Let's turn on the juice and see what shakes loose!
Again, I had to explain to Benjamin that it is PERFECTLY NORMAL to dress up your dog for Halloween. Has he been living under a rock? Does he not understand this is our son? Do I need to take him to Maury to prove that he is the father? ;)
No, but seriously, dog costumes are AMAZING! But, I feel like Vader's costume is EXTRA AMAZING, because of my incredible use of a pun! Where ya at Nobel Peace Prize Committee? I want to make sure you have my address correct! #troublesofhavingaPObox
Vader is an authentic standard poodle, and within that breed comes several other distinctions. He is considered a parti-boy (#raisetheruff) for his white based coat with splotches and markings of another color within it. He is also considered a tuxedo poodle (Ooo fancy, right?!) for his particular markings of black and white. There's actually a list of what makes a parti-poodle a tuxedo poodle, and Vader can place a checkmark on them all! He also may have the phantom gene, but that's a story for another time! He's pretty special, alright! That's for sure!
I wanted to play off of his tuxedo distinction, so I started brainstorming what he could be for Halloween. I could have taken the easy route and bought him a Darth Vader costume, but I didn't think he would like wearing a full-bodied costume. And, it came to me! He could totally be Beetlejuice! He already has the "tuxedo" part down, so I just had to look for accessories!
I ordered the CUTEST little tie from an Etsy shop called MyLadyAlice. I cannot say enough about how amazing this little shop is! The owner was so awesome to work with, and she mailed out this super high-quality, slide-on tie for Vader before Halloween. Of course, he thought it was his own personal chew toy conveniently laid upon his neck, but after awhile, he left it alone.
I also purchased the concha ears from another Etsy shop called Le Brownitte. This headband was actually for adults and small children, but it ended up working for Vader! The headband even had a little image of Beetlejuice in the center, but V's luscious curls were covering it up!
Needless to say, it took A LOT (and I mean A LOT) of treats to get him to stay still for a picture! You don't even know how many pictures of black and white blurs I had to delete off of my camera roll! But, I did manage to get a couple of super cute ones! It was 100% worth it! Vader might look girly, but what poodle isn't...#amiright?
Vader actually did really well with the trick or treaters! I thought he might bark a lot, but he ended up acting normal...still crazy, but it's his definition of normal. I made these cute little treat boxes from scratch to hand out to the kids. I really enjoyed making them! I just kinda had an idea in my head and rolled with it!
I think they turned out really good! The bats were a huge hit with the kids (I let them pick which one they wanted). I realized that Frankenstein looked a little on the emo side...LOL, but I think it makes him look unique! We ended up having only TEN TnT-ers! I am glad I didn't make more boxes, because I wouldn't have been able to get rid of them! We had TONS of candy leftover though. #byebyediet :(
Mansfield decided to make TnT-ing hours start at 5 PM! I would like to know what percentage of people could actually take their kids TnT-ing at 5 PM! Most people work until 5! And, I don't get home until well after 5:30!
Ben made dinner while I stood watch at the door and got everything ready.
There were long period of time of me standing at the door, looking outside, and hoping kids would come!
Ben decided to put his scream mask on, which probably didn't help us "lure" any kids to our door! LOL, but you can kinda see our newly renovated front porch!
You can also see that we didn't have ANY pumpkins! :( Unfortunately, we didn't get to carve any this year, because we both came down with some kind of bug (still recovering, actually...) and so we decided to put Ben's ceramic pumpkin with a candle outside instead.
After a whole hour went by with no new TnT-ers, we decided to close up shop. I was able to pass out all of my little boxes anyway, so I planned on just taking the excess candy to work the next day.
We decided to put on our THIRD Halloween costume for the night: our dirty hippie, Jesus/Moses wigs. If you missed it, you HAVE to read my post on one of the best days I've had in awhile. Ben threw on his "sweet tats" and the wig and I just have to say...daaayaammn! He looks so good with the long hair, and I think he knows it too!
Every year, my in-laws' neighbors put on a huge spectacular pumpkin event called Crowley Pumpkins. They welcome the community to purchase and carve pumpkins to be lit for Halloween. This year, they had a record of over 400 pumpkins on their property. So, we jumped in my truck (wigs and all) to go see some pumpkins!
Crowley Pumpkins is located in Mahomet out in the country. As soon as you start to cross the bridge over the Sangamon river, you shut all your headlights off and you begin to see all of the pumpkins lit up in the woods. It's really kinda magical! We tried to capture it on SnapChat, but it's really something you have to see in person!
Despite not being able to carve pumpkins like we did last year (our first time!), it was still a really good Halloween with my man and our pup!
Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice!
