and marble--even though mine is cracked and needing to be replaced!
Curt (below) was always very concerned about every detail in his costumes. I sprayed his hair black and it had to curl just right over his forehead. He insisted on wearing his under-roos underwear on the outside of his pants (that is actually how Super Man looks) Curt loved this costume more than I can ever express. He slept in it and wore it ever day...in fact.....
In December...he was still wearing this costume every day... only taking it off to be washed or to wear church clothes on Sunday. This went on for months and months.... I was very very sick while pregnant with Andrew during this Superman obsession and missed several photo ops in very ordinary places. He did finally agree to not insist on having black hair every day.
You Want To Dress As WHAT??????
This is one of those Halloween Costumes where I was wondering how it would every turn out to look like what Jeffrey was passionate about. He wanted to be a FLY MAN.
Halloween 1992...This ended up being our School Project, this was one of the years the boys were Home Schooled. We did a Unit on Insects and Bugs, using the afternoons to construct and decorate the wings and mask for FLY MAN. (See The Wing and Mask Photo below) I used two wire coat hangers, bent and shaped like wings, then covered them with black pantyhose. We then used slick puffy paint to make a pattern on the wings like we observed on real wings via the microscope. A simple black mask was decorated to match the wings. Black hair spray and clothing...voile...
Here are the wings and mask up close. I just attached them with safety pins. Nothing too over the top.
This was Curt's Halloween "warm-up" costume for 1992. He was at Rhineharts just "clowning around"
1991-This was Curt in 5th Grade headed to a Costume party at his friend, Sean V.'s house. He was so excited to be invited to this Costume Party. Again, detail was important. He wanted Black Spiky Hair, A Black "V" on his forehead and a Very White Face. He insisted on a pointed collar (thank goodness I found one on the first search) and a gold medallion.
Halloween 1988-Our First In Royal Palm Beach.
The Garage Door Was still brown (it is white in the above Dracula photo)
Andrew was a pumpkin, Jeffrey was a Dinosaur for the second year in a row, Curt was a Vampire (I think Curt was some version of a Vampire at least 5 times) He looked at this photo below as a point of reference for the detail he added to the costume in 1991 (pointed black "V" on his forehead, spiky collar, gold medallion, etc.)
I made this Dinosaur Costume for Jeffrey and he wore it year round. This was the second year if the costume and the head piece was shot. he opted for Green Hair Spray along with Andrew the Pumpkin.
Halloween 1989
Indian-Jeffrey, Dracula (with Black "V")-Curt, Cowboy-Andrew
This was such a fun neighborhood for Trick or Treating. I cannot remember who the man dressed as a woman is behind our kids. but he was the scariest costume ever!
This one of our favorite Halloween Games... The Mummy Wrap. Andrew wrapped Ron at a Halloween Family Home Evening Activity with the Rhineharts. Andrew's hair was sprayed black for his turn as a Vampire this year.

Halloween 1992- Royal Palm Beach

I loved living on the canal with the beautiful view of the water..even with alligators in our backyard. This was two months before we got our dog, Bagel...how do I know... we have NO fence yet. When Santa brought Bagel in December 1992, he game me a coupon to have a fence installed on December 26. The coupon was in my stocking...when I read it... I thought....now we should get a dog...a few minutes later...I heard him crying in the laundry room. I fell in love with him instantly...thank goodness, because he pooed on the floor within seconds of his arrival.

Curt was Punked out (wearing Ron's famous leather Biker Jacket) Andrew used the Indian Vest I made a few years later and turned it in to a pirate vest. I love recycling and reusing costumes, especially the ones I made.

Happy Halloween Every One! Be sure to take lots of photos during all of your Halloween Celebrations this weekend and next! Remember--Today's Activities Are Tomorrows Treasured Memories... Capture them permanently!

Enjoy!

Halloween Past

Halloween Memories...1998 & 2000

For many years, our house has been used as the Trick or Treat "Home Base" for all ages.

Here is how Halloween 1998 began-this is just one of many years of group Halloween Photos. The man behind the mask is Jeffrey. Andrew and Paul were already out collecting candy at this point. No time to waste being photographed... there was some serious candy to collect!

Above

Tom, Jeff, Ben, Katie, Curt, Nancy, Rebecca, Erin, Jason

Devin, Emily, Kimberly, Caroline(4), Katherine (1 1/2), Jordan

Below

This is how Halloween 2000 Began...

Yes, Ben had a perpetual Army costume...after he was Luke when Nancy made the Star Wars Costumes. without a pattern!!!!

Note the size of their Candy Bags (pillow cases) These photos of Ben and Jeffrey definitely tell a story.

From the moment they left, Jeffrey and Ben RAN door to door. Upon their return...oh my... they definitely got the mother-lode. Those pillow cases were full! They were seriously proud of the large territory they had covered during Trick or Treat. I can still remember hearing them talk about their adventure and delight in the fruits of their evening's labor.

I must say, I miss these days.
Meaghan, Katherine, and Becky
I think Katherine was a pumpkin for at least 3, maybe 4 Halloweens. Meaghan and Becky were Katherine's favorite babysitters. They were so sweet to take her Trick or Treating to a few houses before they hit the pavement for some serious Trick or Treating. Note Becky's shoes! So cute!
Trick or Treat!