No Actual Bunnies Were Harmed in the Making of this Costume

Okay, listen. I'm not feeling particularly clever in the word department. I emptied my cleverness account last week at my sewing machine and I especially didn't make any deposits today as I spent most of the day lamenting the fact that my sister may as well live on the moon for all the time we get to spend together. (What was it, Sara, like thirty six hours or something? Thirty six hours every six months is not enough time.)

I just read that last paragraph. Maybe I'm feeling more clever than I thought.

Following is a possibly non-clever account of how Halloween went down this year. I was mildly disappointed in how Stella's costume came out, but she didn't seem to notice how lame it was, so that's good.

I attended Creed's Fall Party. It was not a Halloween Party, it was a Fall Party. No costumes allowed. However, I was making slime with the children, so of course I needed a lab coat and protective eyewear. Can I help it if I looked like a Mad Scientist?

Friday was costume day at the gym, so I went as a witch. Everything I wore, I already owned. I pulled the dress out of our Halloween bin and just did a quick hem job because it needed to be short enough for me to bust out my roundhouse kicks.

George is the only one out of the five children in whose costume I am allowed any input. I figured since I am endlessly chasing him around, it would be fitting for him to be the White Rabbit to my Alice and Bob's Mad Hatter. I whipped up a vest and a bowtie and turned a kitty cat headband into a bunny rabbit headband with the help of some fake white fur and floral wire. I found a dress pattern with puffy sleeves and modified the bodice, then used an apron pattern I already had. I also made a petticoat because I wanted the dress to poof. I had settled on these costumes last year, way before I knew about Tim Burton's new movie. I hate being trendy, but I can't help it when it happens accidentally. So of course we styled our Mad Hatter after Colleen Atwood's. Besides, I am way ahead of Tim Burton because I've been quoting Lewis Carroll on my blog for years. (See the quote under my blog header? It's from the cautionary tale of The Walrus and the Carpenter. I probably should have credited Mr. Carroll with those words long ago.)

And here we have the whole gang. It may seem like the kids got the shaft in the costume department, but they got what they wanted. I really should be allowed more input. The boys announced on Tuesday that they needed cloaks for their costumes. Until then, Creed was insisting that he was going to play the part of Himself this year and Jack wanted to be a zombie in Jack clothing. Creed ended up going as a ghoul and Jack was a Little Person from the book series Cirque du Freak (which is also being turned to film by Hollywood this year.) I styled the cloaks without a pattern, and they turned out great if I do say so myself. Stella was Coraline. I adore her for breaking the Disney Princess mold and going as a quirky character whose favorite color is blue. I puffy painted white stars all over a black shirt. It looks really cool in a black light. We could not get her hair to turn blue. I sprayed and sprayed it with this crap from a can and while the entire bathroom, her face, and her hands and my boogers all turned blue, her hair never did. I stuck some blue clip-ins to her head and called it good. Not pictured is Eddie, who wore a camouflage jacket and a bandana and called himself a disgruntled veteran. He stayed home and passed out candy with his friends. The person in the photo to whom we are not related (but, if all goes as planned, we will be someday bwahahaha) is our friend who came Trick or Treating with us. I have an uncanny knack for convincing childless people to spend random holidays with me. (Hi Andrew! Hi Mark! I know you aren't reading, but Hello to a few of our best friends, anyway.) She was dressed as a Cave Woman and her Dog was The Beast. We turned the night into a scavenger hunt and the only thing we never found was a house serving Cider and Donuts.

The next night we had a Church Halloween Party. We Christians love our Pagan Holiday Traditions. Bob was ON CALL (Boo), and Sara was STUCK IN COLORADO (double boo), and Eddie REFUSED to wear the costume (boo boo boo), so the always amazing Robyn stepped in and played the part of my Mad Hatter. She is a true friend. That is Creed on the floor behind us being a ghoul.

I won second place in the chili cookoff with my pot of Chili Blanco. I even got a trophy. All in all, it was a pretty good night.

If you ask, I can totally bust out the Jabberwocky from memory.