Halloween. Yes, the favorite holiday in the Fox household. So much thought and care goes into this holiday in a normal year -- can you imagine the level I took it to for Annabel's first Halloween? We had to have the perfect costume. This would forever be her First Costume. When she meets people throughout her life, and they ask (as any normal person would) "What were you for your first Halloween?" She will answer and they will judge both her and her parents. HOW CAN I POSSIBLY TAKE THIS PRESSURE??
So it had to be a group costume, because we are a group, The Foxes Three (Four if you count Banjo, and he normally does partake of our Halloween costumes [I cite his Splinter costume from 2009 when we went as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]). After much deliberation, we decided to be Star Wars characters.
I worked really hard on my R2D2 costume. As is my tendency, it was made of cardboard. I have a long history of making costumes out of cardboard. Last year, I was a stove. The year before, a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle (Raphael, my favorite). Then I took a year off from cardboard and was Jesus from the Big Lebowski (it was the 1o year anniversary). The year before Fox and I were both in cardboard again as a "cheap date" -- I was a box of Franzia (that actually dispensed wine, thanks to a Camelbak) and Fox was a DVD of The Notebook. Anyway, all this is to say that I love to make costumes from boxes and such. HOWEVER, next year, I will fight this urge. In my R2D2 costume, it was impossible to hold my baby. This drove me crazy.
We had our annual Fox-o-ween celebration. I made my yearly funfetti cake.
I was so excited because my number one homie from home came to visit. Page (Miss Poppins) now lives in Charleston, and she brought her rad boyfriend Bert, ahem, I mean Daniel.
As I mentioned, I was very distracted by the fact that I could not hold my baby. This prevented me from taking many pictures. I seriously did not know what to do with myself. We started the party at 7 so Annabel could visit for an hour before her bedtime. I wasn't really sure what to expect from her, but she was fantastic. At 8, I put her to bed, and she slept through the entire party.
Let me now showcase some of the fantastic costumes.We had Occupiers of Wall Street...
Occupiers of another famous street...
And the occupant of Halloween's most famous street.
We had some meddling kids with their own kid.
If you ever wondered what it looked like when R2D2 held a baby Scooby, here you go:
And here's the Queen of Homemade Costumes, herself (check out Jenny's sweet Olive Oyl costume -- she also made the vest of a certain Han Solo).
Miss Oyl with her handsome beau in the yellow hat
And the Orkin Man with his lovely bug bride...
Moira, the scariest maid
We also had an appearance by a couple of Keith Stones handing out Keystone Lights. He was so popular that even though we had a keg of delicious Hop Czar beer, our costumed guests found themselves imbibing in Keystone Light. Go figure.
Annabel's school, The Treehouse, had a Halloween parade on actual Halloween. We left work early to get ready. We thought that the parents also dressed up. They don't. But we did.
Then we went trick or treating with the Williamses. When else will we be able to eat ALL Annabel's candy?
I promise to get this blog up to speed. But not tonight. Stay tuned for the rest of November, including the excitement of me getting a new camera! There are more and better quality photos in your future. The camera's so big I even bought a new purse for it!
