Cat in the hat and sock monkey for Halloween

Gabrielle was decidedly undecided in the weeks leading up to Halloween. When I first asked her what she wanted to be (a month ago) she blurted out "Cat in the Hat." Brilliant! I thought. Then she said "no, I want to be a monkey." OK, I thought, she's been a monkey the last two years, maybe this could be her 'thing.' "No! Cat in the hat!!" she insisted. "But sweetie..." "No!! I want to be a monkey!!" "OK, we'll get you a ..." "NO!! I want to be Cat in the HAT!!" she interrupted.

And on and on it went for the next three weeks, a constant moving target of monkeys, cats, dinosaurs, etc... at which point I put down my foot and told her she was going to be the Cat in the Hat and she absolutely and positively refused until I told her she didn't have to go out trick or treating and suddenly it didn't seem so bad.



It turned out pretty well! She's actually wearing a borrowed skunk costume, doctored up with a long black tail, borrowed Uncle Sam hat covered in white satin with red ribbon, and a big satin neck scarf. Logan and Declan came over before trick or treating and showed off their amazing costumes, including this cool fire truck costume for Logan with a lit-up spinning cherry on top.



Later on, Gabrielle's friend Celydia came over with her mom and they went trick or treating in our neighbourhood. Celydia is the tiniest little elephant with little eyeglasses - extremely cute with a huge personality.



And Isaac got to be a monkey after all - sock monkey, that is. He didn't really go for trick or treating, so he and I went to one house with G and then headed home to hand out candy (and sleep).



First house: our neighbours. He opens the door as a salty old sailor. Then he bends down, in character, and gives them a classic "aargh..." and Gabrielle dives off the porch and into Mark's waiting arms.



Now you see her, now you don't! Unfortunately, this set the tone for the rest of the night - she was a bit cautious in all the rest of her interactions...

Nonetheless, she came home with tons of candy, which we let her eat her fill of that night. And Mark was thrilled to find out we didn't get too many trick or treaters (guess why).