We Won't Grow Up

I hope you are as excited to see my Halloween costume as I am to show it to you.

First, some explanation. Every summer, my family goes camping in the mountains. And every summer, I pretend that I am Peter Pan and that my younger siblings and cousins are my Lost Boys.

I do not know how this came am about. Actually, yes I do. It was my idea.

Ever since Favorite Cousin grew up and stopped coming camping with us, I've had quite the solitary time camping. There's been no one for me to take a quiet hike and discuss Lord of the Rings, so these past few years I've been sitting among the trees reading instead.

Anyways, one camping trip I grew intolerably bored. I ambled out to the children's hideout in the woods and suggested that we play the part of Peter Pan where they build a house for Wendy. I would be Peter Pan, of course, and...

...and it hasn't stopped since. Summer after summer, it's all the same. We sing our homemade Lost Boys' medley, make beds out if grass, build a house for Wendy, and have a pine cone war with the pirates and Indians (aka our parents) before going to the Indians' camp for a victory feast (aka tinfoil dinners).

Once before the feast, I told the others that we needed to dress up. "I will put this feather in my hair," I said grandly, placing a strand of grass in my hair and then scooping up Pixie Cousin to help her back to camp.

"That's not a feather," Pixie Cousin informed me, giggling. "You cwazy, Peter Pan!"

She thought I was crazy for pretending some grass was a feather, but she had no problem believing I was an obnoxious, pre-adolescent boy who can fly. Go figure.

Anyways, this summer, in the midst of the usual Lost Boy shenanigans, Little Brother was all, "For Halloween I'll be John, Baby Brother will be Michael, Baby Sister will be Wendy, Little Sister will be Tinker Bell, and you'll be Peter Pan."

And I was like, "I'll believe it when I see it." Because Little Brother is a schemer, a dreamer, someone who thinks big but can't always deliver. I know the type because I am one.

But this year, Little Brother delivered. He put together smashing costumes for everyone. He even convinced our parents to get costumes to be Mr. and Mrs. Darling. And he and Baby Brother kept saying, "What about your costume?"

Then I realized that this was really happening. And that although I'm not Peter Pan, to these kids I might as well be. They think I can do anything and that I'll never let them down.

So I made myself a costume. Green tights, green skirt, green polo shirt. Hat, belt and shoe covers from a costume my mom bought for Little Brother once from Disneyland. The shoelace of one of my hiking boots.

And the final product:

I made this with my mad costume skillz. And now I'm excited. So very excited.

Halloween can't come soon enough.