matril

And now it's time for that rare one-a-year series, detaling yet another obsessive Halloween.

We knew we wouldn't have a big in-person venue for showing off our costumes this year, nor trick-or-treating in any typical fashion, but that didn't stop us from pulling out all the stops once again. And hey, the Internet is a pretty big venue, so here is our grand display.

First off, the kids. Emma wanted to create something based on one of her original characters, someone with wings. We found a some pretty cool wings, but they were white and she wanted something closer to gold. Out came the fabric markers. We were still filling in the final edges at the last minute. It took a grand total of five markers. They were all completely dried out by the end. The other issue was finding an outfit to go with it. She wanted something that didn't look too modern, so I dug out the dress I wore for my own costume back when I was pregnant with Ryan. (It's slightly alarming to realize that Emma is already nearly adult-sized!) It really ended up looking pretty impressive.

Luke was the one person able to show off his costume at school (he's currently on a hybrid schedule with two in-person days a week) so we got him a pirate costume. Not cumbersome to wear, but very clear for all its simplicity. Ryan, meanwhile, had no idea what he wanted to do until the very day before Halloween. Then he abruptly decided to be a king. He borrowed my jacket and made a crown out of cardboard, colored with metallic crayons. Not bad for something extremely last minute.

By the way, each year I have to wonder if our kids will decide they've outgrown the concept of dressing up for Halloween, but it hasn't happened yet. It certainly hasn't happened with their parents. ;)

Speaking of the parents! Who is familiar with the film Ladyhawke? It's a gorgeous medieval-ish fantasy, a romantic fairy tale that's only slightly marred by a goofy synthesizer soundtrack. A pair of lovers have been cursed by a jealous madman, so that the woman turns to a hawk by day and the man turns to a wolf by night. I realized how absolutely delightful it would be if my costume included a stuffed wolf, and Mark's included a stuffed hawk. How many people would actually get the reference? Eh, maybe one in ten. But for those people, they would *really* get it.

First, the costumes. Isabeau wears a number of different outfits, but I knew I wanted a hooded cloak to imitate her look on the poster. Then I found a purple dress that was decently similar to what she wears in the finale scene. Mark wore all black, plus a military-ish tunic, and a cloak and sword we already had in our store of costume supplies.

The animals were a little trickier, partly because I was very picky. I wanted a hawk that didn't look cartoonish or too much like a toy. Don't worry, I didn't quite go to the extreme of taxidermy. The one we finally chose was effective enough. It was much harder to find a dark wolf. Most of them were lighter; the only black wolves were cute little puppies. At last I gave up on perfection and ordered a large but light wolf, hoping to find some way to dye it. When the order showed up, it came in a gigantic box which Ryan immediately claimed as a fort. It's not only a huge wolf toy, it has very stiff legs and can't be squished or folded in any manner. Then I attempted to darken it with a black fabric marker and was delighted to have success. The only downside was that, even weeks after the initial coloring, it still makes smudges. So after carrying the wolf around everywhere on Halloween, my hands and clothes had gray splotches all over them. Ah, well. We had a blast.

And we took a lot of pictures. The one upside of getting several inches of unseasonable snow the day before Halloween was that it provided a fitting landscape for a photo shoot. We are gigantic nerds.