From Mario to ?

As Halloween draws closer there has been a recurring conversation around here that amuses me greatly.   In many houses there might be a child or two who is either scrambling for a costume idea or who has known what they are going to dress up as since at least the summer.  In many houses there is one child (and maybe a parent) who is wondering if they are perhaps too old to go trick or treating this year.  In some houses there might be a few kids who aren't comfortable going door to door, or don't like candy anyways or who simply don't participate for personal reasons.  

I think I have the only house where the costume choice of my youngest son and whether or not he goes trick or treating is a bigger deal to my older son than to anyone else.  You see, my oldest son is one of those kids who never really got into the whole dressing up part and quite frankly didn't really think it was worth it to walk from door to door just to get a bit of candy.   He participated for a few years but as soon as my younger son was old enough to hit enough houses to collect a large amount of goodies, my oldest son quit going out at all.

As I have mentioned here before, my youngest is one of the only kids I know that doesn't like chocolate or candy of any kind.  Josh figured out when he was about 8 that A. would do all the work and quite happily let Josh have all the rewards, minus a few bags of chips.  This worked out perfectly for both of them, until this year.

A. doesn't really know if he wants to go out and hasn't decided what he wants to be anyways.  Ninja?  Maybe.  Knight?  Possible.  Old Man, Hobo, Scarecrow, Hockey Player, Ghost, Mummy (or any other relatively easy costume), no way.  I told him he's cutting it really close and he needs to decide on something if he expects me to make it, but he's not sure.  Josh is trying to be helpful without really appearing to be interested, in case of course that A. decides not to go out just to bug him.  This is going to be fun. 

Oh well, there's always Mario (or even Luigi) to fall back on!  Photos from 2007 (although A. wore his Mario costume last year also and it still fits) of A. and his buddy P.  who sadly has moved away.  He and A. were the best of pals and we still miss him.