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I love being silly!

One of these days, I will embarrass my children so much they stop speaking to me.

Fortunately, this Halloween that day didn't come.

So I know Halloween is really all about kids and candy and playing dress-up. And as much as I'm not the kind of mom who really gets into a lot of the kid stuff, I really do love dress-up.

Now that we're 364 days until next Halloween, I can admit it. I want to play, too! I want to wear a silly costume and play pretend and laugh and have fun!

John and I actually had the opportunity this year. We were invited to two different Halloween parties, on two different nights. And fortunately for us, we were able to secure babysitting and go to both!

We don't do costumes every year - it all depends on whether we're invited to a party. But this year, since we've been out dancing so much lately, I got some inspiration: we were going to be "Kandi Ravers."

A "Kandi Raver" is typically a high-school kid who, as the name implies, goes to raves. They wear a lot of mis-matched colors and really little kid stuff - ponytails, animal backpacks, baby pacifiers - and of course, "kandi." "Kandi" would be those beaded bracelets they wear all up their arms, sometimes even past their elbows.

I started ordering the "kandi" and other costume pieces on eBay. As items arrived, both my children wanted them for themselves. I had to explain that the silly light-up pacifier and blinking rings and necklace were for Mommy's costume, and as soon as Halloween was over, they could have everything!

When the Halloween party day came, John and I had a lot of fun getting dressed up. And I discovered that wearing ponytails is really, really fun. Too bad I can't do it for work. (I do still have pink hair, though!)

But nothing was as fun as this moment. We're talking to a girl we don't know. She didn't dress up for the party. And she looks at us and says, "So...are you dressed up, or do you always wear that?"

We were doubled over with laughter. The first words I could get out of my mouth were, "How old do you think we are?"

She looks us over. "I don't know, 23?" she says.

I burst into tears I'm laughing so hard. "No way, turn those numbers around and you've got it!" I say. "Yeah, I'm 32!"

"No way," she says. "Let me see your ID."

I dig my ID out of my bunny-with-an-ice-cream-cone backpack and show her. Her jaw drops. "Nice job on the costumes," she says.

And the rest of the night was the same way. Our friends knew it was funny; people we didn't know actually took us seriously and thought we were kids!

I'm still laughing at myself. And I think that's so good. I had my fun last Friday night, and then I totally did the "good-Mommy-waiting-on-the-sidewalk" thing while my kids gathered candy from our neighbors last night. I wore a sedate orange sweater and a pumpkin headband, but no real costume. I let the kids be the stars on their holiday.

But Halloween doesn't have to be just fun for them. They can have trick-or-treating, sure. But dressing up in costume? That's got to be shared by both parents and kids, at least in my family!