Halloween 2022
"Kate, we discussed this over two weeks ago when we ordered the costumes." Maura tried explaining to Kate as she refused to wear her family costume to her school's Halloween party.
"Mommy, I want to be a police officer like mama." Kate informed her mother.
Lilly overheard what Kate said and chimed in and said, "Mommy, I want to be one of the female baseball players from 'A League of their Own.'"
They didn't want to wear their family Halloween costume until Halloween. School Halloween parties were different and they wanted different costumes. Jane walked up and whispered in her ear, "This is what happens when we raised our children to be independent thinkers and to speak up for themselves."
Maura turned to Jane and whispered back, "I wouldn't have it any other way." Maura kissed Jane on the cheek and then turned to the girls and said, "Let's see what the costume store has after school, okay?"
Both girls agreed and then they finished getting dressed for the day. Jane and Maura now had a few days to see if they could come up with or make baseball uniforms for the girls before the school's Halloween party.
"Mommy, if we can't be a police officer of a baseball player can we be women warriors like in the movie 'The Woman King?'" Lilly asked with a huge smile on her face. Maura didn't know what to say. She just turned to Jane and raised her shoulders slightly. She was going to let Jane handle this.
"Girls, why don't we go to the costume store tomorrow after school and see what is available?" Jane was hoping that they would find something at the costume store that would make them happy. She was just glad that they would still be wearing their family costume for Halloween.
The next day Jane and Maura took the afternoon off and picked the children up from school. They headed straight to the costume shop. They knew it was getting closer to Halloween and that there might not be that many costumes left but they would try there before resorting to other avenues. The boys had jumped on the band wagon and also wanted different costumes for their school's Halloween party.
The selection was slim but everyone managed to pick out a new costume for their school party. They stopped for pizza and then ice cream on the way home as the children just loved pizza and ice cream. After the children had gone to bed and Jane and Maura were sitting on the couch relaxing, Jane looked over and told Maura, "another crisis averted."
"Yes, next year we will just have to remember two costumes for each child for Halloween." Maura said as she handed Jane the TV remote so they could watch one of the Halloween movies that Jane insisted that she must watch before Halloween.
Kate was able to find a police officer uniform. Lilly and AJ both dressed like baseball players. Lilly was upset that they didn't have any costumes like 'A League Of Their Own' but she found a Red Sox baseball uniform in her size so she was happy.
AJ automatically gravitated to the baseball uniforms and was glad they had several different numbers. He didn't want to have the same number on his uniform as his twin sister.
MJ found a 'mad scientist' costume and thought that would be cool. His best friend Chrissy was going as a doctor so they would both be wearing lab coats. He liked that.
With all the costumes picked out they left the store and went to an Italian restaurant for dinner. The school Halloween party was in a few days so Maura put all the costumes in her closet as she didn't want any pieces being misplaced before the party.
They were able to wear their costumes to school the day of the party. They were on a modified schedule for that day so that the party would take place during school hours. During the party they had the option of having their face painted. There were different carnival style games to play and there was even a corn maze set up on the playground. They had video cameras throughout the corn maze so that they knew where all of the students were.
Jane loved the security measures that were set in motion for the party. She was very protective of her family and the school always knew they would have to answer her questions about security at events. They actually contacted her several times to ask questions about security and she and Frost went down to the school to review their plans and modify them if necessary.
The part the children loved the most was the trick or treating. They were taken in small groups to some of the classrooms on one wing of the school. The teachers got a kick out of seeing all of the students' costumes. Only the teachers in those selected classrooms wore costumes and nothing too scary. The age range of students at the school was from five to eighteen, however the preschool was also attending this event so that dropped the age down to three years old.
Angela had picked up the children from school the day of their school's Halloween party and took them to her house. They showed her all of their candy they had received from their trick or treating adventure. She let them sort out their candy. They made two piles one for keep, and one for give away or trade.
Once they finished sorting, they started trading. When they finished trading, they put the unwanted candy in the bowl that Angela had set out. Angela allowed them to pick out two pieces of candy that they could have after dinner.
She fed them dinner. Jane and Maura came by and pick them up when they got off of work. They had a late meeting and knew they wouldn't be able to be home before dinner. Angela was more than happy to pick them up. She loved spending time with her grandbabies.
She told them that she was going to come over their house on Halloween and pass out candy while they went trick or treating with their mothers, and that at some point one of their mothers would come back and let her go out with them. They were excited and were very happy that she would be going trick or treating with them.
On Halloween Angela picked the children up from school. When she brought the children home, she fixed dinner while they worked on their homework and then after dinner, she asked them to go upstairs and change. Maura had their outfits all laid out on their beds for them.
Angela was waiting to see what the family was wearing as costumes this year. Nobody had told her. The children told their mommies that they wanted to keep it a secret. The children stayed upstairs after changing because their nonna couldn't see their costumes yet, not until their mothers arrived home.
Jane and Maura arrived home shortly after six and went upstairs to get into their costumes. When they came downstairs Jane asked the children, "Alright kiddos, who wants to go trick or treating?" All the children jump up and down, they were ready.
At 6:30 PM they headed out to begin trick or treating. Angela, of course, had to make sure she had plenty of pictures of the six of them dressed in their 'Incredibles' costumes.
Jane, was dressed as Mr. Incredible, the alter ego of Bob Parr. She had her hair pulled up into a ponytail and had a short blonde wig on with her face mask. Mr. Incredible's features were so unique she had to wear the mask. She had some body foam to help fill out her costume as Mr. Incredible was quite buff.
Jane wasn't too comfortable in the costume but she would only have to wear it for a few hours and the children really wanted to be dressed as the Incredibles this year. She would do almost anything for her family, which is why she smiled as Maura helped her put on all of that body foam to fill out the costume.
Maura was dressed as Elastigirl, the alter ego of Helen Parr, Bob's wife. Maura only needed to add a reddish-brown wig and a black eye mask to finish out her costume. Her costume was made of a form fitting material, which Jane said she filled out quite nicely. Jane couldn't stop herself from kissing Maura when she put her costume on. It reminded her of the outfit she wore out to the softball field years ago. Maura had to shoo Jane away so she could finish getting dressed. The children were waiting on them.
MJ, was dressed as Dash, the alter ego of Dashiell Robert Parr, Bob and Helen's son. Maura acquired a blonde wig for him to wear to cover up his raven locks. MJ thought he looked quite handsome in his costume. He really liked the black mask that went around his eyes. He told Maura, "I think I might wear this at other times as well."
AJ hated having to be baby Jack-Jack, but he understood that MJ was taller than him and it made sense that he wore the baby Jack-Jack costume. He asked if he could wear a name tag that would identify him as Jack-Jack so he didn't have to keep explaining it, because at almost six he wasn't a baby. Jane and Maura agreed. They understood his dilemma.
Because the Parr's only had three children. Lilly had volunteered to dress as the character of the costume designer, Edna Mode. She had the large black glasses and a dark wool dress. To help identify who she was, Maura gave her some material swatches and gadgets to carry. She wore a wig that reflected Edna's hair style because Lilly didn't want to cut her beautiful long hair to match the character. She also asked for a name tag and carried a picture of the Incredibles with Edna in case people didn't understand who their family was trying to dress as.
Although Kate was the youngest and smallest of the four children, she was allowed to dress as Violet. Violet was the oldest daughter of Bob and Helen Parr. Maura had spent time straightening Kate's wild hair the night before as Violet had long straight black hair.
Angela hadn't dressed up for Halloween. She didn't want to interfere with the family dynamic. She just wanted to be there to see her grandbabies all dressed up and enjoying their trick or treating. She thought they looked awesome.
She looked over the picture that Lilly had printed out and thought Jane and Maura did a great job of making the alterations to make their family look like the Incredibles. Angela did put on a little bit of makeup on her face and a witch's hat after the family left. She was staying at the house and passing out candy to anyone that came by the house.
The children all had red bags with the Incredibles logo printed on it. They ran ahead of Jane and Maura and knocked on the doors and said 'trick or treat' and then 'thank you' when they were presented with candy.
MJ led the way and the other children followed him. One house had a mini haunted house on the yard. They went through it and at the end Kate screamed when a person with a scream costume jumped out in front of them. Over the last few days, they had watched some scary Halloween movies and Kate didn't like that costume because it reminded her of the movie and she didn't want to be reminded of that movie.
When she exited the mini haunted house, she ran to her mama for comfort. MJ followed her and explained what had happened. Jane held her and carried her to the next house while rubbing small circles on her back.
The children didn't know that Jane and Maura had worked out a prank with Frost and Frankie around the corner. Frost had rigged up one of Maura's sleeves with a huge magnet and an extension. They had a magnet placed on the back of MJ's costume.
At a given point they let the children get ahead of them and MJ was doing little runs as that is what Dash did. He ran around very fast. Jane and Maura watched him and when he got a certain distance away, Jane told Maura to press the button.
When Maura pushed the button, her arm extended and headed right to MJ. MJ had his back to them and didn't see the outstretched arm coming to him. When the magnet locked in on his back, he looked behind him to see what the heck was going on. He could feel himself being slowly dragged backwards towards his mothers. He looked and saw Maura's outstretched arm. He just smiled. When he got close enough for his mothers to hear him, he said, "Nice one mommy. I didn't know that was going to happen."
"Uncle Frost and Uncle Frankie thought you would like that." Maura told him.
"Can we do it again?" MJ asked excitedly as Jane helped Maura reset her sleeve. He then asked, "Wait, does it work on AJ, Lilly and Kate?"
"Yes, you all have magnets in the back of your costumes so that your mother's arm can reach out and grab you." Jane explained to MJ.
"I wish I could run as fast as Dash does in the movies." MJ told his mothers.
"That would be cool but with this elastic arm your mommy would always catch you." Jane told MJ as they continued to trick or treat.
"Mama, we really need to do that arm trick on Kate. I think she would get a kick out of it." MJ informed Jane.
Jane turned to Maura and raised her shoulders and her eyebrows. "What do you say Maur?"
"We will only get away with this once. MJ you will have to walk up by her because I don't want her going off by herself." Maura stated and MJ walk fast to catch up with AJ, Lilly and Kate.
MJ looked back and gave a thumbs up to his mothers. Maura looked around and made sure the coast was clear and then she pushed the button. When the magnet snapped into place on her back, Kate turned to see what the heck was going on. "Hey, what was that? MJ something is attached to me. Maura pushed the retrieval button and Kate was being dragged back towards her. Kate turned around and saw her mothers and just started laughing. "Mommy, I didn't know your arm did that. That's pretty cool."
"Isn't it. Uncle Frost and Uncle Frankie set that up for me." Maura informed Kate when she was close enough to hear her.
"What other tricks do you have up your sleeves?" The curious child asked.
"That is all little one." Jane answered her as she picked her up and spun her around wrapping the rope around them.
"Mama, we're all tied up now. How am I supposed to trick or treat?"
Jane started taking little steps in the direction of the next house still all wrapped up in the rope with Kate, "I guess we will have to walk very slowly."
"Mama, you need to unwrap me."
"Why, are you a present?" Jane asked as she giggled.
Kate laughed and said, "Don't be silly mama, you know I am not a present."
Jane unwrapped them and helped Maura rewind the rope in her arm and joined the rest of the family so they could finish trick or treating. It was a school night and they knew the children would want to sort out their candy before going to bed.
They only had a few older people ask them what characters they were and Lilly pulled out her picture and explained to them. Lilly was very proud of her explanation and some people just walked away while she was still speaking as she was telling them all about the Incredibles, much more than they wanted to hear.
When they got back to the house each of the children counted their candy to see who obtained the most candy. Maura didn't like this part of the evening as she didn't want trick or treating to be a competition of candy collecting. Each of the children were allowed to have a piece of candy before they had to go upstairs and brush their teeth and get ready for bed.
Tomorrow the planning for next Halloween would need to start as it took time to get everybody to agree on a costume for the family. They would have to just keep placing everybody's selection into a hat and drawing as they never reached a consensus on what costumes they should wear.