10.31.2011

group costume 2k11

sushifam was 2009. volleyfam was 2010. with this esteemed legacy to live up to, 2011 became the year of georgefam. this was the first year that judah had a say in what he would wear, and therefore how the rest of us would match him. when he said he wanted to be, "joe-gie!" the rest just sort of fell in around him.

lots of people know curious george. and most of those people would also readily recognize his friend/roomate/owner, the man in the yellow hat. but it would take a huge fan of the PBS show (we=HUGE fans...if the kids had a 3rd parent, it would be george. those little 30 minute episodes have been nuggets of sanity for us on many a day), to recognize gnocchi the cat and professor wiseman.

gnocchi is the little kitty pet of the italian chef pisghetti. she is allergic to flowers and taste tests all of the chef's new dishes.

professor wiseman works at the museum and is the man in the yellow hat's ersatz boss. he is her errand boy, researcher, and friend. they have a CUH-RAZY, ross-and-rachel style sexual tension that explodes off of the screen. these two belong together.

the man in the yellow hat, professor wiseman, george and gnocchi.

enter 2 pm today. the halloween festival we were going to started at 5:30. i had done precisely NOTHING for these costumes beyond buying a brown wig for $2 at joann and borrowing an 18 month monkey costume from our friends. i hadnt even thought about HOW to pull off the rest of the ensemble. i had to make layla a kitty, me a professor and jesse the man in the yellow hat using only what was in our house.

here's what we dug up: layla wore every piece of khaki clothing she owns right down to her khaki colored fuzzy boots.

i made her the fleece cat-ear hat in about 20 minutes using a modified pattern of a hat i once made judah and some leftover khaki fleece from my first ever joann purchase wherein i bought yards upon yard of fleece for some reason.

little fleece tail safety pinned on her pants. sharpie stripe accents. we painted a pink nose on and tried to draw on whiskers with a marker. she HATED it and the whiskers smeared everywhere, but the idea was evident. and the pink nose was adorable. strip of blue scrap fabric for gnocchi's neck ribbon.

people didnt get exactly who layla was, but they did recognize that she was a tiny adorable kitten running around smiling at the universe.

jesse's hat was tricky and utterly ghetto-rigged together. cardboard brim painted yellow, the cone of the hat sewn and stuffed with poly-fill and a black strip of fabric tied around. i made this while jesse was still at work and had to use a baseball hat of his to guess his head/hair size. it's pretty brutal in the back, but does the job up front. it is the cornerstone of his outfit and the most recognizable item in the entire group ensemble, and we pulled it off pretty well.

yellow shirt and fabric clip on tie with sharpie-d dots.

he also sported khaki pants tucked into his carhart work boots. kids LOVED jesse. so many would just run up to him going, "the man in the yellow hat! i love you!" it was unreal.

judah was not 100% comfy in his much too small costume. if the hat part was up, the crotch dug into him too much. the monkey feet were about-capri length. but he was snuggly and that curly tail was perfect.

ok. i got all of them set and then turned to my own costume. i was excited to be a real human this year and not the most ridiculous laugh-at-able person in the bunch. i wore some khakis (didnt realize until later that she wears blue pants), one of jesse's blue dress shirts buttoned up and tucked in and then one of his white dress shirts untucked and pinned strategically to look like a labcoat. i added a nametag and some pens in the breast pocket. i threw on my real glasses and the $2 wig to complete the picture. it made for quite the look.

why, oh why.

the good news is that i was literally unrecognizable. several of our good friends and even my sister in law sat there talking to jesse wondering who the creeper chick who wasnt respecting his personal space was. my sister in law, jackie, even said to jesse, "so where is keight?" after i had been trying to force her to make eye contact with me while she talked to him and pointedly didnt look my way. i slowly grabbed her and turned her toward me. she shrieked. it was AWESOME. my nieces were a little freaked at first, but then thought i was just pretty funny looking. NOBODY knew who professor wiseman was or got that i was part of the george ensemble. rock on.

the kids had a blast, i met a lovely blog reader (hi jordan!) who talked to me in public despite my outfit, judah got some great candy that jesse and i will eat in the coming weeks, and yet another home-made group halloween ensemble goes into the history books.

and i feel like this wig might really pay for itself on another holiday...i am clearly a dead sexy bobbed brunette, and will be sporting this look for valntine's 2k12.

onward to november!

5 comments:

  1. This. Is. Awesome. (i didn't recognize you either!)

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  2. Once again, you had me lol with this one. So hilarious that no one recognized you. Another great Halloween ensemble by the Dukes!

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  3. Hilarious! I love the family costume (especially Layla's little pink nose)! You guys are such fun parents! Annabelle asked what Jesse and I were going to be... I hadn't even thought about dressing up. I guess we went as parents suffering from sleep deprivation! Loving your posts lately - sorry to not comment more!

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  4. Loved the costumes! It was great to meet you and see your ridiculously adorable babies in person.

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  5. Phenom!!!!!! Too bad we didn't have the video on so you could sidle up to Jesse and plant a big one on him when Jackie didn't know you. Would have loved to see her face! Had so much fun with all the grands. So glad you guys came to the same place. What a great fam! Thank you, Jesus!

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