23 days until Halloween, but who's counting?

I'm a pretty creative person. I come from a creative family and am lucky to be surrounded by many very creative people. So why can't I come up with any kick-ass ideas for my kids' Halloween costumes?

Ever since the kids have been old enough to trick or treat, I've let them pick their costumes. The girls have been every single Disney Princess and a series of frilly butterflies and fairies. Gag!

Those cutesy costumes are real yawners, until you get to see your kid, after walking 12, grueling blocks, hit their sugar high and then crash - HARD.

I can still see The Deuce at 5 years old, dressed as a ballerina totally melt down. Flailing on the ground, she was screaming,

"I CAN'T WALK ANYMORE! THESE SLIPPERS ARE KILLING ME!"

She was a pathetic sight -- and it made me laughed my ass off. Sure, she walked out the door all pink and cute, but she came home a tear-stained mess in crumpled crinoline.

Thankfully, Crowbar has at least taken me out of the pink aisle and into the exciting world of superheroes. While he's only trick or treated a handful of times, his favorite costumes were Spider man and Buzz Lightyear. He wore that Buzz costume everyday for over a week.

But by contrast, when he was two, the boy was afraid of his own lion costume. Even though it was soft and friendly looking, every time I'd pull it out of the closet, he'd totally lose it.

I know having a set of twins to work with on Halloween should make it super easy to do something clever and cool. But sadly, I've never been able to parlay their twinsness into anything that creative.

Tonight I thought I had a good one. They're both into Hannah Montana (a TV character who lives a double life: a normal kid by day and rock star by night), so I suggested one dress as Miley Cyrus (they regular girl) and the other as Hannah Montana (the rock star). I was so excited, but my suggestion was met with a lukewarm response. They both want to be the rock star. Neither wanted to be the normal girl. Drat.

I recently heard about an Asian dad who's going to dress his 4 year-old girl as an underage Chinese Olympic gymnast. Now that's clever.

I suppose, I've got a few weeks left. I've got time for some intensive R&D. And I have time to convince the kids to step outside their comfort zone and branch out a little.

Who knows. Maybe I can convince Crowbar to dress as an evil scientist and the girls can be his two-headed monster creation. It's quite a leap from anything sold under the Disney/Pixar brand, but I think we're all ready for a change.