Ductape and Pearls: Billy Bob, the Two Amigo's and The Princess

Halloween was a few days ago and it was one for the books. Lucky for us it was on a Friday AND we had the little one this year. Seeing Halloween through a ten year old is awesome and seeing it as an adult with a ten year old around is even more awesome.

A few months ago the little one declared to Tommy Thompson and I that he was dressing up as a princess. Wait... what? The kid that runs around the farm with a BB gun, slides down the fireman pole on Castle Gray skull (more on that later) as often as he can, all around boy wants to dress as a princess? Yep. He and some buddies at school had formed a team for their school fundraiser and named it 'Billy Bob, the Two Amigo's and The Princess'. There were five boys all together:

1. Boy One as Billy
2. Boy Two as Bob
3. Boy Three as Amigo one
4. Boy Four as Amigo two
5. Boy Five, aka The Little One, as the Princess

After a brief discussion on how typically 'Billy Bob' was a single individual and that typically there are THREE Amigo's - we still had no clue how they all fit together, least of all the princess and even less so how the little one decided on said princess. We were quickly reminded that at ten year's old logic was of little importance.

You'll remember from our recent shopping trip to Target the guys were found in the Halloween aisle. Tommy Thompson took the opportunity to test the little one's commitment to the princess decision. After a few failed dress fittings, the threat of wearing my heels and one embarrassing moment for any ten year old when I belted out his least favorite song, 'Let it Go', in the middle of the store, he decided to change his direction.

He morphed. The little one came home a few weeks later as the proud owner of his very own morph suit, crash test dummy style. A morph suit, for those you who aren't cool enough to know (just like Tommy Thompson and I weren't) is a full piece body suit covering you top to bottom, even your face. With a little guidance from Dad on how to 'crash test dummy' and some trial by error on how best to see while wearing his morph suit, the little one was ready for his first of four Halloween parties.

With two school parties under his belt by 5:00 pm on Friday the 31st we got dressed for the annual VanRooy's Halloween party. After a quick stop to my mother's for way too much candy, a cupcake before dinner (what are grandparents for?) and more glow sticks than any ten year old can possibly carry including a giant green glowing alien balloon that is still slowly dying in the back of my car, we were on way to the party.

One of my best girlfriends and her husband (the VanRooy's) go all out for Halloween. We're talking outside decorations that can be seen from a mile away, transforming their interior decor to the year's theme, even the dinner they serve - over.the.top. This year's theme was Freak Show Circus. They served pretzel bread wrapped hot dogs, corn dogs, pumpkin queso nachos and more. Our contribution was Oreo popcorn - aka crack. The little one helped me make it the night before and I had to threaten bodily injury to keep the guys off of it. You can find the too simple three ingredient recipe here.

After dinner Tommy Thompson and the little one headed out for trick-or-treating. While cute in his morph costume... I was making bets on how long he'd make it in the barely there costume. Let's face it, Halloween in Colorado is always cold and that costume did not lend itself to layers. After nearly an hour they came back with loads of candy and stories about all the houses they stopped at. It was so fun to hear about the decorations, what was scary, kids costumes, all of it (since I was too chicken to brave the cold). To cap off his fabulous night of trick-or-treating the VanRooy's unloaded ALL their leftover candy, pencils and tricks into his bag. You would've thought Santa himself showed up at that moment. I love having a ten year old around!

On the way home he crashed in the backseat... looking more like a crash test dummy than ever. I couldn't resist a picture. Once in bed Tommy Thompson stole his bag of goodies and we thoroughly inspected each and every piece testing what he HAD to. Of course, that's our responsibility. Now I know why my parents enjoyed the trick-or-treating as much as I did...

The next morning after sleeping in until nearly 10:00 am from his sugar coma, the little one awoke and immediately inventoried the contents of his bag, covering nearly all of our 10-person dining room table with his loot. I knew it before it happened, we.were.busted. He recalled from memory nearly every piece that was missing, gone to Dad for 'testing' and even still left us a giant pile of candy to share. Pretty awesome kid.

I FINALLY bought a waffle maker after talking about it for months.

We broke it in with pumpkin chocolate chip waffles on Halloween morning.

I dressed as a broken wind up doll, Tommy Thompson as a lumberjack post AXident, the little one as a Crash Test Dummy Morph and my great niece here is a witch.