Halloween

A few weeks ago, Raina came home and said "Mommy, I want to be a pink snake for Halloween!" We were surprised by this declaration, but figured that she'd forget and we'd be able to do something easy, like make her a princess or something. No luck. Raina remained adamant about being a pink snake, so the Whompton adults struggled to piece together her costume. It was not easy. She had pink overalls, and plenty of pink shirts, but that wasn't going to sell anyone on her being an animal -- especially a non-pig animal. We found her a fleece hat and mitten set and added those to the ensemble, and discovered a sparkly pink cat tail. In the end, she looked nothing like a snake, so we prepped her to HISS! at everything and to explain what her costume was when people asked. And ask they did!

Raina had a Halloween party at school, which she enjoyed immensely, and she was overjoyed to go out and trick-or-treat again that night. She was literally jumping with excitement and we adults did not move fast enough for her.

We trick-or-treated up and down Sparrowwood, which was about 10 houses, and then hit a magnificently decorated house a few streets over. (Since our neighborhood has older residents, very few kids go door-to-door anymore. Raina cleaned up on the candy front even though she only went to 10 places.) She refused to knock on the doors, but she was pretty good about saying trick-or-treat and thank you. She was very cute and gracious.

One of the neighbors peered at Raina's costume a lot -- had Raina spin around to show off the full ensemble. And then he proclaimed "I think we have a snake here!" And the daughter said, "Yes, Dad, a pink snake!!!" Eric and I were floored, Raina beamed, and we immediately demanded how they knew. They leaned over and whispered, "your sister told us," which caused much raucous laughter by all.

Raina came home after and counted up her loot: four spider rings, seven gummy things, four straight sugar things, two honey-suckers (lollipops in normal speak), and thirty-eight pieces of chocolate. She's slowly going through her sugar bounty. At her present rate, she'll still be eating on them at winter break time.

The next day saw the Whompton adults hitting all the local stores in a desparate search for half-priced candy. We bought a lot, plus half-priced Halloween decorations and a tiger mask and pumpkin container for Raina. She asks daily if she can go trick-or-treating again, this time in her tiger costume. She doesn't like hearing that she has to wait a whole year before she can do it again. This was the first year that Raina really understood what was happening, and she wants to keep it going!

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