As far as holidays go, few make me feel as inadequate as a mom as Halloween. I want to embrace Halloween with arms wide open, but unfortunately, those arms are supposed to be attached to hands that can sew fabulous costumes and make homemade caramel apples and create cleverly decorated cupcakes that look like witches or ghosts.

Those arms are also supposed to be connected to a very creative brain that can come up with fabulous Halloween costume ideas that can be slapped together with a cardboard box, some pipe cleaners and tin foil. 

I want to be that mom with those arms -- I really do. However, I am not.

I am the mom that desperately hopes my children will want to be something we can buy at The Disney Store or Target, even if it isn't cute and makes it hard for my child to breathe through the plastic mask. I'm OK with that, really. Just don't ask me to sew something because I promise you that I can't.

So it's with some trepidation that we enter into October each year. I hate to crush my children's good costume ideas just because I am so inept.

Imagine my delight when my 12-year-old daughter announced this weekend that she's too old for trick-or-treating, so she's just going to hand out candy at home. She might wear a wig or something while doing it, she said, but no costume is needed. 

Whew! One down.

A few hours later, I figured I'd better ask my 9-year-old son about his Halloween costume dream for this year so I can figure out whether I can make his wish come true or if it's time to start steering him down another, less complicated path.

"I'm going to be a zombie Ryan Braun," he said, in the heat of the baseball playoffs. "Dad said we can get me a Braun jersey and a hat and then he'll do my makeup to make me look scary."

What? It's been discussed, it's decided and it's done? Dad's doing everything? 

A little pang of feeling useless crept up my spine, and then I realized this is actually my Halloween dream come true. One doesn't want a costume and the other is handling it with my husband.

As for me? I'm out. 

Oh Great Pumpkin, thank you so much.  

I was scrolling through my cell phone images yesterday when I came across a photo I took with my phone about two years ago. 

It's a picture of my son, about age 7 then, sitting in the waiting room at a doctor's office. He's wearing a Wisconsin T-shirt, shorts, short white socks and tennis shoes. His arms are stretched straight toward the ceiling, and each hand is making a peace sign. The furniture in this doctor's office can best be described as "airport waiting area," so the backdrop sets a depressing tone for this photo of a little boy, desperately trying to entertain himself while the clock ticks too slowly. There's something very kitschy about it that gave my husband and me a good belly laugh.

Rather than describing this photo to you, I should have posted it, right? And I could have, if I would have just kept my mouth shut.

After discovering this lost treasure on my cell phone, I transferred it to my computer. I then posted it on my Facebook page. My son came up just as I was about to shut down my computer, so I showed him the photo and asked him if he remembered it.

"That's not me," he said, calmly.

"Of course it is!" I replied.

"That can't be me. That person is wearing shorts," he explained. (Disclosure: My son has gone two full summers without wearing shorts once. He'll wear a swimsuit when swimming only, but no shorts. Even on the hottest days. I can't explain it so I don't even try.)

"It is you," I said. "You used to wear shorts, and when you did, I took this picture."

He remained unconvinced -- at least on the outside. (I think he very much recognized his younger self and just didn't want to remember the humiliating days when he still dressed like that.)

He looked at the picture again. 

"You didn't show that to anyone, did you?" he asked. "It's not on your Facebook page, is it?"

Well, technically he was looking at it on my Facebook page, but at 9 years old was unaware of that, so how to get around this?

I didn't answer, and there was a distraction that moved his attention elsewhere, so I never did.

So what's fair here in the age of Internet parenting? Old photos of kids are fair game for the Facebook page or best left in a quiet folder on the desktop? 

I'm sure of my son's answer, but I'd like to know yours.

In the meantime, I'll log off to prevent me from accidentally posting it here. You know, completely accidentally.

If your child is a VeggieTales fan, you won't want to miss this! We've got two family four-packs of front-row tickets for the "God Made You Special Live!" show this Friday, Oct. 17, at Elmbrook Church in Brookfield.

We're giving away two four-packs -- one to the 4:15 p.m. show and one to the 7 p.m. show.

The first people to e-mail me at jwieland@journalinteractive.com will win!

You'll claim your tickets by visiting the will-call window at the church auditorium before the show.

If you don't win and still want to see the show, click here for a coupon for $3 off the original ticket price.

Good luck! 

We have our winners of front-row tickets to the VeggieTales show at Elmbrook Church Friday night.

Congratulations to Melissa B. and Kristin W. Have fun at the show!

To those of you who didn't win, stay tuned! We'll be giving away tickets in the next few weeks to the upcoming Rockettes show, as well as other fun events. 

I'd go see Serena Ryder at Shank Hall tomorrow night. Serena was on "The Morning Blend" on Thursday and I had a chance to meet her in the green room and then watch her perform live on the set. To see her short performance on the show, click here.

She's a 23-year-old Canadian singer, and all of us who saw her said she was a Melissa Etheridge/Alanis Morisette type. Really good, really cool.

If you go, have fun!

***Congratulations, Carlie -- our first winner. Check back over the next few weeks for more ticket giveaways!***

For the next few weeks, we'll be giving away family four-packs of tickets (one per week) to The Radio City Christmas Spectacular, starring the world famous Rockettes!

The tickets are for the show at 3:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 16, at the U.S. Cellular Arena at Fourth and Kilbourn.

If you're interested in seeing this fabulous, holiday-inspired show, be the first to e-mail me at jwieland@journalinteractive.com.

Good luck!

***Wow! Those went fast! Congratulations, Chandra, and enjoy the show!***

OK, folks -- it's that time again! I have a family four-pack of tickets to The Radio City Christmas Spectacular, starring the world famous Rockettes!

The tickets are for the show at 3:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 16, at the U.S. Cellular Arena at Fourth and Kilbourn.

If you're interested in seeing this fabulous, holiday-inspired show, be the first to e-mail me at jwieland@journalinteractive.com.

Good luck!

The zookeepers at the Milwaukee County Zoo are doing everything they can to get Zero out of his moat, where he's been since falling in Oct. 13. (Read the latest here.)

It's not easy to get a 1,100 polar bear to do what you want, but they're hoping food will be a powerful motivator.

My husband, kids and I were the lucky recipients of a behind-the-scenes tour of Zero's off-exhibit space a few years ago. We were able to see this incredible animal through the bars in his "backstage" cage. It was impossible not to be impressed with how magnificent he is -- and how huge.

We all know how hard it is to lift up a toddler who doesn't want to be picked up. Just imagine a polar bear who's just fine where he is, thank you very much. Not a small task at all.

Keep your fingers crossed for the zookeepers today!

Photo courtesy of News Chopper 4

If you've been on Zero the polar bear watch like I have, then you need to know that this morning they got him out. 

Sounds like he wasn't about to get himself out anytime soon, so the zookeepers had to make the decision for him. 

We'll look forward to seeing him back in action (up top, not in the moat!) soon.

It's 6 feet tall and called a "corpse flower." Already you know this has to be good, right?

It was reported this week that the Milwaukee Public Museum's giant corpse flower is about ready to bloom -- a rare occurrence as it only happens every six years or so. This crazy plant got its name from the stench it releases when it does bloom.

To call it a "stench" may be to understate it. It's been compared to everything from rotting poop to rotting flesh. The smell apparently can carry for miles.

Ew.

Armed with this information, I can't explain why I still want to check it out -- and, if my timing is right -- give it a whiff. My only fear is that the stink will stick and then I'll have to be explaining to people I encounter that I just paid a visit to the museum's corpse flower. No really! It's true!

What's your take on this? Want to be in line to smell the nasty flower or planning to keep your distance?