Annual Dress-up Occasion

No, we don't "celebrate" Halloween. But we do allow our children to play dress-up and go door-to-door begging for treats.  It's the annual costume parade!

Resale shops are a costumer's paradise in October.  We used to have a helmet, shield and breastplate like this when B19 was about B5's age; it fell into disrepair with two more younger brothers.  It was nice to find that same set for B5!

Little girls generally have to go no farther than their dress-up drawer.  Chicklet wore this costume at her dance recital last May.  Add wings, gold sandals and a flower in her hair, and she's a fairy!  Blondechick17 curled her hair and did her eye makeup.

But Bantam11 had the idea of going as an Angel of the Lord--particularly the Captain of the Host, from the card game Redemption.  He told me to watch for extra-large wings when I was at a resale shop, and figured he could wrap up in a white sheet and grab a sword from the weapon box and be good to go.  But with two days left, we had no suitable wings.  At the most likely resale shop, I had only seen itsy-bitsy fairy wings and large maroon-colored wings. 

So after piano lessons, we stopped at a least-likely thrift store nearby.  At first glance, it looked like they had little to nothing in the way of a costume rack.  Suddenly, white wings caught my eye.  The wings were great, but the white gown looked a little girly.  It was trimmed in white feathers around the neck and sleeves, to match the wings, and it was a little small for B11.  We were also a little dubious about the halo hairband that came with it.  But at least we had his wings!

As we turned to leave, we spotted a few more costumes on a nearby rack--including a different angel costume. What were the odds?  Especially at a store with hardly any costumes to begin with! Instead of a halo, it had a crown headband, and the gown was generously sized, with no girly trimmings.  It was a lot cheaper than the first costume, but the wings were much smaller.  (They became the basis for Chicklet's fairy costume, above.) I agreed to pay for them both...then discovered, as the sale was rung up, that all costumes were half-price.

Ya think maybe God was smiling on an eleven-year-old boy who really wanted to dress up as an Angel of the Lord for Halloween?