Purim here in Boston was a bit different than in Israel. Like most comparisons, there's the good and the bad, but we were at least blessed with gorgeous weather and generally successful costumes (according to their "wearers")
Walking outside in Israel in one's costume for the whole month of Adar, is totally understood and often appreciated by everyone. They all know that its Purim time and often bus drivers and store owners are similarly decked out in their sparkly wigs or mismatched socks. Here in Boston, as we walked around in our costumes delivering our mishloach manot, we heard some car honks and saw many stares (though often accompanied - thankfully - with smiles). It was a bit strange, but somehow didn't stop my vampire-clad Adin from asking the 7-11 cashier if they had a slurpee in "blood flavor".
Ariel dressed as a secret service man for erev Purim but then saw my crazy purple wig the next morning and decided that he should be "some crazy person with weird hair and jewellery and a gun". There were also handcuffs on his wrist and he spray painted one of Josh's old undershirts. In searching for a black gun for his secret service man costume, I learned from a toy store owner that black toy guns are illegal in the state of Massachusettes. Ariel got a real kick out of that and excitedly spray painted the silver toy cowboy gun to be completely black and probably half-hoped that a police car would arrive at our house because we were "breaking the law".
We ordered Adin great vampire fangs a few weeks before Purim. They fit really well and matched his teeth colour perfectly. His hair was gelled back, eyeliner and blood-red lip colour added, and a suit from Target (with a neck tie that I had no time to "youtube" to learn how to do)...He looked great and managed to get through the days without losing the two little fangs and even managed to drink that slurpee with them on.
Avishai initially wanted to be a vampire like his big brother (lotsa "monkey see monkey do" going on there...) but we managed to convince him to choose another costume. He decided on a robber. He's the cutest robber I've ever seen. He exchanged his eye mask and hat for his ski mask (depending on which one was lost at the moment) and generally seemed to enjoy, and wore the hat during all of our deliveries despite the warmth in the car.
Hila's ballerina costume was found at a discount store for 5 dollars, and her almost-new little ballet slippers were 3$ at a second-hand store. (a very exciting find!). Halfway through Purim, she had mentioned that she'd prefer to be a princess, but I quickly distracted her. (One night this past week I asked her what she'd like to be when she grew up. She answered "a princess". Trying to drive home the point that it's nice to have a good profession in life, I asked her, "What does a princess do?". She answered "Turns around". So essentially, a dancer/ballerina in her mind is pretty much the same thing as a princess. Maybe one has longer hair? Hair seems to be the end point of many of her 3-year old issues....). At one point on Purim morning, Hila had decided that she needed some eye make up, and did quite the scary Courtney-Love-esque look that I couldn't remove because I own no eye makeup remover. She spent the day like that. Yikes.
Talya was given a Hershey kiss costume from a friend, which she wore adorably. I was thinking about dressing her as a mezuzah so that I'd have another excuse to keep kissing her, but I ran out of steam after searching for the other misloach manot items and costume accessories. She was somewhat neglected during the day because Josh was at work and I was trying to make sure that the bigger four kids had a great day. Hope they did!
Avishai initially wanted to be a vampire like his big brother (lotsa "monkey see monkey do" going on there...) but we managed to convince him to choose another costume. He decided on a robber. He's the cutest robber I've ever seen. He exchanged his eye mask and hat for his ski mask (depending on which one was lost at the moment) and generally seemed to enjoy, and wore the hat during all of our deliveries despite the warmth in the car.
Hila's ballerina costume was found at a discount store for 5 dollars, and her almost-new little ballet slippers were 3$ at a second-hand store. (a very exciting find!). Halfway through Purim, she had mentioned that she'd prefer to be a princess, but I quickly distracted her. (One night this past week I asked her what she'd like to be when she grew up. She answered "a princess". Trying to drive home the point that it's nice to have a good profession in life, I asked her, "What does a princess do?". She answered "Turns around". So essentially, a dancer/ballerina in her mind is pretty much the same thing as a princess. Maybe one has longer hair? Hair seems to be the end point of many of her 3-year old issues....). At one point on Purim morning, Hila had decided that she needed some eye make up, and did quite the scary Courtney-Love-esque look that I couldn't remove because I own no eye makeup remover. She spent the day like that. Yikes.
Talya was given a Hershey kiss costume from a friend, which she wore adorably. I was thinking about dressing her as a mezuzah so that I'd have another excuse to keep kissing her, but I ran out of steam after searching for the other misloach manot items and costume accessories. She was somewhat neglected during the day because Josh was at work and I was trying to make sure that the bigger four kids had a great day. Hope they did!
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