It’s scary: I may have won a bad mom award.

I really enjoy Halloween and helping my kids dress up. I have kept all of my kids’ Halloween costumes (from birth). Every year we buy new ones for each kid and every year I hang them in the spare room closet. I do that well. I am really good at holding onto things like this with the idea that one day my kids are going to go through their old Halloween costumes and get a good giggle out of it.

One thing I don’t do well: take pictures of my kids in their Halloween costumes. Correction: I didn’t before I had a smart phone. Now I take pictures of everything at every chance I get. I have been searching for about two hours for pictures of my kids on their very first Halloweens. I have pulled out old hard drives, I’m searching on an old computer and guess what? I found them. BUT boy do they suck.

If you can learn anything from me today it should be: Take pictures of your kids on Halloween. Take good pictures and please PRINT them. Please. This way, they can grow up and look through all of the pictures of them actually wearing the costumes and get a good giggle out of it.

Or for purely selfish reasons: so that one day you can write a Halloween post and not be embarrassed by the quality of the only pictures you have of your beloved children. Because you do love them, and you have wonderful memories of them in their costumes, even though you have really crappy pictures. Ahem, ahem.

2008: Alexandra’s 1st Halloween at eight months old

2005: Andreas’ 1st Halloween at three months old

Can you relate? Have you been good at taking pictures of your kids on special occasions?