Thursday, November 1, 2018

Last Trick or Treat?

Our community held Trunk or Treat and trick or treating last Saturday. It was a chilly, misty day but it was fine.

Olivia dressed as a lady bug. She’d originally planned to go at Barbie, in a bubblegum pink prom dress we found at a consignment store for less than $20. We attached straps to it and took some of the sequins off the area under her arms and it was ready to go.

But then, a few weeks ago, she discovered this cute little cartoon called Miraculous Lady Bug and she’s become obsessed with it. When we found a lady bug costume at Walmart for $12.97, she couldn’t resist. The Barbie dress will just have to suffice for next year.

Speaking of next year, though…she’s going to be twelve, almost thirteen next year. She’s already 5’3” and while emotionally, she’s all of eight years old, she looks all of her almost-twelve right now. Next year she’ll probably look even older than her almost-thirteen years.

So this year might have been our last trick or treat experience.

Because I was thinking along those lines, I made Alyssa go with us. Now, when I say I ‘made’ her, let me clarify that I said, “Hey, Lyss, I think you should go trick or treating with us.”

And she said, enthusiastically, “Okay!”

And that was it. She put on a pair of butterfly wings, some eyeliner and a flowered headband and away we went.

A friend of Lyss’s, let’s call her Sophie, lives in town and so after we hit up the church parking lot for Trunk or Treat, we swung by Sophie’s house and she joined us for our jaunt around the neighborhood.

It was fun. There were a lot of kids out, obviously they were mostly little kids, like seven and under but a lot of the houses we stopped at called Alyssa and Sophie over to get candy. Most of them said something along the lines of, “You took the time to put on costumes, you deserve candy too.”

I thought that was incredibly kind. I hate that kids are expected to be all grown up just because they hit the teenage years. I want society to let them keep being young as long as possible.

I talked to my mom a few days after our trick or treating fun. We decided that going forward, we need to have a family Halloween party so that everyone of all ages can dress up and enjoy the spirit of Halloween. We can have candy, games, contests. It will be great.

And no one will have to grow up too soon.

1 comment:

Julie said...

We went to the ZooBoo and they wouldn't let Riley have candy because she is too old. I was NOT amused and she didn't even WANT the candy.