Halloween Fail

Well, it wasn't a total failure.  Niall definitely enjoyed himself, but this is pretty much spot-on the way Brendan felt about the whole thing:

He refused to get into his costume, which was previously determined during our test run a few days before at the Assisted Living Home:

That right there-- is Brendan dressed as a ninja turtle.  Green shirt, green pants and a green backpack was as far as he would let me go.  But don't worry, he was still interested in the collecting candy part, naturally.  

I was just hoping he might have a change of heart when he saw Niall all dressed up on the big day... I kept trying to reason with him like he would somehow care that he was going to mess up the entire family costume by not taking part... No chance.

If we ever get a family pic that is not blurry, I might die of shock.

I was also lucky enough to get a bit of parenting advice from my not quite 4 year old.... as I was trying to talk some sense into my stubborn toddler about putting on his turtle shell that I worked so hard on, Niall comes in all high and mighty with: "You know, mom, it's ok if Brendan doesn't want to get into his costume. He can just wear his regular clothes."  Oh, thanks Niall.  You must have learned your excellent parenting skills from yours truly ;)

So the best we could do for Halloween spirit was a Redskins jersey.

The only reason he is smiling in this picture is because I am hitting myself in the head with a bag of candy (that he knows he is about to get a piece of).

Niall, on the other hand, totally lucked out.  When you have a family Halloween costume theme going, you get to be a different ninja turtle every day (or even every hour) for the whole week.  And by the way, when did Halloween become an entire week thing?  I'm not kidding, Niall got in his costume for some kind of activity/ outing every day of that week, including Saturday.

This was a Raphael kind of day.  See the attitude?  He was fully in character.

It's going to be a little weird waking up every day and not safety pinning that yellow felt to Niall's shirts or tying brown ribbons and white tape around all of his limbs... or putting his shell-pack on his back every time we leave the house.  We had a good run, and it was definitely epic.  I'm gonna miss you Raph ;)