I'll Tell You A Tale Of The Bottomless Blue ...

"Mom, I just love to dress up as something I could never be" she told me as I applied pink shimmer to my little girl's cheeks.  This is why I love to be a mom on Halloween.  I don't care for the scary.  I don't take my kids to haunted houses.  I don't always get around to carving Jack-o-Lanterns.  But dressing my kids up in fun costumes and taking their picture as they show off their new persona is an absolute joy!

This year I was not able to make any costumes as I have done in the past because my sewing machine is packed away while we are trying to sell our house and move.  So, we kept it simple this time and bought them.  My daughter immediately gravitated toward, as you may have guessed, a sparkly pink Barbie mermaid costume!  It's got glittery scales and frilly fins.  We even got a long blond wig to go with it, and I spent 15 minutes spray painting hot pink highlights into the golden locks.  She feels beautiful.  She looks beautiful.  And makes the perfect mermaid if you ask me.

Then there is my son.  This is really the first year that he was able to choose his own costume.  His first choice was to be "Woody" from Toy Story, and while that would have been SO cute, there were no costumes in his size.  Then I saw a "Mario" outfit that appealed to him as well.  Can I just say that this boy looks great in a mustache?!  When I first put it on him his eyes got as big as saucers as he saw himself in the mirror.  But, shock eventually gave way to excitement and I knew we had a winning look.

We had a trial run on the costumes as I took the kids to my daughter's school Fall Carnival.  Little girls admired the mermaid's pink and blond tresses and everywhere we went people would shout "Look!  It's Mario!"

So, if you see these two joyful characters on your doorstep come Sunday ... won't you toss a bit of candy their way?  It will be guaranteed to make their smiles grow even bigger!