For me, there have been three stages of Halloween Love/Hate.

Stage One: As a child. I loved it.

Halloween as a child is fantastic. Free, unlimited candy? Costumes? What's not to like. That is, until I was 14. Then my mom told me I couldn't go trick-or-treating anymore. How unfair, right? I mean my sister still got to go...granted, she is 4 years younger than me...but still. Way to completely ruin my childhood, mom.

I kid. But I was like all teenagers--I wanted a free sugar rush. Once that was taken away from me, my love for the holiday started to fade.

{Side note, my last trick-or-treating experience was as a 13-year-old in 1991. Anyone from Minnesota remember the Halloween Blizzard of '91? I had gone over to my friend's house and a group of us went out in her neighborhood. There weren't that many people around and the snow was piling up. I remember climbing over gigantic snowdrifts to get to houses. I also remember people giving us extra since so few were out. Just another reason the following year I was so determined to go out.}

Me, as a butterfly. Year unknown. A long time ago.

Stage Two: As a young adult. I hated it.

Then I entered college. And I made a discovery. Halloween wasn't about the candy--it was about dressing...ahem...up. Or just wearing as little clothing as possible. I wasn't a fan. And I wasn't creative enough to come up with and pull off creative costumes. I had some very creative friends that really thought outside the box and I always admired them. But since I didn't want to dress in my underwear and I couldn't think of creative costumes, it was a no-go. Sure I dressed up a couple of times, but nothing noteworthy.

There are no pictures from this time in my life. I swear, I looked really hard.

Stage Three: As a parent. I love it (once again), for the kids.

Now I'm back on the "Halloween is Awesome" bandwagon since I have kids and I like making it special for them. And they love it. It's so exciting to see their personalities come out more and more each year. I'm sure this is the last Halloween I'll get any say in what costumes they pick. Also probably the last year their ensembles will play off of each other. They are their own (little) people and have their own likes...I have to remind myself of that. Sometimes I want to take the whole "almost twins" thing too far (ie: Pebbles and Bam-Bam, 2011; Beauty and the Beast, 2013).

One last note. I'm actually dressing up for Halloween this year. It's my first time in almost 15 years. The last time I dressed up I got made fun of. As an adult. Probably part of the reason I'm not such a fan of this holiday. Oh well, my friend that is throwing this party that I'm attending is lucky I love her so much because typically I'd have a conflict...

And, because it's my blog I can include whatever pics I want. So get ready...kid pictures starting in 3...2...1...