A Halloween Dress Rehearsal

It was early October and the time had come to begin what can only be accurately termed "All Hallow's Month" for the Marx's. When we first moved to Kentucky, I thought people here must be just nuts about Fall Festivals and Halloween. I have since determined that this is indeed true but is likely true in many places. The difference likely lies in where our family is in life right now. With two mobile little ones Autumn events and trick-or-treating opportunies are sought out and given a sort of priority status on the family calendar. My guess is that would be the case regardless of where we hang our witch hats....

Anyhooo. the time had come to suit up and celebrate all things spooky! This may be the last year we can pull off a theme - the older the kidlets get, the more opinions they seem to acquire! So 2009 was the year of oceanic creatures. Hayden is working his way through a rather intense fascination with Sharks and Bailey has gobs of affection for Nemo. We lucked out and scored a Nemo Costume on Ebay. The search for a Great White Shark cotume was a tad more complicated. Despite utilizing numerous websites and search engines it was looking dicey. Store bought costumes lacked proper attention to detail (C'mon folks - my little dude is insisting on the proper amount of gills and just the right belly!) and celebrated the man-eating aspect of all things shark. Luckily I came across the blog of a crafty Mama who had whipped up a snappy shark costume for her kidlet. This find was combined with an stack of absurdly large butcher paper that I had stashed in the basement after we moved in 'just in case' we ever had a use for such a thing. Actually, I had plans to let the kiddos walk in paint and then run on the paper sometime but one of these days we will generate a new plan for that mess. After piecing the general idea for H's shark together, I turned the mess over to my own crafty Mama who made the masterpiece that you'll see in the scads of halloween photos I shall post soon. Thanks Mom!

SO here's belated sneak peek at the Marx's in their pre-Halloween glory...Enjoy!