Cast of characters

We have an amazing babysitter. I know, because only someone amazing could convince Caleb to be anything but a shark for Halloween.

Instead, she took my children's obsession with The Wizard of Oz books, and planted an idea for a truly amazing family costume.

Levi only wore his costume because he loves lions. He completed it with a roar that was simultaneously ferocious and adorable. Cowardly, he was not. But cute as a button...that he pulled off with ease.

Abby was Dorothy Gale of Kansas, with silver slippers, not ruby ones, because that's what the book Dorothy wore. She had to have one braid slightly looser than the other, because that's the way Dorothy's hair was when she landed in Oz. Thankfully for me, my mom was kind enough to make me this awesome Dorothy costume when I was a senior in high school. With a few alterations, it was just right for my own little Dorothy. Last time I had to make her a Dorothy costume, she was much smaller, and much more wiggly.

2 month old Abby

Caleb's tornado costume came together with some leftover copper wire I found in the garage, some Halloween webbing, and a little duct tape. I'm not sure there has ever been a more appropriate costume than 5-year-old Caleb dressed as a cyclone. Oh, and he went trick-or-treating without shoes, because, well...he's a 5-year-old tornado, and I wasn't paying attention.

And Jacob got to be the Scarecrow, because it was a heck of a lot easier to stuff straw in a shirt and hot glue some patches to his jeans than it would have been to try to make a Tin Man costume. He was, perhaps, the most adorable Scarecrow I've ever seen. If I do say so myself.

And because it's not Halloween without a pumpkin, we carved ours into a bioluminescent angler fish. Because we're homeschoolers, that's why, and we let Caleb pick the theme this year.

Happy Halloween from the family of fish!