Jacob created his own costume. It's a moose, not a reindeer, as shown by the broad antlers and milk jug snout. Abby thought this was the scariest of the costumes, and she would scream and cling to the nearest parent, burying her head so she could not see the very scary moose. Can't blame her too much. Moose are very vicious creatures and happen to be the new monster to rally against if you are a Republican. Maybe that's way Jacob chose to be a moose. I hear it was pretty scary on the street with the McCain/Palin signs.
This is dark matter with a red eye. We weren't quite sure how to depict dark matter since no one has ever seen it, but we know it has mass. Joseph decided that dark matter had to be related to pure evil since it is everywhere and pure evil is much more fun than your run-of-the-mill substance that makes up most of the universe. The red eye was to add a little color to costume and give the dark matter some context.
Jesse got a new costume, trading in her dragon for a witch. The hat also doubled as a beard. She helped to protect the moose from Republicans. I'm not sure that dark matter needed to worry about Republicans since many of them don't believe that it exists.
Here are the Happy Halloweeeeners, the only group that caroled while begging for candy. Lillian is dressed as her favorite character from the Harry Potter books, Ginny Weasly (note the red hair), for reasons that should be obvious to the informed reader. Emma is Cleopatra, Queen of the Nile and lover of Julius Ceasar (she hasn't learned about Mark Antony yet). Our girls are strong-willed women attracted to powerful men. Hmmm. They were accompanied by Zombie Hannah Montana, Elphaba of West Oz and another witch. I think this was the fastest group of trick-or-treaters on the block. Sam wanted to follow them, but we just couldn't keep up. Daddy's legs don't move at 9-yr-old speed.
We purchased a new couch this summer. It took us about six months of serious searching to find the one that would fit our family. The couch needed to be big enough to fit each member of the family, fit in our front room, have attached cushions, be comfortable if upright or prone, and be under a set price. We were just about to give in and get a compromise couch when I found this one at Macy's in Alexandria, VA. I was taking a walk through a mall near the conference hotel to put steps on my pedometer. Fortunately, the same model was available at the Macy's in Ohio, too. It is very similar to a couch at the Italian furniture store near our home, but it was half the price and just a little shorter on the ell. It has a classic, clean look, and the leather has been easy to clean up after sticky hands. Our "no eating in the living room" seems to be overlooked by 2-yr-olds. This same 2-yr-old even tested out the responsiveness of the warranty concerning damage by toddlers and ball-point pens. Turns out that our warranty would have replaced the entire couch for deliberate yet barely visible markings made by children, but not if done by a dog. We chose to keep the damaged couch rather than have to purchase a new warranty on another new couch. So far, it appears to be working pretty well for our family.
