Hailoween

We had hail on Halloween morning, but the weather cleared up nicely for the yearly stranger-begging ritual, leaving us with warm temperatures and clear skies.

Ladybug went as Glenda the "good witch" in her younger years. She was "popular" but her poor dress didn't fare very well throughout the evening...

Z-Man ran with his pirate costume again this year, and looked dapper as usual, while his father went army (not pictured).
Littlebit went faerie in the riskiest color of all, white. No worries, she lived up to expectations and damaged it beyond salvation. *chuckle*

Faith Dressed like the pretty pink girl, which got more elaborate and fluffy as the evening wore on, due to Ladybug's dress frayed and tore.

I was a disgruntled homecoming queen, with gun, of course. *smile* All homecoming queens have to have guns, dont'cha know? Loosing all that weight made the gown fall off of course, so I had to safety-pin it to my underclothes with Faith's help in order to keep it on for the night. Almost time to retire or repurpose it.

There were all sorts of neat houses to visit, and this was one of the most popular on our route, replete with a long line, the cotton candy house! Three people were manning the cotton candy maker, and here we have a photo of Faith's hubby getting a bit of candy for himself. This was one of the only houses that all the adults begged at as well.

From house to house we walked, gathering goodies, making new friends, and singing filk songs.

Everyone really gets into the action in our favorite neighborhood, decorating their homes and themselves. I really enjoyed this house's creative and artfully carved Obama pumpkin!

Even in two-inch tall platform sneakers, Ladybug couldn't stop stepping on the gown she had been given (thanks Faith, she loved it to death!), and about half-way through the evening, the front had ripped off, and she rubber banded some of the shredded bite to her wrists and became a gypsy.
We did some reverse Trick or Treating this year, giving fair trade chocolate and informational fliers to those who shared their candy with us. For more information, or to bring next year's event to your neighborhood, visit Global Exchange. Fair trade chocolate is the best I've ever tried, seriously, buy some, you won't be sorry, and the good feeling you get from supporting ethical farmers doesn't hurt the flavor one bit. *grin*

I had never seen this sort of costume before, so I grabbed a picture, but the one that shocked me most was the little Sarah Palin. She looked very accurate, and had obviously put some planning into her costume. I didn't manage to get a photo of it, but Faith did, and will probably post it on Gather here in a couple of days. Her ID is Faith IB, so go on over and have a look at what she's already posted, and keep an eye out for the Palin costume.

Despite her initial misgivings about going candy-begging, Ladybug danced the night away in her beautiful gown, until finally, almost all of the toole was gone, and she draped a large chunk of it over her head and started saying she was a pink bride. *laugh* Way to roll with the punches!

There was a house with a haunted house, and another with a kid-friendly Halloween movie playing in their garage on infinite loop. Note the puzzle cube in the photo. It was a really creative year, that's for sure. Among the greatest costumes not captured were Mr. Perelli from the movie Sweeney Todd, a peacock, Edward Scissorhands, three great gothic lolita costumes, and a Joker in a nurse's uniform.
The house parties were great too, giving everyone the opportunity to be as silly as they'd like, and even the adults came out in their full splendor.

They didn't end up with a lot of candy this year, but we all sure did have a lot of fun together, and that's what really counts!

After we finished Trick or Treating, Littlebit went home with Faith for a little overnight care, and after hearing that the college kids next door had taken all of our parking places, we just drove over and parked near our next event, the Rocky Horror Picture Show!

RHPS is a great place to get pictures of really fun costumes, so I dragged out my camera again after the event, and grabbed a few more shots of some of the more interesting costumes.

Pinocchio was a huge surprise.

For some odd reason, I thought the aerobics instructor look was dead, but all things rise from the dead on Halloween, no matter how awful they are!

And our final photo, you would never expect to see in a million years, Eddie (meatloaf), and The Goblin King posing together for the strangest photo of the evening.

It was a really long night, but worth every minute for the fun! How was your Halloween?