Wear a Costume, Just Not The One You Want

Halloween is quickly approaching.  It still blows my mind that next week is the end of October.  I swear every year goes by more quickly than the last.

This year I wanted to be prepared so months ago I asked Andrew what he wanted to be for Halloween. He decided on a pirate and said that Elliot needed to be a pirate, too.  I continued to ask him every week or so to make sure he wouldn't change his mind. Every time I asked he said he wanted to be a pirate.  I thought "Great! I can start getting costumes together.".  Then a couple weeks ago I was looking through the ads in the paper and there was one for Chuck E Cheese's that had a kid dressed in a skeleton costume.  At that moment Andrew became obsessed with being a skeleton.

Thankfully I hadn't gotten anything for pirate costumes besides a toy sword and eye patch that I saw at Wal-Mart for $3.  So I set about looking for skeleton costumes for the boys and came upon these little skeleton jammies on sale.

Yes, they are pajamas, but Andrew wore Batman pajamas as his costume last year (and he still wears them).  I told Andrew we can paint his face like a skeleton since I know he would never wear a mask.  I thought "Perfect! For once I'm ahead of the game and have costumes earlier than a few days before Halloween."  We are going to a Halloween party up in Myrtle Beach at the Moose Lodge that my parents belong to and there is a party at his school on Halloween so there are several things to dress up for this year.  I was feeling good about everything. Then I got an email about the "fall harvest" party at his school.

The email included a flyer and on it they said "Feel free to bring your child to school dressed in their costumes. We will have scheduled times for each age group and encourage you to come
 and spend time with your child’s class. No images of ghosts, witches, vampires, devils, etc. are permitted."

When I saw that last part my heart sank.  If witches and ghosts aren't permitted I was pretty sure that skeletons would be a no-go as well.  I emailed the director to ask and she confirmed my suspicion.

Crap.

I'm not sure why.  I suspect it's because Halloween is a pagan holiday and the school teaches christian values so they don't want things that are overtly Halloween-y.  I should have known when they called the party the "fall harvest" instead of the Halloween party.  It seems like if that's the case then maybe they shouldn't have the party ON Halloween.

Anyway, last night I had a talk with Andrew.  I told him that he can wear his skeleton costume for the party with grandma this weekend and for trick or treating, but for his school party he will need to wear a different costume. I asked him if it's ok if he dresses like a pirate for school and he agreed to that.

So now I get to try to come up with a pirate costume that he can wear to school. He has a striped t-shirt that he can wear and I think I'll try to get a cheap pair of pants so I can cut them with a ragged hem. I think I have a pirate hat somewhere from one of my old costumes. Andrew doesn't have boots or a vest, but I'll see what I can come up with before next Friday.  So much for being ready ahead of time...

I guess I should get used to this - conforming to other people's rules for holidays and such.  Hopefully these rules don't lead to disappointment for my kids when they aren't allowed to do what they want. Only time will tell.