Halloween Costume Preview

Halloween is a huge holiday in our family. The kids start dreaming about it, planning for it, and even dressing up for it months in advance. Jared has been big into Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for months and months now. Look soon for a post I plan to write about how much he's learned from the turtles. It really is amazing how you can take any interest, and I mean any interest, a kid has and help them expand it and see how it leads into some many cool connections that you'd never have even noticed before.

When I was out on my Billy Elliot night with the girls about a month ago, Steve took the kids to buy their Halloween costumes. I had finally found a Leonardo costume (Jared's favorite turtle) at Kmart for $19, which was the cheapest new one I could find. I had really wanted to buy a used one, but the used ones I found were much more than that.

He was ecstatic when he bought the costume and had to try it on right away when he got home. Alexa tried her Tinker Bell costume one, and I guess is pretty pleased with it, but no one can top Jared's enthusiasm for playing dress-up. I guess that's why I don't cringe that much when we spend $20 on a costume. I know it will get plenty of use. I wish we could have found one at a thrift store, though. This year I'm going to send an e-mail to relatives letting them know to scour the thrift stores after Halloween for some awesome and very cheap Christmas presents for Jared and Alexa.

Also, Jared informed me that he just has to have a Halloween village he found in a store flyer. I'm trying to convince him to save his money and buy it after Halloween where it will be marked way down. He loves and adores little figures. Alexa plays somewhat with them, but Jared really is passionate about them. I love how different and totally unique my kids are. We just took our second annual Halloween walk, so look for a post in the next few days about that.