We Had a Frightfully Awesome Halloween
On Saturday, 31 Oct 2009, I crawled droopily, wearily, and even sluggishly out of the comforts of my blankets and stumbled as would a zombie in to my hall way. Moaning as I trod along, I spotted my first victim. She lay in serene sleep, peaceful.
Braiiiins.
OK, so no blood was shed, but it did take another ten minutes to get my daughter Clarissa out of bed. Already, it was 11:30 AM and we still had some costume work to do!
As I had her go take a shower, I got out her clothes from the dryer and laid them out. I laid out Drake's too. Drake was to be Indiana Jones and for his part, we had found a set of clothes at Party City that completed his outfit, including shirt, hat and whip. The whip was a foam like material, but it worked well. After getting him to get dressed, Clarissa came out of the shower, still blinking her eyes from waking. I combed her hair immediately before it dried significantly as with her curly hair, it's the best time to do it if I am to hold any hope of defeating the knot-monsters within. Those beasts tamed, I added insurance. . . hairspray.
Whereas Drake's costume was a ready-make, there was no such luck with Clarissa's. She was to be a character from Star Trek: The Next Generation - Tasha Yarr - and Star Trek didn't make the cut of costumes at the store I guess. So we went to the thrift store and found an orange shirt and a black one. We cut the black one to create the black top of the orange shirt and then safety pinned them together.
Following that, I fired up Inkscape on my computer and laid out a quick Star Trek communicator badge outline, then printed it out at the proper size. We colored it in with marker, added clear finger nail polish with glitter for effect and then pinned it to the shirt. We were ready for Halloween.
* * *
We went to the Children's Museum next. While they didn't really have any candy, they did have arts and crafts, a lot of other dressed up children and a maze for them to walk through which the enjoyed.
Next, we went to Grandma and Grandpa Ratliff's and hung out for a bit. Grandma did manage to break off the tip of Indy's whip, but no one noticed. Least of all, Indy. =)
When the day grew short and the shadows called to us, we went to a master-planned community and parked on a street beside a park. From there, we began a four-block tour of the place, inspecting doors for residency and allowing those who bribed us with candy to live ... for now.
After all, they did give us candy.
At about block 3.8, with 0.2 blocks till we reached the finish line, Indy, who had been kicking the bottom of his bag as he walked even though Indy's Dad had told him the whole way it was a "Not a Good Idea", kicked out the bottom of his bag.
Candy upon the sidewalk, the next rational option was to dance around and cry about the candy on the sidewalk, hoping that by shedding all dignity, the candy might pick itself up and replace itself in to the bottom of the now-broken bag. Once all dignity was gone and the candy had not budged, Indy figured that it might be time to pick it up himself.
He did exactly that.
His Dad helped by holding the bag now folded in a way that would stop the candy from immediately falling back out and they found their ride waiting for them, parked exactly where they had left it. Proceeding homeward, Tasha Yarr let her Dad know that it was a good night and she was happy that so many people recognized her costume.
Indy wanted candy.
Of course.
Candy inspections proceeded at home and Indy went on to play his namesake ... Lego Indiana Jones ... on the Wii, while Tasha Yarr watched some X-Men with her Dad.
It was a good night.
A good night indeed.