You know what never gets old?  Halloween.  Here, from left to right, our Halloween Crew of 2009: Sara as Ariel, Kelly originally as Cinderella, but then insisted on wearing Oliver’s 1st Birthday Hat after refusing the tiara, Noah as Iron Man, and Oliver as “The Monkey”.  Our 4th Annual “Halloween with our Awesome Brazilian Family” was a rockin’ good time, as usual.  We’re not Brazilian, but man, when we hang out with our dear friends Ana Paula, Marcio, their sons Noah and Oliver (and beautiful extended family), we always spend the entire drive home telling ourselves that when we die and get reincarnated, we’re coming back as Brazilians.  We’ll be so much prettier.  And awesome.  And we’ll have way better food. 

Our first Halloween as parents, we escaped in exhausted delirium to Sam’s Club and dressed Sara as “Colic” (she wore Halloween themed pj’s and cried for hours).  Our second year, we hung out with whom we call our “Awesome Brazilian Friends” (because being awesome is part of the Brazilian National Anthem), and our dear friends Keri and Bryce.  Our third year, again, same crew, but with 2 newborns in tow, we hit Halloween at the Mall.  Trying, hot, exhausting, too many people were handing out gum to toddlers.  If 4 years with kids has taught me anything, never ever give my girls gum.  Or grape juice.  If you do it, you clean it.  Last year we moved the whole shabang up north to Ana Paula and Marcio’s new house, and finally, we found our Halloween groove.  This year I was in charge of wine, the apple cake, and as a little surprise for Ana Paula, I made her a Diaper Ditty Bag (my new name for “Just Add Diapers”.  Diaper Ditty is easier to say and more descriptive, yes?).  At the rate Oliver and Kelly are potty training, we’ll be carrying these to their high school graduations.

As we’ve discovered, there’s nothing Brazilians love more than a good party with good friends.  The Portuguese to Midwestern translation is: Ya’ gonna eat ’til ya’ pants bust open.  As if the carrot “fingers” and 2 gigantic pots of chili (and ALL the fixin’s) weren’t enough, the girls are still talking about the Hot Dog Mummies:

I just couldn’t stop laughing about Kelly’s hat.  She looked like a wild mix between The Mad Hatter and the perfect blond Cinderella.  She’s been so scared about Halloween, and there something about THIS HAT that gave her the confidence to brave the wild act of Trick or Treating.  Let me tell you, as she timidly hit that first porch and realized I had, in fact, NOT been lying about the candy, both of her feet left the ground in a pumping and jumping motion and she screamed about the melee, “Candy!  Candy!  I want some too!  Me too!”  Sara just looked at her and laughed and said, “Kelly…I told you.  It’s HALL-O-WEEEN Kelly.  CANDY.  I told you and told you to stop worrying about those skeletons.”  FOCUS KELLY.  CANDY, and MOMMY WON’T SAY NO.

Ana Paula and I would say that the best part of Halloween would be the reuniting of Sara and Noah.  They had been together in daycare since birth, but since Sara started a new preschool last year, Noah became, well…a boy, and Sara became, well…a girl.  They kind of went their own ways for a while.  Always checking in on each other, but content to explore a life outside of the comfort of the 3 Musketeers.  But as Halloween season rolled around, they both seemed to relay that Halloween would simply not happen if they weren’t together.  Noah is now Sara’s protector and Sara is his gal pal.  They’ve both changed so much in the past year, we didn’t know what to expect.  It was amazing watching those two pick up just as they had left off.  They ran and laughed and played and chatted the night away.  When we got back to the house, they tossed their candy onto the floor and immediately started sharing their loot.  Just like old times.

I always wonder where Sara and Kelly’s first lifelong friendships will begin.  I pray right here, where we started.  Sara & Noah.  Kelly & Oliver.  Long live our Gliders Gang.  And if anyone so much as leaves a comment about Brycey and the fact that he’s on the other side of the country, so help me God, I’ll cry for a week!  I’m going to leave that situation to God, but he knows what I’m praying to happen, Halloween 2010.

If any of you just survived a Halloween that looks more like Kelly and Oliver in the above Halloween 2007 picture, I promise, it’s gets better.  So, so much better.  If we can turn a Colic into an Ariel and a Screaming Angel into a Psychotic Cinderella, you can survive Year 1.  I promise.