Halloween already

Our neighbors -- I'm not kidding -- decorated their yard for Halloween right after Labor Day.

And I don't mean a scarecrow and a bale of hay on their porch. I mean plastic pumpkins and ghosts and cut-out witches on posts stuck in the ground. I also mean an assortment of gaudy Halloween ghouls hanging from their tree.

Halloween is my favorite holiday.

But this is a bit early. In my book, it at least has to be October before the witches and skeletons come out.

When I was a kid, I remember picking out my Halloween costume a week or two before the big night. We'd go to K-Mart or some other discount store and get what I liked on the rack. I remember very fondly being Oscar the Grouch the year I was four. Later, my friends and I would sometimes raid my dad's costume shop and get a little more creative. Still, I'm pretty sure I was the Wicked Witch of the West at least two years in a row.

But back to the timing. Rye declared two weeks ago that he wanted to be The Emperor from Star Wars. In the past, he has said he wants to be Luke or Obi-Wan or Darth Maul. So I figured we'd just narrow it down a few weeks before the holiday, enough time for Dane's mom to make the costume.

She heard his choice, though, and couldn't wait to get started on the costume.

So now it's done and he's tried it on several times. We completed the look yesterday by attaching blue pipe cleaners to knit gloves - the Emperor shoots blue fire or lightning or something from his hands.

If little boys can look cute as really mean guys, Rye looks really cute.

He's planning to say, "Execute order 66."

Yeah, that's the command to kill all the good guys.

He's told me I can be Padme (Luke and Leia's mom), and Dane gets to be Obi-Wan.

I was planning on Wonder Woman this year.

But I'll let the little boy win out.

Happy early Halloween!

Check out Rye's blog for his take on the costume -- and a photo.