You know they're growing up when they opt for a party with their peers instead of trick or treating

This year marked a milestone—not necessarily a good or bad one—wherein one of my children decided to hit the Halloween party circuit rather than stay-at-home, carve pumpkins and trick-or-treat with her ever-loving family.

Oh, it's all right. I'm fine. I mean, I did get this shot, proving she at least placed one of her hands inside of a pumpkin:

But what I'm not fine with is that I have not a single shot of her dressed in a costume. She went to two different parties and now I'm relying on her Facebook friends to hook me up with a shot, you know, for the album.

Cole on the other hand had problems of his own, namely, the I Have Way Too Many Ideas for a Costume and Will Be Changing My Mind Every 30 Minutes for the Final Week Leading Up to Halloween problem.

He settled on two. First, the Classic Ghost:

 

And second, the Classic iPod:

 

Both Cole and Dan found it interesting if not mildly shocking as they tooled around our 'hood, how many people didn't know what an iPod was. One of our sweet older neighbors asked, "What station are you playing?"

A few days before Halloween I took Cole out to Target—with the goal of just picking up some candy—and we ended up leaving roughly $70 poorer than when we'd first stepped foot inside the store. I just kept saying "Yes" to his requests for various Halloween decor items. Part of me is very aware that these years and these holidays are soon to be mere blips on the time line of memory. Why not let a 4th grader go nuts for once?

It felt good to be the Mom that said yes, instead of the Mom that usually points out how overpriced and unnecessary things are.

 

 

So while I wait for Aidan's friends to deliver great shots of whatever it was she was dressed up as this year, I simply worked with what I have for now, and whipped up this bit of memory documentation:

 

SUPPLIES: Spooky Sentiments Brushes & Stamps (Cathy Zielske) • Frightful Solids Paper Pack, Spot Dots No. 10 (Katie Pertiet) • Cathy Zielske's Layered Template No. 10 (coming soon!) • Archer font • Adobe Photoshop CS4

Hope you had a memorable Halloween. I'm off to have my bee costume dry cleaned and then to sign Dan up for a How to Shoot Be-costumed People in Focus class. (Get it, bee-costumed?)

Thank you.

 

Note: the moody and spooky edge burn effects on a few of my photos above are courtesy of The Pioneer Woman's Action Set No. 1. F-Ree and fabulous. And speaking of Ree, my book order should be arriving any day. Might not help my diet, but oh, will Dan love me all the more.