Halloween in Tulsa!

This year's costumes require explaining, don't they? Nick is Dialga, one of his favorite Pokemon. Look it up on Google if you want to see a picture of it, but it's basically a dragon-looking thing. This costume would not have been possible without that wonderful stuff called "fun foam"!

Amelia is a jellyfish queen. Or maybe the queen jellyfish. I don't know that jellyfish even have queens, but the other thing about fun foam is, in the same aisle of the craft store there are also these nifty foam crowns. We had already decided on making a jellyfish costume at that point, so why not just add an original touch to it?

We had a great Halloween. Our church held a huge Fall Festival on Sunday, and we went Trick-or-Treating last night. I have learned two very important things to keep in mind when selecting/designing next year's costumes.

First, they must be durable enough to survive a Moon Bounce. There were two at the church festival, actually, and the kids probably spent about 50% of their time in them. Amelia's costume was easy to remove each time she went in; Nick's had to be repaired before Trick-or-Treating. There were plenty of girls in frilly princess dresses, and that didn't stop any of them. No kid who is able can resist jumping. The Festival was a lot of fun and at the end, the kids got to go "Trunk-or-Treating" around the cars (of those who chose to participate) in the parking lot -- very clever idea.

Second, out here people like to wait until it actually gets dark before they start Trick-or-Treating. We were invited by two of Pete's co-workers to go Trick-or-Treating with their families in southwest Tulsa. So we tried to take the kids around our apartment complex starting at 6:00, but hardly anyone was ready yet, and we didn't get a single kid at our door before we left to meet the others at 7:00.

But we did have a great time Trick-or-Treating. There were four kids in all, and I'm glad the other parents brought flashlights, because it really was dark! We were in a nice but hilly neighborhood with no sidewalks -- at least Amelia was visible with her fluttering "tentacles". The kids got a workout running from house to house and up and down hills, stairways, etc. The weather was perfect. Fall is definitely the best season in Oklahoma.

It would have been nice to see more of the kids in our complex and maybe meet a few more neighbors here, but on the other hand, it was nice to get out. We can always invite Nick's friends in for leftover candy today, there's plenty of it!