Babies make Halloween fun

Momma Chelsea having fun with baby nephew Jonathan

When I was growing up, Halloween was so much fun.  I used to wear my costumes to school (which most of the time were homemade), go to carnivals, haunted houses, hayrides and trick-or-treating with my friends; no adults allowed!  We would have most of the candy eaten by night's end.  Even when I started teaching, we were able to wear scary costumes on or around Halloween and decorate our rooms with whatever we wanted for October.

Of course things are much different now.  Children are not allowed to wear scary costumes to school.  If they are lucky, the school will have "dress up as your favorite character from a book" day, since drug awareness week is the last week in October.  Teachers are not allowed to decorate with any form of Halloween symbols (witches, ghosts, goblins, monsters) anymore. They can only use scarecrows, pumpkins or other autumn-related items to adorn those classroom walls. 

Children rarely go trick-or-treating; and if they do, grown-ups are with them.  The kids must let their parents inspect the candy before they can dig in.  The new fad is trunk-or-treating, where families gather in a church parking lot and fill their trunks with treats.  Kids parade around as the adults "ooh" and "ahh" over how cute the little ones look in their expensive costumes. 

I remember how fun it was to dress the kids up when they were babies.  Since ours were healthy babies, they looked so cute dressed up as pumpkins and Tigger.  Pete and I didn't think twice about spending money for costumes (now we're more inclined to help the kids create something, since the costumes seem to get pricier with age).  I miss those days.  But now that Jonathan, my nephew, has come along, I get to take a trip down memory lane as I watch Jonathan experience his first holiday season.  As you can see from the picture, my sister-in-law Chelsea is playing along with Jonathan during his first Halloween season.  Enjoy the early years- time really does fly when you're having fun; or is it because you just get so busy you feel like you are going through life at a fast forward speed?  What do you think?