All Hallows 22

Here we are at another year of ridiculous spookdum and all hallows tom-foolery. Knowing I had a heck of a crafting agenda, I started fairly early. The process of choosing of Halloween costumes evolves each year as the children continue to define themselves, and our relationships to each other. Matt and I still try to have our family all come together on a team costume, which mostly means we ask Brock what he wants to be, I determine if it is feasible, there is deliberation in the troops, followed finally by us trying to get Alice on board with whatever was decided. We try to make Alice the last step because she is a though one to reposition. Soooooooo, we came to the decision to go as fan favorites from Dungeons and Dragons. And it begins.

I chose the "Beholder", an 11-eyed floating head. Let the Googling begin fine readers. Here is the Pygmalion birth of my masterpieces...

And Brock has chosen a "Purple Worm".

And Alice, a (yawn) unicorn. But a really cute one mind you. I made her suit, but it looked a little store bought to me and I found myself defending my efforts deep into the season.

Matt is actually a fantastic crafter. And I rely on him for anything that must be straight. He begins work on a D20, what we feel will be the signaler of our concept.

Later, before heading out to trick-or-treat and after field time in the wild, Matt adds a hole in the bottom right to assure that we can hold Alice's hand.

Construction is coming along.

Done! Sadly the Beholder did not come to life and sweep the floor as it appears is shown. Next year.

Between costume building and outings came pumpkins! I had a fortune telling theme this year as noted by the crystal ball. Matt played a disc golf tournament that had a pumpkin carving contest to boot, so he carved a "Firebird", a popular disc with a great design on it for his pumpkin. Brock went gourd, which is impossible to carve, but he did it all himself and his snake coming out the egg was awesome.

Alice always chooses a baby pumpkin that she puts a face on and plays with until it rots. Sadly not featured here.

And what is Halloween without a fall fest? Here we are at the Zoo in 70 degree magic on one of the many days off of school in October/No(school)vember.

Hay!

On the Ferris Wheel.

The house is full of spirit, spirits, and ready for spirits.

Our neighborhood is known for its fancy houses that go all out for the Halloween season. Here are few captured in the daylight.

 

And then our house!! It really felt like our "coming out" party to the neighborhood as last year our front porch was in limbo, so I didn't want to decorate till it was done. Trying to be a little different than other houses, we went with a fortune telling witch theme.

Here is our animatronic mascot, ____(insert name here. OMG, how did we not name her? Open for suggestions. The witch was so wonderfully annoying, everything set her off, trucks, dogs, the door. My absolute favorite was one day a group of preschools came walking about the neighborhood on a stroll to check out the local decorations. I heard it and not saw it, but there was much little giggling then Witchy went off on her rant and I heard a chorus of tiny screams. And isn't that the true meaning of Halloween? 5 star review Amazon!

And now for the festivities! Our first event is an annual gathering in our local Wicker Park that has a costume contest and booths from local businesses.

 

It was another absolutely amazing day for weather. Here we are on our way!

At the costume contest we meet up with  our dear friends and neighbors who came as archeological explorers. They also have an awesome party following the park event that we went to after.

Brock walking in his category. He came in third. I know, I know, but really it was for the best as that was the best prize! We have a long tradition of winning a gift card to Jenni's ice cream that lasts us much of the year, and that was the third place prize! Rex Brock's good friend and neighbor won first as the mummy portion of the archeologists, so all was well.

When they announced Brock I think the quote was "and to the slug sloth creature"... as usual, no one knew what we were. Rex in first place won a haircut, which, thank goodness, he was psyched about. Brock had never been so happy with third place in his life.

 

We also came in third in the family category. Again, highway robbery, but once again we triumphed with our favorite of the prizes, a gift card for Big Star's delicious tacos.  And I got to accept the award as the "homemade octopus eye thing". Nailed it.

 

Halloween day itself was a Monday school day.

As usual I made Brock's costume completely unwearable in a school (and so many other) settings. So he brought back the cane toad costume from last year. And he finally fits in the new suit!

After school, Matt takes the kids out for trick-or-treating on our crazy street. Alice finally "got it" this year after a couple of houses. She was a bit apprehensive before we started, as she was not excited by having to say "trick-or-treat" or even "thank you" for that matter. She came around when she remembered that candy tastes pretty good.

Brock really shined as big brother. Matt could not get through narrow kid-filled spaces with his D20 so Brock filled in the gaps.

 

Back at the fort, I set up and unleashed my trick-or-treat dispenser, a fortune telling booth that  has a hollow crystal ball. When the kids come up, I show them their candy fortune in the ball by holding it up underneath, and then dispense the candy "fortune" down the shoot that comes out the eyeball. Will it be a Zots? Or a perhaps a Take Five? And destiny ensues (as always). I have a pulley where I can lift the eye lid for a bit of magic!

Here it is in on the front lines. Thank goodness we are not on the main drag, the booth would have lost all the theatre and just been a dumping machine. As it was, it got very busy at times, but I got to do the show for most people. And, also, thankfully we ran out of candy just as it started to feel like a gig.

These pics are all from our friends in the neighborhood. They got to take mulled wine with them for treat-tricking fortitude.

Here is a pic from the side that Matt took. You can see the hallow ball.

And the hole from underneath where I hold up the candy.

 

Smiles made it totally worth it. Such fun.

Back at home, we invited neighborhood friends over for a casual after party. Candy ran out in time for me to clock out and join it just in time.

The loot! Not an insane amount, but just enough. Everyone was ready to come home and play.

My big dreams outweighed my mental health a bit too heavily this year. But, I'm hopefully set up now for the years to come with just some minor tweaks. I also made the promise (I recorded myself saying it to Matt) that I would NEVER make difficult to wear Halloween costumes again. So don't let me. It was really all worth it. We have such few ritual ceremonies, and in a climate of phoning it in and quiet quitting, it was satisfying to just go for it. After all, how very infrequently do you get the treats without tricks?