Snail Spirals

Yes, yes, I know that Halloween is past and the world has moved on, but I have to show Emma's costume from this year.  It was too good not to share.  Besides, if the stores can start putting Christmas decorations out in early October, I can show Halloween pictures in mid-November.

Can you guess who she went as? 

(Wow, that was a toughie, wasn't it?)

Yes, she was our very own Princess Leia.  This was my favorite costume she's ever had.    The dress, the hair, everything - the overall effect was so completely recognizable.  And the super-terrific bonus?  It was absolutely free and required minimal effort on my part.  The dress is out of her dress-up box (a hand-me-down from a friend), worn with a white turtleneck under it. 

It was the hair that really made the costume, though, those trademark buns.  That is not a wig or clip-on buns, that is her own hair, which is long enough to touch the chair seat when she sits down.  I rolled up each side into a sock bun, using an old pair of her toddler socks as the base of the rolls.  It took all of five minutes.

Even better, the friend we went trick-or-treating with had the perfect costume to go with hers.  This was totally unplanned.

We went to the trick-or-treating costume parade through the downtown shops on October 30, and it was so much fun.  Everywhere we went, she was instantly recognized.  Everyone smiled, and cries of "Leia!"  followed us along the way.

I saw Star Wars when it first came out in the theater in 1977, when I was six.  I think it's great that today's six and seven year olds are still obsessed with it, an entire generation later.

I couldn't decide which was better, watching Emma having fun collecting candy, or watching the people watching her.