Because Ellie is dressed like a fairy.
So, here’s the tale:
Once Upon a Time, on a spooky, foggy night.
Wait. This is Texas in October. The weather has been the same every single day. Warm and sunny. And our kids hate anything remotely spooky–each one with more vengeance than the last.
Once upon a time on a warm, sunny day, the Hergenraders spent an entire Halloween carving pumpkins (M. and the kids), and writing a Bible study (me). Oh, and begging to put on their costumes (Ellie and Catie).
Finally! It was time! Late afternoon! Our neighborhood party! The girls forgot all their begging to go to the party RIGHT NOW and then spent the next hour trying to get their costumes “RIGHT!” Which included…Catie demanding mommy curl her hair so “there’s more of it” (never gonna happen, not with these genes), and Ellie asking in her most polite voice for “fairy dust” (sparkly blush).
And we were set! Except Sam, who realized his choice of a monster costume with fifteen layers of wool was not going to work in the heat of late October. M. wins the award for best bargainer this year because he managed to talk Sam into wearing his favorite Husker shirt and going as a football player.
And we were off! Thirty steps out our front door to the rockin’ cul-de-sac party. For all the hype of the day, the kids still held on to M. and I. Same as last year. Too many witches and giant Dr. Seuss characters for them, I guess. Catie did enjoy the Dance Contest.
And, of course, the trick-or-treating.
Oh, the trick-or-treating. Our family rules were: 1. stay with mom and dad, 2. don’t cry. Fourteen seconds into it, M. had to take Nate home because he started crying . For all the twins’ excitement for FREE CANDY!, they were slow moving, so Catie got to go ahead with her neighborhood friends. Sam ran out of steam after the first couple houses. He just wasn’t that motivated by free candy…or he’s wise to us and remembers that we confiscate any candy and dole it out for bribes the rest of the year.
The boys were now home. Catie was with the neighbors ransacking houses for Tootsie Rolls, because they’re “daddy’s favorite,” (I’m telling you, the kids are onto us, they don’t even hope to eat the candy). That left Ellie and me to wander as far as her little fairy feet would take her. Which was pretty far. All because she had mommy’s undivided attention, which made the night magical for her. No twin fairy big sister to lecture her about Halloween. No boy twin to steal her thunder. Just mommy and fairy dust. Her fairy tale for sure
Nate fell asleep outside on the porch, lying in Daddy’s arms…his fairy tale.
Sam got to stay home and hand out candy with Daddy. Fairy tale number three…check.
And Catie got to run around with her favorite friends collecting more Tootsie Rolls than she could imagine. Her fairy tale.
And then M. and I put them all to bed and shared a beer and relived it all…
You guessed it.
Our fairy tale.
