“This is our first time,” the father next to me in the black Cadillac truck said, walking my way, “I wasn’t expecting it to be so elaborate,” he motioned at the parking lot of festivities and hinting at his minimalistic décor of a few pumpkins lined across his trunk. “As long as you have candy, the kids will love it,” I said to ease his worries. “This is our second time…” I added. But I dared not go into details about my creation of Sonic Mania last year.
Months ago, Ash had told me he wanted the Mandalorian to be our Trunk or Treat creation this year. I had ordered a few things from Amazon in preparation—a seven-dollar plastic space tablecloth I could use as a backdrop and a life-sized Mandalorian cardboard cutout. But then time started flying faster, and a month before Trunk or Treat turned into a day before Trunk or Treat.
Me to Ash (this past Friday night after a challenging, tiring week and no start on making Grogu’s pod): How about we just go to Trunk or Treat but not be in Trunk or Treat?
Ash: Can we at least try to do it?
Me: OK, but you are going to have to help!
And he did! He woke up Saturday morning, came downstairs, saw me stressed with the scissors and glue gun, and said, “I’ll paint.”
We came in fourth place, which made me suspect some rigging going on within the PTO because who else was up at 7 a.m. on a Saturday sawing and gluing plastic bowls together and cutting and painting crafting foam to make a pram?! Was I to engineer it to float around in my trunk to take first place?! (Honestly, I was lowkey impressed with myself for putting this thing together so quickly– molding the back piece with the foam almost took me out).
Seeing all the reactions from Star Wars fans made my day. Ash was like, “See, I told you!” He was so proud. And he was right; sometimes, you must push to “try.” We didn’t take home first place, but it was nonetheless rewarding because look what we created!
There were some details we didn’t quite have the time to complete–a few extra orange panels on each side and some orange paint on the inside, but overall, I was satisfied with our pram.
I got so many compliments on my Ahsoka gear! Am I bothered that I did not have the time to get my makeup professionally done to really be Ahsoka? Yes, that would have been perfect. But it’s okay. The focus was to try.
Wasn’t it Edna Mode who said, done properly, parenting is a heroic act—done properly. This is the way.
As always, have a safe and creative Halloween! (and check out my reel on Instagram)
