Thursday, October 29, 2015

Throwback Thursday: Halloween!

These days, I'm not much of a Halloweener. I like carving pumpkins and I'd happily hand out candy, but our neighborhood isn't very busy on Halloween. Everyone goes to the big, gated communities and trick-or-treats where the king-sized candy is doled out.

Because I don't trick-or-treat anymore, I have no idea if those same warnings about tainted candy are out there, but this video makes a hilarious mockery of something we heard a lot as kids.

Anyway, I used to love Halloween, and not just for the leftover and half-priced candy the next day. I guess it's easy to love when it's a chance to dress up like this:
Anyone else remember those blocks from pre-school?
My favorite costume ever was this wizard robe. My mom used to make our costumes, and I think this is one of those. Steph and I used old Halloween costumes as dress up clothes, and I seem to remember wearing this purple getup pretty frequently.
I've mentioned before that my sister's clock costume was my favorite of hers, too. It's just so perfectly cute!
The wizard costume got a lot of good use, as Stephie wore it the following year.
Halloween in Ohio meant finding something warm and calling it a costume. This velvet blazer was a perfect witch's coat.
I remember my costumes being pretty intricate, but looking back I'm realizing I was always a do-it-yourselfer who threw things together and hoped they worked.
Honestly, I don't even know if this was Halloween or if Zach was just wearing a creepy mask and I was just playing dress up. Ah, the good old days.
Of course, in college I went through the usual risqué-Halloween phase. One of my all-time favorite photos is me dressed as a dominatrix whipping a sorority sister (dressed as a sexy vampire), but I don't think it's very blog appropriate. Still, I used that costume two years in a row.
Dominatrix and Flava Flav. Oh yes, college was...college.
Eventually, costumes became a thing of the past. I might put on some homemade devil's horns for a party, but Halloween more often finds me gutting pumpkins and cooking the seeds while Matt turns them into artwork.
Halloween with Jenn.
Calm down, 2009-Ali.
Such an artist.
The last time I dressed up, Matt and I went out with friends as Fiona and Michael Westen (from Burn Notice.) My costume was pretty lame, but his was perfect...complete with yogurt and everything.
Matt's had some pretty good costumes, himself. He really seems to become his character. Who else could pull off Gilligan this accurately?
This year, I think we'll opt for a quiet night in. I'll probably get a little bowl of candy and a bowl of non-food treats for the Teal Pumpkin kiddos, but chances are I'll end up with quite a lot of leftovers and a long run the next morning to sweat out all that sugar!

What was your favorite Halloween costume as a kid?
What are you doing for Halloween this year?

ABK

11 comments:

  1. Your mom looks JUST like you and Matt looks like a fun guy with a great sense of humor! :) I saw that candy video on FB and I was laughing so hard. :) I bet you the same people that are super worried about their halloween candy being laced with crystal meth are the ones that don't vaccinate their kids!

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    1. Matt is one of the funniest people when he's around his friends! He takes awhile to warm up with new people, which is why I love when we get the chance to visit college friends. It's nice to see him open up.

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  2. Aw you were such a cutie in those costumes! I always envied the kids with their homemade costumes...so creative! I had to have been a witch at least 7 times, haha...so boring! Oh yeah, I did the risque thing a few years ago as a referee. Glad those days are over, I probably won't even celebrate this year. Living in an apartment makes Halloween so lame!

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    1. I think the trajectory of Halloween is that when you're young enough to actually trick or treat and get candy, costumes are a must. Then, when you're a little too old to trick or treat, sexy costume choices make their appearance. And then, when that phase has passed, Halloween kind of becomes a thing of the past!

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  3. Thanks for sharing the costume pics! How fun!

    My neighborhood is super active on Halloween. Last year we were caught off-guard and we ran out of candy in less than an hour. This year we'll be better prepared.

    I didn't know about the Teal Pumpkin project. We're having a couple of friends over to watch football on Halloween, which will probably overlap with trick or treat time, and she has food allergies. I'm sure she'd be happy if we participated this year.

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    1. The Teal Pumpkin Project is pretty new; this will be the first year I post something outside the house to advertise that we have non-food treats for kids who want them. I hope we don't run out!

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  4. Funny- I was going to do a post like this too but on Halloween! I didn't think about throwback Thursday.

    Anyway, I'm a super huge fan of Halloween and my close girlfriends are too. We always dress up and most often to house parties or out to downtown Tampa on Halloween weekend. I've always been a fan of dressing up and think you're never too old to participate in the festivities!

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    1. I wish playing dress up was appropriate all the time...I miss putting on weird costumes and playing make-believe haha!

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  5. Awww I love that you still have so many of these older pictures. I bet my mom has some from when I was a kid. My favorite costume was when I was Princess Jasmine. Lots of other little girls went as Jasmine but they had standard costumes from the store that weren't quite right. My mom sewed together the PERFECT costume for me. Everything about it was spot on! Later on, in high school I had the most amazing Cho Chang costume. Once again my mom helped me put it together. Instead of a store bought robe, we made one with the perfect Ravenclaw crest.... ah, good times!

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  6. I remember going as a ghost one year as a kid and just wearing a white sheet with eye holes and a breathing hole, lol. A cat costume that had a tail and ears was pretty fun as well. This year our staff wore minion sandwich board sort of costumes which was low key and easy! My sort of thing. I love halloween things, just not dressing up!

    Matt's pumpkin carving is pretty impressive!!

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  7. Those throwback pics are amazing! We're low key halloweeners now too. I wish we got more kids in our neighborhood!

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