In the past, we've tried to find original costume ideas that are fairly easy to make. Some of the greatest hits include:
- Jim: a Chipmonk (potato chips attached to one of his robes) and a Coat of Arms (literally). He was also a devil in a blue dress two years ago--that was impressive.
- Me: I was a chocolate moose one year. This year I had an Identity Crisis (name tags with different names all over me).
- Samuel: Matthias and Basil Stag Hare (from the Redwall series), Einstein (his wild frizzy hair was perfect) and Ford Prefect (from Hitchhiker's Guide). Intellectual costumes for that boy.
- Moriah: Rainbow kitty (back when she was 4, I think), Harry Potter, Robin Hood and this year, a Lame Excuse (crutches, excuses on her shirt).
- Susannah: Rock Star (complete with gold pants!), Luna Lovegood, a spa girl and this year, Dr. Pepper (lab coat, red peppers, stethoscope).
- Abigail: monkey, ballerina this year
- Bethany: snowboarder, Blue this year
So, see, I don't think it's all bad. I love thinking of funny costumes and making people laugh. Once I'm in costume and out and about, I can mostly forget the stress that lies beneath the surface of the fun. But I also usually have Jim to share the load....
This year, Jim was part of a "Murder Mystery Tour" that the Resort put on. There were about 10 folks who acted out a 'whodunnit' murder mystery--partly on a train ride out to Spencer Glacier and then partly up at the Resort. His character was Count Dabodies and he had a great time spiking his hair, painting his fingernails black and talking somewhat like the Count on Sesame Street. He came to the part rather late (on Wed.) to take the place of a cast member who was called for jury duty. I was pretty excited for him, but it meant I was soloing Halloween stuff since he'd be gone from 9:30 am-10 pm.
The girls and I did hit the Halloween Carnival at the Daylodge. Eh. Some games that the little girls didn't understand or couldn't really do, candy for prizes, overpriced food and lots of people. I kept the little girls in one small area of the Daylodge and they did finally get good at a game where they walked around a small circle of colored disks; when the music stopped if your color disk was chosen you got some candy. Whoo hoo. The stop at the carnival was enough for the little girls. The big kids was a different story.
Trick-or-treating around Girdwood is a little different than most places. The streets are completely dark beyond whatever house lights there may be. There aren't really many neighborhoods so you end up driving your kid around a bit to be able to find enough houses to get candy from in the first place. And it's usually pretty snowy and cold.
I had previously informed our three older kids that if they wanted to trick-or-treat they'd have to figure it out somehow because there was no way I was loading up little girls to drive older kids around to beg for candy. (That's Daddy's job!) Moriah and Susannah hooked up with some friends and went around for close to three hours in 24 degree temperatures. brrrrr. No snow yet, though, so at least they didn't have to wear boots!
Samuel tried to hook up with a couple of friends, but they called him too late for me to be able to drop him off to where they were. He was to be the escaping human to his friends' zombies, but alas, his "Zombie B-Gone" spray went unused. I guess a 14 year old doesn't need to go out begging for candy. Especially when his dad buys a huge bag of candy for us to give out and we don't have many visitors (although we had the most we've ever had this year). There's lots of candy left over.
Not many Almond Joys though. Or Snickers. Funny, that.
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