Happy Halloween!

I love Halloween.  The Six does too, even if he won't admit it.  One year he asked me to paint an old helmet so he could wear it around all day at work and give out stickers.  Or suckers, but I think it was stickers.

It's kind of unheard of for the Six to do things that draw attention to him (he doesn't like attention), but the motorcycle/kid combo brought out the silly side.

Halloween taught me to plan ahead.  Lu made me awesome costumes, if I planned far enough in advance.  One year, yeah, never did decide.  Though, I was still darn cute, so it all worked out!

I haven't kept in touch with many of my childhood friends, but we did have fun back in the day.  Part of the joy of celebrations is sharing what you loved as a kid with your kids.  My daughter loves parties, and is setting one up as I'm typing!  If you look closely there is a ghost hanging, and a witch and bat on the fireplace.  Those decorations were made by Lu, and are now hanging in my house, and will be part of the childhood of my children.

Kids learn how to be adults from us, so sometimes I have to remember to step back and be a kid.  I have to remind them that there are worse things then throwing together a clown outfit at the last minute...  And in fact those can be the best!

(My son is 5, no one in his life smokes, yet his Jack O' Lantern is smoking a cigar!)

I try to remember to take joy in their joy, and to remember what magic is in childhood.  I make costumes when I can, and we try to make the day special.  If you take life too seriously you age before your time.  Trust me, I know where of I speak.  My kids have reminded me of some of the things I let go.  I am an only child, and was desperate to grow up.  Being grown up was so important to me that sometimes I forgot to be a kid.  Fortunately I get to be a kid all over again when I share in their excitement!  And dig through their candy, and, er, make sure the good stuff isn't poisoned.  Yeah, that's ti.  I'd better taste it, just to be safe!

Happy Halloween all!

~The DO

(Editorial. That first photo up there, the jack-o-lantern? She's not kidding, that was my official police motorcycle officer's helmet. She painted it up and I wore it at work all day. It was back when I was working motors. The Chief said Ok but he said it with dread in his eyes. First and last time ever. It was great fun and something I'd love to see more of. The face was on the back and that little thing on top was a stem made from a brown paper bag. I gave away about a thousand stickers and recieved at least that many smiles. The DO did the whole thing. She's is a crafty one in every definition of the word :) Six)