Signs of the Season

It's definitely fall -- and the house is full of signs of the season! A big thank you to Pop-Pop and Giki for their autumnal care package. The kids had great fun putting up the window clings!

And BJ loved his science kit. (We knew he would!)
BB was over the moon to see her pink princess dress. She immediately knew what it was for: "My Ariel dress!" She put it on immediately and danced around the house. Are my folks great or what for finding the perfect princess dress -- two years in a row?!?

BB had decided she wanted to be princess Ariel for Halloween, but not in mermaid form, and I didn't want to just get a standard Ariel dress, so I was a little worried about how this would work out. She told me she would need a pink dress with flowers and a red wig. Well, the dress was perfect, and now that her red wig has arrived, she is thrilled!
It's good to have the kids' Halloween settled. After some discussion about being a scientist (which would have been really neat) BJ decided he needed to be something "more scary." Mad scientist was out. He settled on a skeleton. But not a gory one or one that was tooo scary.

This is more difficult than one might imagine! He's a size 5/6 right between the cutesy toddler costumes and the scary bigger kid sizes (which seemed to start at size 8). I won't even get into the rant I have forming about the challenges of shopping for Halloween with a smaller child. I'm beyond disgusted by how Halloween has become so commercialized and gory, with so much of an emphasis on what adults might find entertaining. (Dismembered zombie babies, anyone?) Our visit to the "Spirit" store was distressing, but we finally managed to find something OK.

Except the size 4/6 (the largest one they had) was much too small in the rise. So last night I got brave and altered it, adding in a new and larger panel in the crotch. Managed not to ruin it, at any rate, and when he tried it on this morning it seemed much more comfortable. Still not great, but better. Didn't manage to get a pic, though, so you'll have to wait to see my skeleton son!