This year, though, Halloween was on a Friday and a Friday on the kids' weekend with their dad. Since he is scheduled to take them trick or treating, I thought maybe it would be best for him just to run the whole holiday. The kids are getting older and I wasn't sure how much they really even cared about my carefully crafted Halloween costume extravaganza. I knew for sure that Grace wasn't going to participate.
When I talked to the kids about Halloween back in September, they were okay with letting their dad take the lead. They had talked to him about costumes and plans for the night on several different occassions and it seemed that they had things worked out to some degree.
I wasn't even a little bit sad about not stressing over the perfectly coordinated costumes. I just couldn't seem to get into the Halloween spirit, so I let it go.
The kids spent the weekend of October 16th through 19th with Chris. I was under the impression that they would be buying their costumes that weekend. Alex and Eva had already said that they were going to the Halloween store to make a decision on costumes. When they came home that Sunday, Alex said they were going to be zombies. They hadn't bought anything for costumes, but did make a decision.
I wasn't exactly sure how the whole zombie thing was going to fly with Layla. She's still terrified whenever anyone puts a mask on. Not to mention, how Alex and Eva were going to do zombie make-up for their school parties. But, I let this go too.
The following week the kids were with Chris on Wednesday and Thursday. Being the last days he had them before Halloween weekend, the kids and I were certain he would purchase and/or acquire then necessary items for the Halloween costumes. When they came home on Friday afternoon...one week before Halloween...and were not any closer to having costumes, I had a little bit of trouble letting it go.
We were headed down to the Cape/Jackson area that weekend, so I did what I sometimes do best....obsess over it on the drive.
By the time the weekend was up, I had a pretty good contingency plan in place. I emailed Chris to get a timeline for the holiday.
His response was odd. To sum it up, he said he thought the kids would be with me that night. He'd be happy to keep them all weekend, but didn't think that was the plan nor made arrangements. He also thought it was weird that the kids were talking to him about costumes.
He was telling the kids one thing and me a completely different thing. And he really didn't think that we'd discuss the two different versions?!? Not letting it go anymore.
I upgraded my contingency plan to THE PLAN, told him I'd take care of all of it, the kids would be staying with me and pulled off a pretty great themed holiday. Oh and thanked God for my mother, who without, this would not have been possible.
From the pages of a storybook, I present:
Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf
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