I wish "Everyday was like Halloween"...

TC's dance company had a costume party recently and in addition to tons of food, there were also cool costumes worn by both the kids (younger and teens) and the parents (us). Before we left, I took a photo of TC in her costume. For her school, everyone dresses up as a literary character. Last year, she went as Katara from "Avatar - The Last Airbender" (see that costume here). This year, she chose Annabeth Chase, the female demi-god from Rick Riordan's "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" series. She is a strong and independent character and can kick major ass!!! Great choice TC!

Plus, it was the easiest costume ever! I bought the orange shirt at Michaels for $3.99 (it's really big on her because it's an Adult S), the NYC cap from Wal-Mart for $7 and the Iron-on transfers for $6 (3 sheets in the package). Bert downloaded the "Camp Half-Blood Logo and Pegasus" for the shirt design. Bert found a wanna be knife at K-Mart for $2.00 Annabeth's hat makes her "invisible". One of her props is a "bronze celestial dagger" but this knife will have to do. As for pants, Annabeth wears jeans. Easy!The only thing TC didn't want to do was wear a blond wig (thank goodness!). By the way, Annabeth wouldn't really post with her dagger that way.

A depiction of Annabeth Chase (from wikipedia's entry)

So hey, I decided to resurrect my "Joe Elliott" outfit from the "Photograph" video (he is the lead singer of Def Leppard). I didn't wear the white bandanna around me neck or the red legwarmers or white shoes. I felt this was close enough and I knew that no one at the building would even know who I was. Which they didn't. Sigh. They just thought I was a "British" rocker.

The breakdown: Vintage Union Jack Muscle Shirt bought in 1983 for $15 (after begging my mom to buy it for me). Red wristband from Hot Topic $3. TC's black studded cuff $3 (Target!) and stretchy metal belt from Express $20 (I've worn this belt with other outfits so it's not just for this get up). Black Converse One Stars (child's size 6 = women's 8) $20 at Target!.  Skinny black jeans are mine and were bought at the juniors section at Nordstrom - Brass Plum.

Here's the real Joe Elliott back in the 80's. Of course, I think I look waaay better than that! Ha ha!

Bert wore his Michael Meyers costume from last year. Unbeknownst to Bert, another guy wore a similar outfit. This guy always does something scary every year. This year, he was the dude from "Texas Chainsaw Massacre", Leatherface. The lights in the building were turned off with only the strobe light, signalling his impending appearance. All of a sudden, we heard the RRRRRRRR of the chainsaw and a wierd smell filled the air as he stalked the interior in a menacing way, scaring a few of the younger kids. It was so funny that their outfits were so similar! I think it's funny how Bert is so much darker than that mask!

Here's me and Captain Kirk of the Starship Enterprise. He has a red one too, but got the new yellow shirt this year.

I thought these costumes were awesome. These are my my cousin's kids. One of them (my godson actually) went as Russell, the little boy from "Up". The older nephew went as Ash from Pokemon (he is a college graduate!). The youngest, my neice went as Hello Kitty.

My nephew worked so hard to get his costume just right. He made the sash and the badges himself with felt. He also had a pot hanging from the backpack (instead of a trumpet). Everyone loved it!!!!

This was one of the few images I could find of Hello Kitty with the red dress.

And here is Ash Ketchum - the boy who tries to train and catch all of the Pocket Monsters (Pokemon). My nephew also had the "ball" (held in his left hand). In the picture below, Ash is shown with Pikachu in his left hand.

Now one of the BEST Costumes of the night was this guy who went as Antoine Dodson, of the "Bed Intruder Interview" video.

Here's the real Antoine Dodson..."Obvioussssly!"

He came in struttring his stuff and waving his rolled up paper in the air. The older teenagers were howling with laughter while the younger kids were wondering what was so funny. Capt. Kirk showed me the video on his iPhone. I felt like I lived in a cave because I didn't know about this dude who apparently has his own website now after the video went viral and two white guys made his interview into a song which is now available on iTunes.
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Here's the original video along with the song which manipulated his video with auto-tune. "Hide yo kids, hide yo wife!". Just goes to show you that anyone can get famous for anything nowadays. The song starts at 1:36...

Other cool costumes were a couple who dressed up as babies, complete with terry cloth diapers. One kid made her own costume - she was a robot (cardboard box and all), while one boy went as a Knight character from a video game, "Castle Crusaders", complete with hand made paper mache helmet (cushioned with foam inside), a few cats, several "nerds", and a few kids whose mom sewed stuffed spikes onto their hoodies so they would look like dinosaurs. The hood had eyes and fake teeth. Very creative.

Along with the costumes was a boatload of food - cheese for nachos, pizzas for the kids, spring rolls, and bread sticks (under the foil). This was early in the evening, later on, the table was filled with potluck donations...

There was creamy penne pasta with bacon, buffalo chicken wings, fried shrimp, tofu with sliced pig ears (I tried one and did NOT like it - the texture was too soft!), two kinds of pancit (bihon and luglug), two kinds of fried rice, regular rice, green salad, pork ribs adobo, chicken arroz caldo...

One of the mom's brought in her signature dessert - chocolate swirl brownies. Our table immediately hijacked one tray while I took a corner!

Another person brought in dipped jumbo marshmallows - I liked the chocolate dipped ones with crushed pretzels which was nice because it was salty and sweet. I'm thinking of making this for a future holiday party...seems easy enough.

Someone came in late and we noticed that there was a flurry of activity at the table. WTH?  Turns out that person brought in what they jokingly referred to as "The Time Bomb".    Hands were grabbing bits and pieces everywhere! I'm lucky to have even gotten a clear shot.

Take a good look - FRIED CHICKEN SKINS!   Complete with vinegar soy sauce dip.

Only at a Filipino party!