halloween

i guess what i did to heron could be considered brainwashing.  every time people would ask heron who or what she was going to be for halloween, she'd say, "i'm going to be a bear."  i discovered this after i'd already decided on an easy costume for her (since a week was all i had to work on it, along with shepherd's costume).  i didn't even know she knew what halloween was, so i didn't expect she'd have an opinion on the matter.  so one day while shepherd was sleeping we were together in my sewing room upstairs.  i put on a cartoon of "little red riding hood" on my laptop while i sewed her little red cape, a cozy reversible number with red corduroy on one side, brown flannel with woodland toadstools & blue rick-rack on the other.  she would carry a little basket with a little woodland creature, say a bunny or an owl, in it.  and wear boots & legwarmers, maybe a little brooch to snug the cape around her neck.  you can see how smitten i was with the red riding hood idea.  at the end of the cartoon i said, "now heron, what do you want to be for halloween?"  and of course she yelled, "little red riding hood!"  so, here you have it:

little red riding hood + the big bad wolf (or, "a sheep in wolf's clothing")

: at our neighbor robin's before trick-or-treating :

: the little bad wolf :

: at our neighbor jocelyn's house :

(josh had to do very little dressing up to be red's woodsman father)

heron was not into letting me take her picture, but for posterity & practice i may try a little portrait session in the next day or so.  if so, i'll post them here.  do you think she would've let me take pictures if i would've let her be a bear?  i think next year for halloween i'll be a less selfish mama.