As you know I am not a big Halloween Fan or a costume
fan. Neither are my kids although they tolerate it better than I do. We all
seem to have love/hate relationships with dressing up as superheroes or farm
animals. Chase has more boxes with flashing lights as eyes stored in his closet
that he made for Halloween and never wore than I can count. It’s just really
not our thing.
Some of the blogs I read seem to dote on this stuff. Like
really really dote on it. One blog at their school they seem to have a costume
theme every week and the five kids get all excited about it and into it (or so
the mother portrays on the blog anyways). When it’s a 5 yrs. old it’s cute-when
it’s a 17 year old boy just hits me as a bit uncool (I know I know I sounds
like a schoolyard bully. It’s just..Weird to see this almost man constantly
posing for his mom’s camera smiling into it dressed as a cow so often! Lol
Clearly
I have issues.
Well now it’s our turn at our house to have some fun and
honker down! With one ski monitor and one pre ski monitor they were asked for
fun day today at the hill to dress up as farm animals! I mean couldn’t just any
kind of animal do? How many people do you know who have a pig, lamb or cow
costume hanging around their home?
So forget the penguin and dinosaur costumes we had at
home-they were not good enough as they would then fail their evaluations as
they are not on a farm. Forget that the kids had the entire week off while we
worked to think and plan this out. So Friday at 5pm rolls around right before
we head off to the cottage and there is a costume finding farm animal frenzy
going on around our home.
Chase managed to find some kind of duck costume somewhere
that I never even got to see that he was somehow wearing on his head.
And Bear smart as he is..things like this bring him to
his knees. He is not that creative or artsy. His brain is a logical one. So this
really throws him off and he was running and screaming around the house for a
couple of hours having a panic attack of what to wear. PS: I am also the type
of mom that doesn’t help out a lot with this kind of last minute stuff after a
day at work. I tend to let them suffer the natural consequences of “you should
have planned this out a week ago!”Let’s just say this method has created three
pretty independent and resilient kids.
So after contemplating sticking a thousand cottons balls
on his helmet and snowsuit to be a lamb…he went with two “tou-tous” (French for
stuffed animals) on his head. They are cows. And he and his friend who came
with us to the cottage around midnight taped them to his helmet and made some
grass from construction paper to go along with it.
As much as I hate costumes I liked watching this process.
I somehow felt so good that this costume stuff was being transferred over to my
two teenage sons who were now in positions of authority to have to entertain
little kids with ski in their ski monitor roles. It somehow cleansed me in a
way and I was free to sit back and watch them takeover (probably a lot like
being a grandparent and seeing your kids have to do a bunch of annoying stuff with their kids while you get to sit
back and relax and enjoy the fun parts)
I also became as thankful (as I so often am) that I’m not
a stay at home mom. If I were this cotton ball farming project would be my
mandate, my goal, and my responsibility. And I like being good at things. So
maybe I would even take it as far as going the extra mile and writing a whole
blog on which glue we used and posting my 17 yrs. old smiling face for the
world to see! I thank god every day that in this world we each have our strengths
and passions-and that I have a job that allows me to feel ok at failing at such
home projects miserably.
Also Chase this morning did the sweetest thing and it was
the farm animal idea that inspired it. He asked if he could take two rubber
duckies from our bathroom and give them to his two student today as was their
last course to remind them of their first ski teacher..awwwwwwJ (see I hate costumes but I
am very very sentimental!)
My first reaction was to say “Hell no! I bought those in Ogunquit
and it’s a family of five and looks good in our bathroom!” Then the mommy in me
kicked in and looked at my growing blooming son and his sweet intentions and I said:
“Of
course Sweetie-take two. What a lovely idea . Your students will love this”
And I meant every single word.
Time to let the ducks separate a little and be on their
merry way. As I sit back and watch them swim with a few farm animals tightly fastened
to third helmets.
Note: I know this blog was ironically about my own teen
boys dressing up. I almost even posted a picture but decided that was too hypocritical
for even me!
