Party of Five...Halloweenies, that is!

Of COURSE the kids love Halloween - they're 50% Halloweenie, after all!

This year was no exception - the kids chose their costumes fairly early on (two of them "may" have been helped along with subtle hints, as it would be a shame to have, say, a beautiful, hand-sewn lion costume only worn by one Huffling, or a princess froggie only worn by one ... um.. my niece).

Harry Potter was a given for Mr. Vaughn, as he is keenly into the 4th book, and is eagerly looking forward to watching the 3rd movie (trying to deflect that one as long as possible - they start getting scarier and scarier).  He knows quite a few spells, and I am never safe from someone sneaking up behind me and yelling "Expelliarmus!"...which inevitably makes me jump and drop whatever I'm holding... because it's magic, duh.

I, as usual, completely missed the point of Halloween, which is apparently to dress provocatively and live out one's illusions of sexiness.  I was a ... um... sexy?... killer whale, posed here with a priest.  Note that I was not convincing enough in pushing my old nun costume on Chris, which would have entailed showing a good expanse of ankle.  I also wanted him to wear lipstick.

He said no.

"I don't want to dress up like a woman," he said.

"You wouldn't be dressing up like a woman," I insisted.  "You'd be a man in a nun costume wearing lipstick, which is much funnier."

I

Because Halloween was so hectic, with trick or treating and, well, trick or treating, we waited till the day after to make our Halloween Feast!   The Domestic Goddess resurfaced quietly to impress the kids, the husband, and horrify the poor, unassuming houseguest, Uncle Rob.

First, I slayed a monster, and cut off his feet at the ankle:

"Feetloaf AGAIN?"

THEN, I cooked his brains until they were a nice medium rare.

Mmmm.... brains.  This was surprisingly hard to cut into, emotionally.  Tasty, though.

Halloweenies 2012

Another Halloween has come and gone, and it was fantastic.  (Of course it was!  It's Halloween!)

The kids were very specific in their costume choices this year.  Ailsa, who fits perfectly into V's awesome lion costume from last year, insisted on being a punkin.  I was trying to plant the seeds from February onwards, but her mind was made up.  Punkin or nuffin.  Well.

And Vaughn's vision was to be, well, a killer whale.  Hmmm.

Ha ha ha!  Good luck, Grandma!  I said, and Mom set to work making these kids look as awesomely ridiculous as they did.  She did a great job, as usual.

Trying on the costumes for the first time, admiring their reflections. 

Rear view.  You can see V's dorsal fin and tail. 

This was taken at playgroup.  They had face painting, and V wanted to wear my "ears" anyway, so, "Why not?" I thought.

Ah.  This is "why not". 
How fun was it to explain, repeatedly, that although it looked like I intentionally dressed my son up as a victim of a killer whale attack, it really was innocent.  Gah.
I washed his face before we went trick-or-treating.

Pumpkins, clockwise from top left:  Ailsa's design, Vaughn's design (I was the consultant and knife-wielder), and my let's-just-get-this-over-with design.  The fourth pumpkin was a ghost (again, quick and effective), and the fifth was handed as an empty pumpkin shell to Amanda for her decorating! 

Devil or Buddha?  And here I am, large as a barge and in charge, as they say.  Later that night, I had half changed into my pjs, but thought I should get at least one photo of the belly at 36 weeks.  Am "starting" to get disgruntled that, 7 weeks after my end being at the receiving end of steroid shots and a prescription for bed rest, the baby has not yet escaped its uterine prison.  I am officially allowed to have it this evening (Mom and Dad will be back in town), however.

Can't wait for next year!  Hopefully the next 'lump will be as much of a h'weenie as the rest of us!

Once a Halloweenie, always a Halloweenie

Who likes Halloween more than I do?

Nobody, that's who!

This year's costume was a bit of a logistical challenge, for obvious reasons. At right, you'll find my full-day-at-work-and-then-a-party-that-night costume. Not offensive, not ill-fitting...

However, there was no way that I couldn't share my Parade of Ill-Advised Halloween Costumes with you.

Hope you appreciate the selection of costumes that I considered... sensitive readers, please be warned that you may not like what you see. I apologize in advance for offending anyone's sensibilities.

Sport Barbie: briefly considered.

Hmmm... it's fine from the back...

Whoa! Maybe a little more time should be spent on your abs, sister.

How about a Renegades Cheerleader? It fit last year....

Nope, still seems wrong, somehow. Go team?

The Olivia Newton John Let's Get Physical costume is a flashback to the early 80s, and also my first year at CNA (2002?), when I was the only one in costume, of 85 people! This look just wasn't working this year... but wow, lycra sure can stretch!

I admit that there was one more. For a work luncheon on Wednesday, I decided to just go with it, and hope that others' senses of humour would keep me from being lynched.

Possible captions include The Smoking Nun and Bad Habits. Now, usually, I publicly humiliate for a whole lot less... ok, free... (see above), but I won $50 for Best Costume!

I had really tried to do proper recon ahead of time to make sure that there were no "secret nuns" working at the base, and I was assured there were not. Unfortunately, the first person I saw was the padre.
Whoops.

We handed out candy to 14 kids last night. Ordinarily, I'd be disappointed by such a low turnout, but then, I take a moment to reflect on how much candy we have left... Aaaah.

Hope everyone else had a wonderful Halloween!