I’m never going to grow out of this holiday. Just so expectations can be accurately set across the board.

This year October continued to (mostly) play nice, with events politely spread across different weekends. That meant we could do each one properly. Our church Halloween extravaganza was this past Saturday (more on that later) so we waited to do our pumpkins until the day of. Funny thing about the south and carved pumpkins: you get about 8 hours of carved pumpkin beauty before mold and decay set in.

As is now normal, our kids did their own pumpkins with minimal help from Neil and me. Also, you’ll notice we are in the kitchen…that’s because it’s eleventyhundred degrees outside. All that will change with the cold front rolling in just in time for everyone to freeze while trick-or-treating tomorrow. Well played, October, well played. Garyn: Aperture Science logo, Naomi: dragon fairy girl, Layna: Z for Zed the zombie, and Corra: The Tri-Force

Layna declared back in July that she was going to be Zed, the lead character from Disney’s Z-O-M-B-I-E-S franchise. True to form, that didn’t change once. A few weeks ago her favorite hairstyle became the “Lacy Pony”, a high pony that one of the cheerleaders (Lacy) wears in the show. We sprayed it green, made her a Zed jacket and she is the happiest little zombie there ever was.

The “Barbarian” costume worked so well for Corra at Ren Faire she decided it needed more time to shine. She changed her plan of being Toothless the dragon (to match her brother) and instead went with this all the way. Granted in these pictures you can’t see the epic face paint Naomi added later. Oh well, you’ll see it in the next post about the actual events. The braids really are the perfect finishing touch.

It wouldn’t be a Naomi McGuire Halloween costume if it wasn’t so obscure as to require explanation. There is a book series called Lockwood & Co. about teenagers who fight and neutralize ghosts in London. We (all the big ones in our house) love the series and Naomi decided to go as the main character, Lucy Carlyle. Naturally as Lucy fights with a rapier, Naomi needed one too. She’d wear it everywhere if we would let her. I did also have to say “No” to carrying around a skull in a jar (it makes sense when you read the books).

Garyn and Kathrine decided to go as Hiccup and Astrid from the How to Train Your Dragon movies. I’m pretty sure I spent longer on her costume that the rest of my kids combined. It’s ok, I’m so pleased with how it turned out and I discovered cos-play foam…Next time I’ll be up for making actual armor.

And us of course. We are Ladybug and Cat Noir from the French cartoon “Miraculous”. Our girls really got into the show a few months ago and I made the comment that Neil could totally be Cat Noir really easily. That meant I would have to be Ladybug and once I found the right leggings online, I was totally down.

I’ve been wondering how it would make me feel to officially be done making Garyn Halloween costumes. As if to say, “I see you, and I love you” the stars and planets aligned and I got to do a throw-together bonus costume for him for spirit week…G for Gnome.

Thanks, Universe. I’m good now.