Skeletons

About a month ago the girls and I were in Michaels shopping with my Mom. All of the Halloween decorations were out and caught our attention -- it was all fun to see, except for thelife-size-witchy-skeleton person that started moaning when you walked by it. That was creepy and kind of scared Ella and Zoe. I didn't want them to be freaked out so we got a book on the human body that had great pictures, and spent a lot of time talking about our bodies; skeletons in particular. I even found two skeleton dolls at the dollar store that they love so much they sleep with them : ) I felt good about all this, like a somewhat negative was turned into a positive.

Then Tom showed the girls a flyer that had lots of different Halloween costumes. Once Zoe saw the skeleton she was sold --

THAT was what she wanted to be for Halloween.

Ella thought it looked like a good costume idea too.

I actually thought it was a cute idea (two 3 1/2 year old girls dressed as skeletons) but I had already talked with Ella and Zoe about their costume choices and we had decided on flowers. Their preschool has a 'Trunk or Treat' event so I thought I could decorate the back of my RAV4 to look like a garden to tie in the theme. And even though we're okay with skeletons, other families with young children might not be, and overall I thought flowers would be a safer choice and more appropriate. Plus, I love flowers and girly costumes : )

But I couldn't get those skeleton costumes out of my head.

And when I was at Walmart the other day they had two kits in the girls' size left, so I bought them. They were THRILLED!!! Seriously -- their reaction was so funny. Once they both had their skeleton costumes on they started running around the house and didn't stop for a good half hour, so I figure the costumes totally were worth the money just for that. And I know I'm biased, but I think they look awfully cute too, especially with the lace socks and rose-colored fingernail polish (which you can't really see in the photos).

So now Zoe and Ella have two skeleton costumes in their dress-up drawer, and they're pretty happy about that. As for Halloween -- we're still going with the flower idea (I found an idea in a parenting magazine I just love and my mom helped make the costumes this past week). Zoe and Ella are excited about their flower costumes too. They LOVE anything Grama makes for them, and they say they're going to wear the costumes as pajamas after Halloween,

which is an added bonus.

So we're all good over here, for right now anyways.

I have to laugh at how things change in 3.5 years -- when the girls were little I could put them in anything without even a discussion. But preschoolers definitely have their own ideas, that's for sure. And poor Tom, he asked if he could be in charge of choosing their costumes next year. Again, I had to laugh. I think our days of choosing their costumes are a thing of the past.