baby, i was born this way

when i was about 4 years old, i recall visiting a neighbor whose daughter had a sparkly dance costume in their dress up tub. it was orange and white with a sequin trimmed tutu and puffy sequin sleeves. i immediately stripped down and put it on and wore it for the duration of the visit and somehow finagled wearing it home, too. i felt like i had found my true self that day. around the same time i attended a dance class and i was very excited because i was going to finally get a sparkly, sequined costume of my own. it was a yellow and white duck costume, complete with duck bill headband.  days before the big recital, my dance teacher's husband decided to start a polygamous cult and my parents pulled me out of that situation quicker than you can say, "bob's your uncle". rightly so. and bob is my uncle. what a blow that caused to my young psyche. to be so close to costumed glory and to have it ripped out of my pudgy handed grasp. i've never recovered. consequently, i feel the need, the need for costumes. i have gleefully imposed this inescapable desire on my own offspring with smashing results.

"beware; for i am fearless and therefore powerful." frankenstein

or

"i'm herschel and i run this family with an iron fist." herschel simpson

we had a halloween costume dry run at the high school the night before the main event. the national honor society students put on a trunk or treat and advertised at the local elementary schools. 

one particular set of students did a snow white and the seven dwarfs trunk. lucky for them, we were able to provide an evil queen, one who relished in her role. 

plus, i'm pretty sure i donated that mirror to goodwill a few weeks ago. full circle. 

they had face painting and everyone chose their own adventure.

reagan has an unrequited love for cats. cats don't love anyone and we're certainly not getting one any time soon. 

our resident evil queen wanted a christmas tree and a witch. lucky for us, that super smart national honor society student used a temporary tattoo on her face. that witch tattoo lasted for 3 days before i could rub it off with alcohol. athena blythe loved every minute of it. 

a butterfly for the butterfly

herschenstein sat still long enough for a witch to be stenciled to his face.

on the big day, i carved the pumpkins while everyone told me i wasn't doing it right and then we had a big dinner. 

along the way, athena blythe had to be put in time out for some infraction that i cannot recall. she was so mad that she decided she was going to stay in time out an extra 5 minutes just to show me. she sure did. i certainly was shown. 

our spooky menu included garlicky goblin teeth, eyeball gnocchi and pesto slime sauce and the requisite, mummy dogs. 

i also bought some fanta red soda to stand in as poison and everyone except athena blythe acted like they were actually being poisoned. 3/4 of my kids don't like soda. 97 cents down the drain. 

one of the most representative pictures of reagan in recent history. 

also. a rather accurate portrayal by athena blythe.

this is the most fun halloween age. and they don't notice when all the good stuff disappears from their bucket. he was still enamored with dum dums.

we stepped up the butterfly game with a face mask i had picked up that day and some silver hair spray. 

i have failed on the holiday card photo for this year, so this one may just be it! merry christmas from the simpsons.

i really wanted to be Prince this year but,

thomas was going as gaston,

so i went with elvis so that people would not confuse us as two kissing musketeers. you don't realize how much prince resembled a musketeer until you stand him up next to gaston.

some of my best pumpkin work to date.

the moon rising over our house!

not a for sale sign. 

already planning for next year. the day after i went to target and cleaned them out of their over sized skulls.