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.
Amberjane says
I had the same situation this year my eldest girl Becca (14) was off with friends and even my youngest (9) attended a party before the trick or treating I literally had to grab her on the way around for a picture – the times they are a changing !
Sandi D says
I did the same thing this year with my 8 and 6 year old boys in regards to the Target visit. We did not have many decorations and this year I said boys let’s buy some decorations and really decorate the house for Halloween. It gave them so much joy to pick out the stuff and find a place in the house for it. Usually I am saying “no, too much money,etc.etc.”. Of course, yesterday we took down the Halloween decorations and my oldest son said, “ok, now let’s decorate for Thanksgiving!”
Sandi
Em says
You’re right – it is nice to say “yes” sometimes 🙂 Love the whole ipod thing and the You Tube clip.
Maureen Reynolds says
That Ipod is great. What did he use for the curved corners, a corner rounder?!/!?
Melissa says
Oh, girl, I know how you feel. My daughter, too, is 13 going on 30. She and her friend did go trick-or-treating in our neighborhood but wouldn’t let me take any photos before they left. She said she had her camera and she would let me download some pics when they got back. Still waiting…and I know they’ll show up on her Facebook account before I get to seem them. Of course by then, she’ll have picnik-ed them to the point that she’s not recognizable.
Kirsten says
Yep. My big boy is in college and went to Vancouver for a Halloween frat party. Even though that’s only 3 hours away, it IS another country, and so that is why I am up at 4:30 this morning. Worrying. He was supposed to call his mama when he got back last night. NO call. And my 4th grader had her birthday party yesterday. We told her this is the last birthday party with a slew of friends. Bowling and snacks cost me somewhere in the neighborhood of $150. But I just could not say “no” to her, all day long. Over-indulging the baby helps to temper the *sob* pain of missing the big one.
Damon Crawley says
I got to meet Ree Saturday night! My recount of it is on my blog.
cathy says
Maureen, : ) No…. it was the packaging from inside an Apple monitor box.
Kelli says
Great stuff from Target! I didn’t get any great shots of my 13 yr. old either, and I’m sure if I asked her to dress up again, I’d get a few groans.
judy in huntsville [al] says
Grabbing photos is the one and only reason I joined Facebook [my boys are in college] – but now I’m hooked!
This year I went through all the old scrapbooks and scanned the halloween phots ‘through the years’ and did a cute little mini album with my stuff form The Girls’ Loft – very fun! They grow up WAY TOO FAST!!!
Ps – I gave up and bought TPW cookbook as a halloweenie gift for myself. LOVE IT!! and plan to cook every.single.dish. a-la Julie and Julia…
Leora Henkin says
Love your page. I have to thank you, too. The morning after, I went ahead and made a page using your Boo Album template. Looks like I will be working backwards. I also have a teenager who through together a last minute costume to go to a party, but then decided to trick-or-treat with his little brother instead. I am savoring the memories (soggy as they were) as I imagine that this is the last year that that will happen. Happy Halloween Season and thanks for sharing… Leora
Kelly R. says
My husband needs to be in the same class! Especially when I ask him to take a picture of me and our boy.
Good thing we have our family photo taken by a professional every 4 years.
WendyR says
One of the only reasons I check FB anymore is to see photos of my 15 year old daughter! She won’t let ME take any of her, but her friends are allowed. It’s good to know that I’m not the only one.
Love the bee picture! Happy Monday.
Teresa says
Love that green pot!!!
Kim Benstead says
LOL.. I am soooo glad to see my DH is not the only unfocused DH out there…
Katrina Kennedy says
Tell Dan it is a Bee-autiful shot of the stove and gorgeous green pot 😉
Prairie Girl says
Thanks for the link! Love the classic iPod!!! Great timeless decorations, too!
And I dunno…looks kinda cool that your very cool green pot is in focus. Love your smile! You could journal that you were trying to capture your husband’s attention, so much so that you dressed up as a bee for the dad, yet his heart still lay with the green Creuset/Creuset-like pot.
How’s that? 😛
cathy says
Oh fun! I’m off to read…
kp says
You were bee u tiful, as always! PW’s book arrived Saturday, I had to take time out of getting the house ready to peruse it. I think I gained weight just reading it. She is coming to the MOA on Nov. 21st for a signing. My twelve year old decided to trick or treat at the last minute, and went with a friend without an adult along for the first time. Egads! He made it home in time to catch the end of “Night of the Living Dead”, so Halloween was complete.
Jamie K says
I was getting worried that weren’t going to see the bee costume this year!!! Love to see the classic Cathy Z.
Kary in Colorado says
Well, my 14yo SLEPT through Halloween this year. Sigh. He’d been to a sleepover Friday night and they all stayed up most of the night playing Little Big Planet and by 5pm Halloween night he was out cold. He’s my #3; #4 went trick-or treating with friends and I didn’t get to see her in costume either. She did take one photo with her phone (very dark & fuzzy) and said her friend’s mom took pictures….maybe I’ll see them one day. Goes too fast, doesn’t it?
Petra says
We don’t really have Halloween in Germany. But in February we have Fasching… also known as Karnival. And have just decided that I am going to lift your bee costume! I love it!
p.s. I got Pioneer Womans Book last week… all I can say is… yummy!
Karen Greenfield says
The jar of eyeballs is fabulous…nothing even remotely like eyeballs here in Ashland OR….I recognise the jar but we seem to have moved far away from the BIG city for eyeballs..no trick or treaters either. All smalls go to the big children’s parade “downtown.” Which is not totally bad as 24 yo DD and I got all the candy…..but no eyeballs. Karen
cathy says
I like the way you think!
cathy says
Target for eyeballs! 🙂
Jennifer says
I love that you are fuzzy, but the Le Creuset is in focus! I went crazy for decor this year also. In fact just came back from Target over lunch with the giant Halloween house that was %50 off….
Enjoy!
Lara says
just when is too old? I had many “adults” show up at our door on the East Side of St. Paul trick or treating this year…one time I looked at my hubby and said…that was NOT a kid…he just shrugged!
alexa says
So glad to see you beecostumed! As you didn’t mention it in your pre-Hallowe’en posts, I was very much afraid it might have bitten the dust… Hurrah for dry-cleaners!
Barb says
I’m glad I’m not the only nay-saying mom who has guilt issues. Hurray for you for saying yes! The decor looks awesome, and wow, your LO is wonderful. It must feel good to be designing in the moment and able to scrap your newest, most awesome photos right away, instead of working 6 months out of sync like you did in the print magazine world!
Great iPod costume, btw! Cole ROCKS. My younger son is going to love this when I show him. 🙂
Kelli P. says
Well, he obviously mastered Taking Perfectly Focused Pictures of Stovetops and the Items on Top of Them so I imagine he’ll ace the Be-Costumed class! Thanks for the giggles!
michelle says
got the eyeballs too! perfect……