Face Painting or Graffiti?

We always know when Halloween is coming.   The hype usually starts the very first of October when a handful of folks,  including myself,
all start slyly trying to figure out what in the heck Mark has planned for the kid's costumes.  Unfortunately over the years he's gone costume crazy and has developed a bit of a reputation.  I think all the interest perked a few years ago with  Chloe's shower costume which marked the onset of Mark's infamous decent into costume madness.

Originally, his odd costume quest was his way of doing anything but help the kids carve up their slimy pumpkins.  His repulsion for all things squishy has driven him to become the Calvin Klein of Costumes and go into Project Runway mode.  The very moment we grab a piece of cutlery remotely sharp enough to whittle a vegetable, Mark gets a bizarre urge to get the glue gun out and preoccupy himself with a sketch pad drawing up detailed plans and schematics for the making of an unorthodox contraption he calls a "costume"---a complex but surefire ruse to get him out of scraping pumpkin guts.

So this year while the rest of us were in the house chiseling our pumpkin masterpieces, Mark was out in the garage with some old moving boxes and spray paint (and yes, a glue gun).  This year it was Chloe's turn for a "Mark Masterpiece".  After an hour or so he emerged with this bizarreness for Chloe:

He made Chloe into a Arcade Crane Game.

Where does he come up with this stuff??
Perhaps the paint fumes.

Meanwhile, after I played the role of "stable single parent" by scraping and carving pumpkins with the two kids, something I rather enjoy,
I still had to come up with a costume for Connor.   Mark had suffered some sort of glue gun or scissor injury that prevented him from making another glorious albeit unconventional costume for the Con-man.

So I grabbed a few wigs, lightened some dark jeans (boy did that take me back to the 80's), and dressed up Connor and his friend Severin:

Nobody under the age of 35 knew who they were.  But everyone who grew up in the early 90's knew right away and gave them a costume 'thumbs up' by quoting a favorite line from the movie. Party on Wayne.

Then it was off to our church carnival.  Here Chloe had a hard time Trick-or-Treating due to a design flaw in her costume which caused a major technical difficulty:  No arm holes=No Candy Bag. A real deal killer there.  Always the quick thinker, Chloe propositioned a friend into holding her bag, by luring her with some sort of complicated candy trading payment proposal.  Problem solved.

Next it was off to the Halloween carnival.  Here she had to ditch the costume.  Kinda hard to get your face painted when your behind a glass panel.

It was at the that very face painting booth that Chloe ran into more trouble:  Trouble by the name of Sheralyn, one of her older cousins.

Here's Sheralyn in Costume.

She's in charge of the face painting booth:

Don't let the pink bunny costume fool you.  

Under that rabbit exterior is a sly little fox. 

Apparently Sheralyn has forgotten how to paint flowers, rainbows, and cute colorful butterflies on happy little children's faces.  Perhaps another bizarre case of paint fume foolery, much like the demonized one Mark suffers from.  This year a peculiar design emerged from her paintbrush--a sign that she may have been working the face painting booth for far far too many years...

Chloe was all excited to have me tell her what "surprise" her cousin Sheralyn painted on her face, and here's her reaction after I tell her:

Uh yeah, I'm thinking this is more like Graffiti than face painting.  Especially when all her handiwork began being plastered all over the clueless children that night:

Soon, Sheralyn's friend Molly was perniciously emboldened and everyone who dared to visit the face painting booth was branded by these two wayward girls:

The paint fumes have apparently taken their toll on poor Sheralyn over the years.  I think it's safe to say it's probably a good thing she's off to college next Halloween where she will be safely away her all carnival paint booth duties.

In the meantime, Mark will still be around next year for costume bizarreness.
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