Oct. 29, 2009

Is anyone else hating Halloween? I mean, here we are, moments away from the big event, and as soon as I nail down one costume, some other little ducklings gets a hankering for something with feathers and we’re back to square one.

Take our 4-year-old, Rex, for example. The kid carts animals everywhere he goes, so I figured he could be Old MacDonald and wear farmer garb this year. How expensive can that be? We’ve already got an entire zoo for him to pull around in his wagon, all I needed was a pair of used overalls and we’re in business.

I skipped off to the second-hand store, because everyone knows that the Goodwill offers Halloween options for under a buck or two. But when I got there, I was shocked at the prices. It’s like our local second-hand thinks they’re a consignment store these days, not a last chance at survival before the landfill.

Overalls were $7! I can get them clearance at the mall for that price. I’ve been noticing second-hand prices creeping up, but you know it’s bad when ratty old sweats cost more there than they do brand new at Wal-mart.

And of course, once I forked over the dough for his costume, he immediately changed his mind. The second he saw it he yelled, “I don’t wanna be Old MacDonald! I wanna be a firefighter chicken!!”

Right. Because firefighter chickens are so common and helpful.

Back to the second-hand bin. I found a ratty and rather questionable yellow feather boa for $2. I figured I could pin it on his sweatshirt and cover it up with firefighter paraphernalia and no one would be the wiser.

And as far as firemen garb goes, all we needed was the coat.

So yesterday after his soccer game, Rex and I stopped by Savers to complete his costume. And that’s when he saw it: a real, almost live, stuffed costume pony. It was one of those over the shoulder horses that you can step into and wear with your cowboy garb. It was love at first whinny.

He introduced himself and Coo Coo Bird to ‘Pegasus the Pony,’ and it took everything in my power to keep him from running out of the store with that stupid stuffed horse before I could fork over the dough. (Which, by the way, was seriously adding up.)

And so, he’s now going to be Old MacDonald, the pony-riding, fire-fighting chicken.
Of course, when he got a load of older brother Harrison’s ninja costume last night, what do you think he said? “I wanna be a ninja too!”

I’ll give the kid a sword and we’ll call it good.

See more at Annie's blog at regardingannie.com