Hitting the Jackpot: Halloweenie Roast 2012

Every year the kids' daycare has a Halloweenie Roast with fun games and activities and of course, weenies. The kids get to dress up and they really look forward to it. It was so crowded (and hot!) last year that I was really hoping to get out of going, but no such luck--they were too excited about it.
It did, however, give us a chance to get their costumes out and try them on to see how they fit. Perfectly! Another plus is that it was warm outside so we didn't have to worry about coats.

I learned a thing or two about buying Halloween costumes this year. In the past, I've asked Jack what he wanted to be for Halloween and then I found that costume online. Past costumes include a monkey, a bear and a peapod. I try to look for a deal and it's not usually all that expensive. I've just been getting Claire a costume that coordinates with Jack's since she's been too little to really care. Well, this summer Jack went through a big pirate/Peter Pan phase. About that same time, he went through a "bad guys" phase as well. Put these two concepts together and you get Captain Hook. He informed us he wanted to be Captain Hook for Halloween sometime in July, I believe. This was fine with me and I decided Claire could be Tinkerbell to go along with his costume. Also, her love of dresses and all things sparkly made this a winning choice for her as well.

When it came time to buy costumes, I looked online and lo and behold, the only decent Captain Hook costume was from the Disney Store. I can't believe it didn't occur to me that Disney would have the monopoly on all Disney character costumes. Of course they do. Same goes for Tinkerbell. And, they don't sell everything together. So, I bought the costume, but the hat, sword and hook were all sold separately. Really? The hook for the Captain HOOK costume is sold separately?? And you couldn't buy the hook without also buying the sword. It was a package deal. Oh man, did they have me. And I knew I couldn't get Jack a sword and not get something for Claire, so in order to avoid meltdown city, I bought her the Tinkerbell light up wand. In the end, I just resigned myself to paying the exorbitant price for both costumes and chalk it up to experience.

You can bet I won't be asking the kids what they want to be for Halloween next year. They can pick from what's on the rack at Target. Or better yet, Walmart. During the 50% off sale.