10.20.2009

Halloween - where is thy theme?

The preparations for Halloween are progressing at a breakneck pace around here. Usually we work a family wide costume theme.

Last year was sort of a Green Meets Halloween. Mireya, who is not big on the scary side of Halloween, was a bat.

A FRUIT bat.

She demonstrated her fruit bat tendencies by having me dress as a bowl of fruit. Then she’d periodically nip at a grape. Sierra went as Mother Nature, which consisted of a green dress, wild headdress and a fake fur collar. Even the dog went as a flower.

Dad went as our escort, declining to dress up. Nothing has quite equaled his year when he was a box of tomatoes.

Now THAT was a costume. If you’ve never walked around Sattler in a modified refrigerator box with the word “tomato” written all over it, you haven’t experienced a true Prosapio Halloween.

A few years before that, the girls were Dalmatians and I was Cruella de Ville. My hair was half white for the rest of the week at work, which goes to show just how far we’ll take a theme.

Then there was the year Mireya was born and she was a pile of leaves in a stroller. We called her Russell.

I’d like to point out that with the exception of the pile of leaves (a onsie with leaves hot glued all over it) I’ve had little to do with the theme every year. Even the box of tomatoes was Sierra’s idea.

But this year relying on the creativity of my daughters is not working out too well. Whether it’s a sign of the times, a result of the tweenager in the house, or just a year ending in an “e”, we are not working a theme.

Sierra and her best friend Cami are going as bananas. Mireya is going as a snow leopard, in honor of her favorite stuffed animal for the last three years. Short of going as the Internet, I can’t figure out how to tie those things together in a theme.

(And how would you dress as the Internet anyway? Several hundred of post it notes with web addresses pinned to your shirt? Dress as a giant computer mouse?)

Fortunately, I’ve got a few weeks. And there’s always the possibility that Mireya will change her mind and want to be a grocery bag.

Now THAT costume I can handle (pun intended).