Another Metuchen Halloween

It’s Brad’s Halloween birthday, his 15th “Birthoween” –YAAAAY! Click the image above for the annual Halloween slide show. But be forewarned: I wasn’t feeling my best and the weather was threatening rain all day. Hence, a slide show that reflects a bit of my artistic mood with some eery music.

Lots more pictures of the awesome costumes and the fun below, including the BEST COSTUME of the day and a photo caption alert…

Brad was a soldier and G-rex was Master Chief. Mike made his costume. Can you guess who he is?

Brad did pretty much all the decorating out front. So if you think it’s just a bit strange, keep in mind it was done by a teenage boy. Note to moms of little boys: support the creative outlets. You never know who the next Tim Burton’s going to be!

With Halloween on Saturday this year, G-rex headed out to school on Friday in his costume.

With my youngest child almost as tall as me, I’m starting anticipate the year when I get to stay home from trick-or-treating, dress up like a statue and scare everybody by only moving my eyes.

Love all the colorful costumes!

I always loved dressing in costumes for Halloween, but at my school in South Carolina so many years ago, we never wore our costumes to school or had Halloween parades.

Master Chief and The Nutty Professor. LOVE the expression on the professor’s face!

Knight in sooty armor.

The reason for the season in MY book!

The King and his Court.

Does that qualify as an “unportrait”?

Nice job on the costume and face paint! Looks very Where-the-Wild-Things-Are, doesn’t it?

The hippie is my photo assistant. Next to him, the crazy clown. Next to him, Honest Abe.

I love how that butterfly’s wings adapt to the background environment like a chameleon. Ok, not really, that was just plain luck.

Vampire coming from one of the oldest houses in Metuchen. It used to be a hospital. Good place for a vampire to visit. Lots of blood, I’m guessing.

Bradley was a dinosaur when he was 3. This costume brought back sweet memories.

I like that man’s costume a lot!

Supersister!

Native American girl hitting a pose.

I’m not sure what they’re supposed to be, but I love this picture anyway. Lots of attitude!

Supergirl and Wonderboy save the princess!

Spongebob soaks up candy. Not sure why Mom is so smiley about that.

My photo assistant has changeable hair.

Watermelon slice. Love that costume!

Beautiful bees!

I love this one in black and white.

Those Japanese maples blew me away. Such rich color.

My photo assistant got tired of his Hannah Montana hair, so mom inherited the privilege of carrying it, and modeling for me.

Inspired by the Japanese maples from above, I started noticing all the beautiful fall colors.

This is the season for maples!

The Japanese maples were just amazing over the weekend.

The “bored fan” cheese head must have something to do with Wisconsin. Doesn’t matter that I don’t quite get it; it’s a very eye-catching costume! The tacky tourist, though, um, don’t know how to say this, but should I be offended? That’s pretty much what I looked like when I was in Japan. Great job on the accessories, though! The knight and the soldier look awesome!

Can you guess what their costumes are? Here’s a hint: their names are not “Gene” and “Jean.”

BEST COSTUME OF THE DAY!

I said, “Get into character,” and they totally hit the mark.

Love all these costumes, again, all are modeling their characters for me. But my favorite is “Granny” on the left. Love the cane and accessories, but the real kicker is that boy is ALL BOY, and yet he really assumed the character of “Granny” so perfectly. Great job!

I love this picture of Mike and the G-rex, er, uh, I mean Master Chief and Can-you-guess-what-Mike’s-character-is?

I gave my photo assistant my camera so he could take a picture of my family, and then I asked Mike to fly at me so I could get a picture of his wings. I was pleasantly surprised to discover the GEMS on the camera that my assistant took of Mike while he was flying at me. Great job, Gabe!

Love this one too.

Here’s the one I took. (I like Gabe’s better, so, note to self: try asking photo subjects to interact with someone besides me for a new angle on picture-taking.

Elmo seems to have grown tired of his head. So long, Halloween. Until next year.

CAPTION CONTEST! Leave a comment with your idea of the perfect caption for this picture! I love it! After she took over the carrying of Hannah Montana’s hair, she found the biker hat on the sidewalk, then one of the kids gave her that pistol and Voila! She turned into crazed suburban-biker-chic-mom. Funny thing was the next morning, a friend of ours mentioned that her friend lost a biker hat near my house. No WAAAAAAY. Yeah, we have that hat!

Happy 15th birthday, Bradley! We love you!