Halloween terror

Last night, Elizabeth, David, and I dressed up in our Halloween costumes and went to Carolyn's house for her annual Halloween party. Elizabeth got a big kick out of seeing herself in her costume, as well as Daddy being Robin Hood and Mommy "wearing a birthday hat"...aka Maid Marion.



(Yes, for those of you who recognize it, that is one of the old dresses inherited from a Bridger aunt.)

Everything was going great. Elizabeth was buzzing around and flapping her wings like an excited little bumblebee.




When we got to Carolyn's house, she practiced for Halloween night by ringing the doorbell, shyly saying "Trick or Treat," getting candy and saying, "Thank you."

Then, disaster struck. Carolyn's nephew, Omar - who Elizabeth was completely infatuated with the night before - came in wearing a pretty frightening Scream mask and grim reaper's costume, complete with pumping blood.



To make matters worse, David pretended to be frightened by him, just to provide excitement to a 7-year-old boy's Halloween. This put Elizabeth into a frenzy of terror. She started screaming frantically and threw herself at me, desperately trying to claw her way to safety. It took several minutes for us to calm her down and try to explain that it was just Omar in a scary costume, but she still didn't want anything to do with him (or even his brother, who was dressed in a not-even-remotely-scary Snowman costume) for the rest of the night. Based on that response, as well as the way she's been talking about how scary it was all day today, we're not so sure she's ready for much trick-or-treating this year. So, the new plan is to take her to her 2 friends' houses in the neighborhood, then head to the carnival they're having at our church. We're thinking the costumes at church may be toned down a little bit more than average, plus she'll be able to play with all her friends.

I'm still pretty bummed about missing the Halloween carnival at church, but am glad I got to experience the dress rehearsal....complete with fingernail marks on my neck!