Halloween 2009... yes I know it's late

Okay, I am posting TWO posts at once. PLEASE Make sure you read the post about Joy's baptism directly under this one, okay? It's more important than this one anyway. I'm just trying to catch up.

So, Halloween was almost a month ago..... have I mentioned the whole slacker thing? I have good reason. That's the next post. Check back in a few days.

We went to the Smith's slamma-fabulous Halloween party, which has been discussed much and much better in the blog-world I exist in, so my only contribution is this photo, which isn't as good as some of the others posted. But for those that don't read all the blogs that have already discussed this, Aaron and I went as garden gnomes. I was pretty proud of how Aaron turned out, considering that I am hanging on to my non-crafty status... we tied for best couple and lost in the dance-off to a couple of mimes. My consolation is that the Anways were great mimes who can really bust a move!

For our ward Halloween party, I begged off on dressing up. We were ALL going to be an 80's rock band, but I had been running around trying to get costumes for the kids and didn't find anything adequate for Aaron and I. We didn't feel like getting all spray painted and face-whited so we went as the long-suffering parents of an 80's rock band. Here's Ira.... I was thinking Richie Sambora of Bon Jovi (of course) but he got more comments of "Alright, Ozzy!!" from the ward. Whatever. Both 80's.

Tommy would have been the PERFECT Billy Idol, but he wanted colored hair. He was VERY excited about this costume! It is amazing how HIGH I can get their hair to spike.

Okay, so Clayton.... poor dear, sweet Clayton. This is the 2nd year in a row that he has been super excited about dressing up and doing makeup..... until he sees himself in the mirror. Black eyeliner.... NOT for Clayton. He took one look in the mirror and started freaking out. The good thing for Mom who likes to torture her children for coolness' sake (or that we had like 30 seconds before we had to leave when he had this fit, you decide) , is that the more he smeared it and cried, the more he looked like a rock star. He went from a Billy Idol type to more of the Oingo-Boingo "Dead Man's Party" type. Don't worry, he was only unhappy until we got to the party and he got to walk around with a cupcake in each hand :-)

Then we have Joy. Originally she was gonna be my Cyndi Lauper--- BUT, Cyndi had purple and orange hair, shaved in a checkerboard on one side. I'd forgotten that. So Joy is an indeterminate 80's punk rocker lady-slash-Madonna-slash-Jem-conglomerate. She looked stylin with the pink hair, extreme eyes, bracelets galore, fingerless gloves, plaid shorts and skull tights, with tall rainbow lookin socks and Converse.

The kids' cousins, Ella, Bree, and Owen, (and Nathan and Tiff too) came with us to our ward party, and all the kids went trick-or-treating in Grandma and Grandpa Williamses 'hood on Saturday as well. Ella was a snow leopard, Bree was a Chihuahua, and Owen was a monkey. Tiffany can actually sew, so these costumes were first-rate and top-notch and more involved than eyeliner and ripping jeans :-) Anyway, we had a blast and I think we set ourselves up to have to top it next year. The kids are BEGGING not to have to be an entire family of garden gnomes :-)