Nananananananana Batman!!
As I contemplated what to do for costumes this year, I had a hard time finding good inspiration. Against my better judgment, I asked Dane what he wanted to be, knowing full well that he would say Angry Birds.
He said Batman.
And the inspiration hit.
Now, as much as I enjoy the new Dark Knight, Christian Bale Batman (push-up scene anyone?)*, the most salient Batman for me is from Batman: The Animated Series, 1992-1995.
So that's mostly what I based our costumes on. And, considering the cosmic inevitability of Joel being the Joker, he was a combination of animated Joker and old, campy, Cesar Romero Joker. We didn't use Heath Ledger Joker, mostly because I wanted our children to continue to want a relationship with their father.
I just love our sweet little superheroes. Usually, by the end of costume making, I am feeling kind of burned out, but their costumes were quite easy.
For Robin: make a cape, add details to red onesie, make leggings and little gauntlets (heehee!), make boot covers.
For Batman: make a cape, buy grey shirt and grey leggings (which were actually yoga pants that I turned into leggings), screenprint Batman logo to yellow fabric and attach, make belt, make gauntlets, make boot covers, buy mask.
But then came the purple tails tuxedo. You can't really be Joker without it, but it's not like purple tuxes are readily available.
So, what resulted is some of the shoddiest, most haphazard sewing ever wrought by human hands. It won't stand up to close scrutiny, but the appearance from afar would, I believe, give some of the lamer contestants of Project Runway a run for their money.
And the secret to an ultra creepy Joker smile? Putting grapes in the upper corners of your mouth.
In case you can't tell, I am Commissioner Gordon. I wasn't surprised that little kids didn't recognize me, but I was surprised at how many adults couldn't figure out who I was, even in context of my whole family. I am an integral part of the crime fighting team! The turner-onner of the Bat Signal!
My costume was super easy. I just used an old belt to make a shoulder holster, and made a holster for an airsoft gun. Swish.
POW!
We wore the costumes to our ward's Chili Cookoff/Trunk-or-Treat, and I'm sure you all know how hard I work to win that darn chili cookoff. But alas, I'm becoming more and more like Uncle Rico, never able to relive my glory days of '07. I tried a new recipe this year...thanks for nothing, Trisha Yearwood.
However, I did win Moistest Cornbread. YES! Never mind the fact that "moistest cornbread" doesn't even sound like a good thing. I wore my ribbon proudly for the rest of the night.
We also won Best Theme, since I decorated our trunk as the Bat Cave, with flapping bats and a Bat Signal. Triumph all around. Well, except for the chili.
Then, tonight, on Halloween night, my parents offered to pass out candy at our house so Joel and I could both take the kids around trick-or-treating, which was really nice. It turns out that we have a lot of generous neighbors. And their reactions were pretty much all the same: "Hey, it's Batman! Oh, and Robin! He's so cute!" June played the androgyny of Robin very well.
We never got June to hold her candy bag, but she sure clutched candy with amazing resolve. And Dane was a champion trick-or-treater, even encouraging moderation at times.
Happy Halloween!
Oh, and if you're still reading this, check out this crazy story:
At the chili cookoff, my name was announced as the winner of the moistest cornbread. So later, this guy came up to us to tell this crazy tale. First of all, I had noticed him earlier because he looked like New Jim from The Office, which we'd just happened to have watched the night before. And New Jim confirms that my name is in fact Ami Frost and asked if we used to live in Utah. Then he rattles off my old cell phone number, and I'm starting to wonder what the heck is going on. It turns out that when we changed from a Provo number to a Salt Lake number, my old number was reassigned to him. And he spent months getting phone calls from people looking for me! He said he usually wouldn't answer but then would listen to weird messages for Ami Frost. He even guessed that I was a therapist, based on the messages he heard. Maybe some of you even called him! What kind of messages were you leaving him, anyway?
Isn't that crazy? Some guy gets my old number, and then years later in Edmond, Oklahoma, he happens to be visiting his older brother, and we meet at the ward chili cookoff. If my life were a romantic comedy, we would have fallen in love. But seeing as he was about to leave on his mission (to Tokyo!), it wasn't meant to be. Oh yeah, and also because I am very happily married.
*I am joking about the push-up scene. I like Christian Bale Batman because of his sweet spirit.
