Yabba Dabba yell a lot at everyone to get this thing made!

Another Halloween has come and gone.

Phew!

In the words of Ellie, "Tessie's costume is probably the most awesome one any of us ever had!"

My response? "Yes, Ellie, it's only too bad that you all couldn't have had wheelchairs so you could have had such awesome costumes too."

Score one for mom. Or not. You know, because Ellie wasn't being whiny about it, she just loved Tessie's costume. I can't help it though, it is in my nature to be a wise a$$.

Ellie was right however. This costume ROCKED. Well, Bedrocked. You see, this year my Toodle Bug was dressed as Pebbles Flintstone! "What's so great about that?", you might be wondering. Why, I'm glad you asked.  The great part was that we made Tessie's wheelchair into one of the Flintstone's cars.

Of course, in typical Reidy, aka Griswold,  fashion, we had a few bumps in the getting-ready-for-Halloween road.

Tessie and I had gotten out of Dodge when Hurricane Sandy blew through and were waiting out the storm safe and snug on the mainland. I really wasn't sure if we would even get home for Halloween but I knew if we did, this is what I wanted for Tessie to dress up as. I did already have the costume and, in a fit of unusual preparedness, had even already purchased the materials needed for the canvas roof and granite looking tires. However, they were all sitting in a pile in Tessie's bedroom.

So Halloween morning I called to check in with the hubby and to let him know that yes, in fact I will brave the ferry boat and come home and oh by the way, did I mention that you need to make Tessie a Flintstone's car for her wheelchair? Oh, I didn't? My bad. But we really will need it done when we get off the ferry because we'll only have about an hour to pull it all together. Did I leave you directions? Well...no. It only needs a wood frame, you're a carpenter, you've got wood everywhere! But make sure it looks Flinstone-y and good, and fits her chair and....

When we got home I'll be honest. I may have become a tad bit hysterical and possibly been yelling at everyone in my path to GET BUSY! The house was a wreck, Tessie needed to be dressed in her costume, and the car, while framed up, still wasn't totally finished.

Poor Charlie, Ellie and Bina. They were looking at me like I had just sprouted three heads. "Stop standing around! Come on! Pick up! Bina, start making wheels for the car! Ellie, sweep the entry floor! Charlie this car needs to be fixed! You made this part too long! String?!! Do I have any string?!?! No, I do not have string, WHY would I have string?! Bina, cover the steering wheel in duct tape! Oh really, Charlie?! So you don't think duct tape is very Flintstone-y. Well it is if it is CHEETAH print duct tape so HA! Yes, this has a hole in the back of the canvas! The Flintstones had a hole in the back of THEIR canvas roof! Ellie, why are you just standing around?! DO something!! Well, how about help me with this wig! TESSIE!!!! You have GOT to stop throwing your head to the side!"

And on and on it went. At one point Bina actually grabbed me by the shoulders and said, "JoJo, you have got to calm down!", or something along those lines. It's really all a blur.

But when all was said and done, and my blood pressure had dropped back down to somewhere near normal, we had managed to pull together the best costume of HALLOWEEN ever!

Charlie, Ellie, Bina and I proudly present......

PEBBLES FLINTSTONE!

But wait, here's a video...and in typical diva fashion, Tess is clearly not nearly as impressed as we all were...Yabba Dabba Doo!