Costume woes

Two nights ago, I explained to the kids that Halloween was a week away and if they wanted costumes, we needed to reach some decisions now.

NB told me a week ago that he wants to be Dracula. He needs teeth, a cape, and some make up and he'll be good to go.

IM dissolved into tears because I had already told her that her first idea (a grim from Harry Potter) would not work. I don't have time or skill enough to make a big black dog costume that would be recognizable as a grim to anyone. I also vetoed her next suggestion (a ninja mouse). One or the other, possibly. But not the combination. She vetoed all of my suggestions. She kicked things. She stormed upstairs to complain to Michael. I finally told her that she would not go trick-or-treating without a costume and I was going into town to buy costumes one day this week. If she wanted Halloween, she needed to come up with an acceptable costume now. She suggested a bat. Google helped me find a no-sew bat costume with a reasonable list of materials.

EM couldn't decide on anything either, and said he was fine with not trick-or-treating. (He's feeling that he might be a little too old for it anyway.) My conversation with him was calm and friendly, without the tears and drama of IM. Thank goodness.

Now I just had the little guy to outfit. I figured I'd pick up something from Wal*Mart--either from the costume section or the dress-up section. Silly me. The dress-up section was gone. It seems to have been eaten by the Christmas decorations section. There were only a few costumes left. I help up a dragon and Batman. LW wanted to be Batman. We picked up what we needed for the twins (except for vampire teeth, which I couldn't find), grabbed a cheap Grim Reaper outfit for EM, and headed for the cashier.

LW was so desperate to try on his costume that he pulled the cardbord off the hanger, so I handed it to the cashier and she scanned it first. "Sale not allowed." What? She scanned it again. "Sale not allowed." The supervisor came over. "Oh, that costume has been recalled." I mentioned she might want to pull the three other identical costumes on the rack.

Grrr. No, I don't really wish they'd sold it to me anyway. (Although the thought did cross my mind.) But LW really, really wanted to be Batman. And when he's sad, he's very, very sad.

But I must say, he makes an awfully cute dragon.