{"id":7890,"date":"2019-10-23T22:04:35","date_gmt":"2019-10-23T22:04:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eaumaison.us\/?p=7890"},"modified":"2019-10-23T22:04:35","modified_gmt":"2019-10-23T22:04:35","slug":"spooky-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eaumaison.us\/index.php\/2019\/10\/23\/spooky-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Spooky Season"},"content":{"rendered":"

Halloween is coming!<\/p>\n

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Well, for us the spooky season starts on October 1.\u00a0 So it’s been a month-long HALLOWEEN FESTIVAL.\u00a0 We got dem decorations, advent calendar, and lots of parties to attend.<\/p>\n

This year the cub scout AND church trunk-or-treat parties were planned for weekend TWO WHOLE WEEKS before Halloween.\u00a0 So I was strict about the kids locking in their costume ideas by October 1st.\u00a0 Since I often end up hand-crafting a lot of the costumes I needed to get started early.<\/p>\n

That’s why Ben and I are a couple, and the kids are a couple.\u00a0 We adults picked ours in August, so I had already started buying pieces.\u00a0 Jack had decided on his costume in October of LAST year and, surprisingly, never changed his mind.\u00a0 Somehow he convinced Sam to be his partner and Sam commited too.\u00a0 Dang it, I would have made all four of us match if I had known their plans earlier!\u00a0 Oh well.\u00a0 Behold!<\/p>\n

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Jack is Jack Skellington and Sam is his dog, Zero.\u00a0 Jack’s costume is store-bought, with a modified mask, separate gloves, and a rib bone that he painted so he can pull it out to toss to Zero, as seen in the movie.\u00a0 Sam’s costume is entirely handmade by me.\u00a0 I was most nervous about the headpiece.\u00a0 I couldn’t find any tutorials I liked, so I improvised the whole thing.\u00a0 It’s a paper-mache and cardboard mask built on a baseball hat, covered in fabric, with poseable wire-framed ears.\u00a0 The nose piece was a 3D printed pumpkin I made last year<\/a> which just happened to be the perfect size!<\/p>\n

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Ben and I are obscure characters from The Lord of the Rings.\u00a0 They didn’t even make it into the movie version.\u00a0 Only two people we know have correctly identified us.\u00a0 We are Tom Bombadil and his companion Goldberry!<\/p>\n

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(Jack took these pictures, so this is the best I have.\u00a0 Most are blurry and have Sam dabbing in the corner \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

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For our trunk I made a dragon’s lair.\u00a0 There’s a bony dragon head that breathes smoke (I funneled in dry ice smoke from elsewhere in the car via a hose.).\u00a0 There was gold and gems and armor and twinkling red and gold lights.\u00a0 Best of all, I found some great ambient sounds on youtube that I downloaded.\u00a0 Nearly every kid paused and stared at the great beast.<\/p>\n

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I took a short video that sort of gives you a taste of\u00a0 the final set-up:<\/p>\n