what the world has been waiting for: more pics of the cooperfive

we're one day out from halloween and my kids have already worn their costumes this year more than i ever wore all of my old costumes over the course of my entire childhood. halloween, like many holidays these days, has become completely commercialized and is exploited to no end. and i'm ok with that. i'd especially be ok with that if i'd spent like $40 on a costume that i'd really only get to wear once. i need trunk or treats, fall festivals, private parties at friends' homes, public gatherings at strip malls and the springs preserve, school parades, library story times, and all before even thinking about trick or treating to make all the hoopla that goes into getting a family properly costumed worth it.

who really trick or treats anymore anyway? i, for one, think that trunk or treats rival the internet in terms of greatest inventions in our time... that and duct tape (more on that later). for those who don't know what a trunk or treat is, i think mormons invented it (if al gore can claim ownership of the internet, i can declare mormon ownership of trunk or treats on behalf of the church. it's about time we started getting paid some royalties on them, too)... trunk or treats are when all the mormons in town circle their wagons (and by wagons, i mean vehicles) in a church parking lot, open the trunks up and go around from car to car trick or treating. why do i love trunk or treats? the ease and proximity in which a parent can conduct perfectly acceptable halloween activities among a crowd of people i generally trust... even considering some of the costumes some parents wear or let their kids wear, is unparalleled.

back to the costumes. included herein are some pics of the myriad events during which the coopfive have donned their halloween best. while i think we had a good group thing going last year with the bat family action, i think that on an individual level this has been the family's best costume year yet (with the exception of me). allow me to comment on each member's costume:

colston (aka, batbaby, chewbacca, or whatever hand-me-down costume we can get him to wear): colston has been favoring his batbaby costume from last year. real original, c-town? hey, if i don't have to buy a new costume, then i won't... so, cut the kid some slack... he's just trying to save the family some money. plus, he still pulls off the batbaby role splendidly. mrs. blogmaster and i are partial to the chewbacca costume (what's not to love about a little ewok/chewbacca/beeker from the muppets looking costume on a 2.5 year old with edible cheeks and a pot belly?), unfortunately his desire to wear something his parents want him to wear is inverse to our desire for him to wear it. thus, it's not happening.

as you can see, he doesn't like to wear the mask over his face. obviously, he doesn't understand the importance of secret identities. he'll learn. hopefully not the hard way. you'll notice the splotchy black hair coloring administered to colston, unbeknownst to aim, by caleb. once the younger two saw that james got some dark hair for his costume, they all had to have it. i didn't think it would be appropriate for work, so i sat that one out. at any rate, i think we have a budding hairstylist in the family.




caleb (aka, ninja): caleb went safe with a hand-me-down ninja outfit that jameson used a few years back (so far i'm 2 for 2 on not having to buy new costumes). it's classic. no little boy can go wrong with a ninja get-up even if it looks like you're doing the robo-cop in your ninja-posed pictures (see cabe's pics) or like you're popping and locking when dong the same at school (see jameson's classmates'pics). it's understandable seeing as how being a ninja is, like dancing, an art, so the parallels between it and dancing are well founded (see crouching tiger, hidden dragon... those guys looked like they were dancing when they were fighting... although, they weren't technically ninjas, but neither are jedi or samurai and they're all pretty much the same. believe me, i know as i can roam from circle to circle of each clique of deft fighting assassin without drawing attention to myself, thus, they are close enough in overstyle and purpose to confuse the untrained layman's eyes, but they don't fool me... i fool them).






jameson (aka, nightwing): who's nightwing? for those who aren't familiar with the dc comic universe or a little dynamic duo known as batman and robin, nightwing is robin as an adult. once robin got tired of being batman's sidekick, he hung up the red tights for some black ones and started flying han solo. jameson wanted to pull off the nightwing costume this year, thing is nightwing's not incredibly popular as evidenced by 99.9% of my your reactions to the aforementioned question. sounds like a job for mr. blogmaster and some duct tape. no prolema. all we needed was a batman begins costume from last year, some blue duct tape, black make-up, black gloves, black hairspray, some vacuum hose tubes and a semi-professional blogger who can also gerrymander kids' costumes into their fondest dreams at the last minute: check, check, check, check, check, check, check and super check.

the j-man and i spent some time wednesday night putting the nightwing costume together using some blue duct tape from my favorite store (wal-mart) and i'd have to say it turned out alright. luckily, mrs. blogamster had purchased some black hairspray and had some make-up stuff on hand, so we got it all together thursday morning and just like that, jameson thought he was the coolest kid around with the coolest dad in town (his words, not mine: i'm so lucky to have you as a dad. if i didn't have you as a dad, i wouldn't even know who nightwing is). all sons should be so lucky as to have a dad who will teach the all about comic book characters. i'm getting a lump in my throat just typing that up. i think we have a "family, it's about time" commercial in the works. let this be a lesson to all parents: teach your kids about nightwing or another equally cool superhero and acquaint yourself with the many acceptable uses of multi-colored duct tape.

apparently, jameson showed up to school with the watermelon brain mrs. blogmaster prepared (which is pretty rad in its own right) and while floating on cloud nine down the hall in his nightwing costume, thinking it was drawing the attention of every eyeball in school, someone said "wow, that's awesome!" jameson, not even considering for a second that the person could be referring to anything other than his costume, replied in a flattered tone "why, thank you." to which the same person asked, "is is edible?" befuddled, jameson quizzically questioned in his mind, "what?" alas, the lightning lad figured out that the spectator was speaking of the watermelon brain and not the stellar nightwing costume (maybe you were so stealth he didn't see anything other than a floating watermelon brain... why else would he not comment on the costume? this is the only logical conclusion. the costume is more effective than i ever imagined it would be). no worries, son, he's obviously an untrained layman.






update on the blogmaster having to buy costumes for kids: still at zero costumes bought, unless you count the duct tape.

the blogmaster (aka, peter pan): yes, i did. i gave in and dressed up as the boy who didn't want to grow-up. not too hard to pull off the character, but i wasn't about to pull on the tights. my costume was fairly weak (as you'll see from the pics). no amount of duct tape could help me in this situation. in fact, upon showing up to a party in all my peter pan glory, most people didn't know who i was. luckily, mrs. blogmaster gave me some artistic license in putting together my ensemble and i pushed that license to the fullest extent of the law. someone even asked if i was justin timberlake... that's more offensive to me than being called peter pan. someone liked the urban twist i added to the traditionally feminine garb that adorns the pan man, see the fedora. fact is, i'm trying to juice up some street cred for the blog... you should see the tats i'm considering... so it wasn't all for a lost cause. here's the thing, someone at the party told me i was the smartest person there because i had the most comfortable costume in the place (no wigs, no wings, no spandex and exposed body parts). he was right: i was the smartest person there even if not the best dressed.

mrs. blogmaster (aka, tinker bell). she pulled it off and she pulled it off well. from the eyelashes down to the wings to the fish net tights and cool looking shoes. it wasn't easy though, and was almost very expensive. trying to find a modest tinker bell dress (or any adult dress in this town for halloween for that matter) is no simple task. in fact it's pretty much impossible, so thank goodness for shade shirts and leggings. personally, i'm not a fan of leggings. shade shirts, on the other hand were an invention i came up with three years before they were actually invented... if i'd only had the funding and a sewing machine in college (seriously, mrs. blogmaster will vouch for me)!

aim checked all her favorites while looking for a tinker bell dress (nordstrom rack, tj maxx, ross dress for less and marshalls) and even some costume stores with no luck. everything was too much money, too immodest, or just didn't work... that is everything was like that until aim saved the day during a one last try trip to ross dress for less. it was there that a little green number (a perfect tinker bell green, i might add) hung on the rack with a light beaming down as if it were excalibur itself stuck in a stone in camelot. it wasn't modest, of course, but nothing a shade shirt couldn't remedy... and the length was sufficient to eliminate a need for leggings. aim tried it on right then and there in the store aisle and ding, ding, ding... we had a winner.

now take it off and let's go. problem is, it was stuck on aim... in the aisle of ross dress for less... on top of her non-fairy street clothes. she couldn't get it off. maybe it really is the dress version of excalibur? maybe it's the busted zipper. never fear, zombies, we got it off and the busted zipper led to mrs. blogmaster haggling the ross dress for even lesser cashier down to $5. that's right, my friends, a silk dress for $5. unfortunately, we still had to buy tights, wings and eyelashes. no biggie. it was worth the enchantress we ended up with. again, i had fun snapping some shots of my muse and editing them here and there on photoshop for your viewing pleasure.




in summary: we have had fun dressing up for haloween and getting the costumes ready (especially since we didn't really have to buy much in the way of costumes). things is, all hallows eve isn't until tomorrow, so there may still be some more pics coming (don't say i didn't warn you). and i can't leave out the pics of the pumpkin carving night we had on sunday complete with the boys and their halloween pjs compliments of special k. i am especially proud of caleb's dragon jack'o'lantern carved from a very uniquely shaped pumpkin that cabes picked out himself several weeks ago at the provo farmers market. enjoy.