My Super Spooky Situation

Halloween costumes are posing quite a dilemma this year.

In years past, I've felt compelled to attempt a flare of creativity and find a cute little matchie theme for the tiny darlings.

This season, however, I've come to grips with the following realities:

1. I am not creative or crafty by nature, and I have not the time/energy to invest in coming up with costume of the year that will both wow the neighborhood with envy and appeal to my children's ever changing requests of how they would like to dress.

and

2. Store bought costumes and participation in candy dispensing to a neighborhood with and average of 3 school age children in every household is EXPENSIVE!

I've been milling this around for awhile now. I searched online and in every parenting magazine I could get my hands on for a cheap and easy costume idea. None of them were remotely appealing or practical.

Tyson and I are currently in a process of re-prioritizing our spending habits thanks to the new finance class we were invited to attend, and while I am not about to pay full price for something that is mass produced and worn for one gluttonous night of candy binging, I had thought about browsing second hand stores (goodwill) for some options.

Thankfully, my bargain shopping goddess of a mother-in-law beat me to it, and on her first attempt she scored this brand new, never worn superman costume with the $25 price tag still attached ...for $5.




Ok, so its no Martha masterpiece, but it will make my super little boy extremely happy, and it won't give him dreams of light sabering his entire family to death in their sleep.

One down, one to go.

Miss Anabelle would undoubtedly love nothing more then to be adorned in every high heel, pearl, ribbon and sequin available in all the land. She currently has a variety of Tu-Tu's, butterfly wings, and princess dresses in her dress up bucket (all of which she wears at least once a day). That said, I figure she would be relatively easy to appease with something we already have, and she would never know the difference.

But her Mom would.

Even after scoring such a find for Dawson, theres still this crazy selfish mom part of me that wants nothing more than to see the little girl's eyes light up when her shiny new alter ego is revealed on the evening of this blessed candy orgy.

So the unresolved dilemma continues on, and the window of opportunity is narrowing. I've been as patient as possible, waiting for the situation to work itself out (putting my 'good thoughts' into the universe, ha ha). But I am still fresh out of creativity for finding something that will make her feel glamorous and special on the big night yet keep me sane and hot glue gun free and committed to my budget.

Until yesterday when I went to pick the kids up from the kid's club at the gym, and there stood Anabelle, beaming with pride and admiring herself up and down, sporting a perfectly fitting (all be it, mildly torn) Supergirl outfit from the bottom of the dress up collection in the daycare.


She didn't want to take it off. And I never would have thought of the idea myself because, well, it just sounds SO BOYish. But... go figure, my daughter looked like a million bucks in it. It was likely in part due to the fact that her smile stretched from ear to ear. It suddenly occurred to me that (lacking the presence of sequins and sparkles aside) any adoring little sidekick would absolutely relish an opportunity to shadow their ultimate real-life hero for an evening.

Its perfect.

Except for the tiny little detail that... oh, wait, thats right... the costume doesn't belong to us, and borrowing it without asking would technically be stealing. Right? I think thats how it works, anyway.

So, I've been pondering a loop hole since 6pm yesterday, and the best I can come up with is... ask the director if I might borrow the getup for the evening, and kindly return it at my earliest convenience the very next day.

But every time I think about picking up the phone... and calling the gym... to plead my charity case... my stomach starts to churn. I dont know why. My mom always said to me growing up 'the worst thing they can say to you is no.'

And how bad would that be, really?

Well, I suppose not that bad... other than the fact that I will never be able to face the daycare help again being forever labeled the 'food stamp mom who is too cheap to buy her own kid a costume like the rest of us,' and will therefore have no other choice but to quit the club or transfer my membership to another city, which in turn will cause me either to blow up bigger than a pregnant elephant seal or force me to sell my body on the street corner to pay for the gas my new commute will cost me.

So, there you have it. Maybe I'm crazy. Probably I'm crazy. Definitely I'm dramatic at the very least. But I honestly just cant decide if its completely tacky or even at all appropriate to impose such a favor on a complete stranger. But I really, really reallyreallyreallyreallyGIMME NOWWWW OR ILL SCREAM AND I MEAN IT! want the outfit. And it wants me, too, I can feel it.

Whats a mom to do? The spooky clock is ticking...