my three sons: H. A. double L. O. W. double E. N spells Halloween!

Halloween was always a very exciting holiday for me as a child. Was it the dressing up? Was it the candy? Perhaps the falling leaves coloring the hillside in splendid beauty? Or was it the songs in my Lynch View Elementary music class that colored this holiday as such a fun one?

The jingle in my title comes from one of those. I would type out the whole song but that's the only part I remember. I loved music class... it must have certainly been the highlight of my day. I recall sitting there indian style (that's what we called it then) on the floor with all my class mates reading the words to the songs on butcher paper complete with a sketch of of a skeleton off to the side? Spooky and silly all rolled up in one.

I also recall the fiasco of costumes? What will we be? How will we dress up? My Mom wasn't one to take us to the local store to browse through the various costumes and pick something plastic to wear. She sewed our costumes and sometimes even made a doll costume to match. Seriously. How did she have time to do this? Well I can guarantee she wasn't blogging. :) Some of the costumes I remember were a clown, cat woman, cheerleader, a dog and a witch (several years). By middle school, I had reduced myself to wearing only a kitty nose, wearing pajamas thinking it passed for a baby costume (it didn't), and then there was the pig year where myself and my two buddies (both named Josh) wore pig masks. For some reason the pig mask Halloween is memorable... likely because it was my last year of trick-or-treating but I sure have some awesome memories from that Halloween in particular.

I still have many of these costumes... some only pieces of but it's so fun to watch the boys play dress up in them. Watching the items come out of the dress up closet in various forms of disrepair only to be merged into different forms of imaginary play is a joy that I have a hard time describing.

This year my plan was for the boys to go as Skeletons in their matching Gymboree Pajamas. Genius, I thought. So with my Mom in tow and a 30% coupon, we bought those pajamas and delighted in thoughts of how sweet the three boys would be. And hey... they're pajamas! That's like double bang for my buck! But then I started to think about that Monkey costume that both boys wore at 1 year of age. How could I pass up having Finley wear it as well? And then Spencer started to voice his opinion. He wanted to be a mummy. "A scary Mummy with bones sticking out" to be exact. Do you see how quickly my perfect vision was changing?

As it turned out "Halloween Season" was peppered with different costumes. We visited Daddy & Nanie Janie at work with a 6 year old Skeleton, a 3 year old Buzz Lightyear Skeleton and a 19 month old Monkey (with Skeleton pajamas on underneath). We visited the local toy store with 3 skeletons (yay)! One wearing a Buzz Lightyear hat and the others in Caps bought specifically for their Christmas outfits. Halloween night we toured the 'hood with a 6 year old "Mummy with Bones sticking out," and 2 little boys strictly in Skeleton Pajamas.

What fun they were. Spencer was quite scary in his mummy garb (our old bedsheet, tore to pieces). Hudson delighted in the fact that his big brother was wrapped so tightly that he could beat him to every door with great ease. And yes, he did the big - drawn - out - head - turn as he blazed by, making sure his big brother saw how fast he was. Finley clumsily followed his brothers, having no idea what were doing, but delighting in it all the same. I think he made it to like possibly, 3 doors.

It was a fun night and it was all about the kids. Perfect.

I hope everyone's Halloween was as full of nostalgia and joy as ours was. It's such a silly holiday, but it sure is fun. And wow... I've never seen 3 little skeleton boys fall asleep so fast.

Visiting Daddy at work

Visiting Nanie Janie at work

Monkey Finley. The costume was too big!

Skeleton Finley in his Christmas Cap at Mudpuddles toy Store

Buzz Lightyear Skeleton Hudson

Skeleton Spencer (scary)!

My Three Skeletons reading a book together

Pumpkin Carving with Nana Sue

Sweet Brothers

Finley in my favorite Halloween clothes EVER. This was something I picked up at the Hanna Andersson outlet last year for $5. What a deal!

Scrabble and Spencer

The boys posing with their Jack-o-Lanterns

The trick-or-treating bunch. Skeleton Hudson, Mummy with Bones sticking out Spencer, Super Kitty Emma, Skeleton Finley, Handy Manny Jackson and Princess Ava