The Shiny Shimers: Trunk Or Treat

I feel terrible to be so late in my posting this one, especially since we had so much fun doing everything.

After being set on making us a fantastic set of costumes to wear for Halloween and then having it all fall apart, Justin and I decided to pick our own costumes, which we haven't done since we've known each other. I have to say it was a lot of fun. Justin had a scarecrow that he had wanted to be for a long time and so I got to do a little looking around and decided on a World War II Factory Worker :) (It was cooler than the name implies).

Also, all of a sudden, my little brother has decided to like gross things and he wanted to be a zombie. As my husband is a self proclaimed zombie expert, I felt he was the perfect wardrobe designer for this occasion. We went to the thrift store and got to work finding clothes for the three of us with great success.

On Friday night, I had to begin my transformation by twisting my gigantic head of hair into pin curls (I was going for a Rosie the Riveter look). I have to say, I really don't know how women of the 1930s and 40s did it. I took me an hour and a half to twist all my hair up and pin it in place. After such a feat, I had to take a picture.

Mmm, lovely.

This, my friends, is what dedication looks like. Not only did I have to do this, but I had to sleep with all these pins in while wearing a shower cap for the next 2 nights. Not exactly comfy, and I had a ridiculously deep crevice carved into my forehead from the cap everyday. Oh, and I couldn't wash my hair for 3 days. Not exactly fun for a person who washes it daily (thank my oily ancestors for that one).

So, I wore my whole costume all day at work on Saturday, and I was surprised at how few people noticed it was a costume. I think most of them just thought I was weird.

Finally the night of our church trunk or treat came and we unleashed our costuming skills. I picked Briggs up on the way home from work and we began our boy to zombie transformation. Here is the play by play.

First, he needed some nasty gashes in his face, so we picked up a few at the local Halloween store.

Then he had to look pale like he is actually dead, so he got a base coat of white.

After that we added some faint green (to look rotten) and we had to give him sunken in dark eyes. So, here he is doing what he seems to think is the zombie face. Oh, and how industrious is this: I didn't have powder white enough, so I dusted his face with cornstarch to set the makeup. I must be a genius.

Then on to the clothing. We had to make him look like he had been all torn up. I mean, you can't have a gash like that on your neck and not have your collar to match! And here's the zombie face again. He's such a ham.

And what self respecting zombie wouldn't have his hair sticking in weird directions from the congealed oil and who knows what else that has collected in his hair?

Ok, so the basics are all there. Now... add blood! Justin was very adamant about making the perfect blood concoction and he was quite pleased with his results.

We took Briggs out into our front yard and squirted him down with a meat injector (it was the only syringe-like object I had). I'm sure my neighbors enjoyed the show.

He kept complaining about how gross it felt and we kept calling him a wuss. THat's what siblings are for.

This was the piéce de résistance. How real does this picture look?! Seriously! We were so proud.

So we had a photo shoot once we were done. Here is our zombie standing next to Justin the creepy scarecrow.

Aparently this is the full on zombie pose with the zombie face.

lol I still laugh everytime I see this one.

And here we all are. One big, weirdly mixed, slightly sticky family. (And they kept making me do that pose all night).

So, on to the actual event. Briggs went off with his friends to reek havoc and we decorated the car, and by decorate I mean I went to get Justin a chair because he was our main decoration.

Here is my little lion! Isn't he cute. I made his costume myself with no pattern. Yes, his mane had slid down in this shot, but you get the idea.

Isn't it creepy?

This is what our car looked like when the kids came around. Justin would sit slumped like that and there was not a single person there who didn't ask if he was real or fake. Of course, I told them that he was just from my yard and I made him myself.

After a few seconds (basically just long enough for the kids to have decided he hadn't moved so he must be fake), Justin would suddenly move. He didn't lunge at them, he would just pick up his hand or sit up straighter. I think we scared more adults then kids. The kids were apprehensive from the get go, but the adults were usually talking to the kid and just saw him move out of the corner of their eye. It was great.

We had a little Dorothy come by again and again. I think she thought he was her scarecrow. At the end of the night, she was pretty upset to find out he was a person and not a real/magically animated scarecrow, but she got over it enough to have this picture.

We had a lot of fun and Justin was very pleased with his costume.