October Haps: 2011 Halloween Costumes

This year I decided to let the kids choose what they wanted to be for Halloween. I admit that in the previous years I've done a lot of convincing and persuading on what the boys end up being for Halloween. This year I decided to loosen up and let them choose without any pushing from me. They're getting older and a lot of ideas that I thought would be cool, weren't cool in their eyes. At first I wasn't sure if me giving them full control was a good idea. Nic changed his mind every day! At first all his choices were scary things: zombie, and a mummy. Then he started choosing all these video game characters from Street Fighter. Siope said he wanted to be Sponge Bob. I thought that would be interesting and immediately started thinking about how we could make his square pants... but then he changed his mind. Mote was pretty set on what he wanted to be... a JABBAWOCKEE. I thought it was a little too simple and boring, but he had his mind made up and was sticking to it. Ti loved the idea. He said it would be easy... ha! He should know me better... I don't think I ever make things easy. We got so frustrated with the other 2, that I gave them a deadline and told them they had to choose a final character. Ti mentioned that it would be cool if they were all Jabbawockeez, and they agreed. I didn't start on their costumes until the week before Halloween Eeeeeep! I'm not sure who came up with the concept cause I'm almost sure I chose the colors, but Ti said he did... so I'll say we both did :) Since Jabbawockeez perform here in Vegas, we decided it would be cool to add some of our roots to the costumes. We put our Utah touch on it and came up with this...

I ordered the Utah Jazz snap backs, then based the t-shirts off of those colors.

The final product

We added the skeleton gloves to spook it out for Halloween

The back of their shirts said "trick or treat"

I got done with them right before we went to Utah... just in the nick of time.

I follow the JABBAWOCKEEZ on twitter and right before I went to bed Halloween night, I was checking my twitter line. I noticed that they were running a costume contest and were selecting a winner off of pictures that people were submitting to them. I uploaded one of the boys and hoped that I wasn't too late to enter the contest. The next day before I went to work I got a reply from one of the members saying that he chose the boys as one of the winners!

How cool is that?!! Pretty freak'n cool if you ask me! The boys were so excited!! and all my hard work paid off! ha!

"Wock" It Out - April 2, 2010

jab·ba·wock·eez [jábbuh wòkeez]

n

A dance troupe that won the dance reality series, "Randy Jackson Presents America's Best Dance Crew", the Jabbawockeez' influence has spanned the globe inspiring minds through music and dance. Dressing in expressionless white masks and white gloves, the crew guides the audience's attention away from individual identities and towards a unified and synchronized group. They create a canvas for the audience to visualize the music as they paint beautiful and artistic imagery through precise, intricate movements. The name is derived from the fictional creature in Lewis Carroll’s poem, “Jabberwocky.” Known for creativity, unique choreography, athleticism and intricate synchronization, the Jabbawockeez are poised to change the way we see dance.

Me and my little sister Neo are HUGE Jabbawockeez fans! We were the crazed ones that stayed up late to watch season 1 of ABDC texting each other throughout the entire show about each of the performances... pretty much tuned in to see 1 act- The Jabbawockeez! (ok I would be lying if I didn't mention Kabba Modern too). We voted every week and made a game plan on the 2nd-to-last episode on how we would ensure that Jabba would be the Champions as a result of our endless text messaging, phone calls, and online votes (yes we did all 3, but found that the online voting produced the most in the least amount of time). I remember my husband coming home from work and walking in holding up a Red JABBAWOCKEEZ shirt with a puzzled/angry look on his face as he asked, "What the heck is this Kiki?" I had a brief moment of panic "Dang, the one day that Ti Tonga gets to the mailbox before me!" followed quickly by a rush of excitement... "Heck yess, my shirt finally came! I hope it fits!!" On the season finale me and Neo screamed (and were nearly in tears) when our crew won and shot eachother text messages saying "WE DID IT!" ...and yes to this day I believe that me and Neo specifically played a crucial role in making the Jabbawockeez win season 1 of ABDC ;) Anyway Neo told me they were coming to Salt Lake and I was like, "Yeah right, shut up... Salt Lake? Why?" But it was true... I have no idea how they got them, but Jabba was scheduled to perform at SLCC. We ended up visiting Salt Lake on the weekend of their performance which was already sold out by the time we got in town. We miraculously came up with 2 extra tickets- 1 for me and 1 for Ti Tonga. Nici was so bummed that he didn't get to go :( He kept saying "Mom, I want to go see the Jabbawockeez! How come I can't go?" Hopefully I'll get another opportunity to take the boys to see them. I was tempted to take Nic instead of Ti Tonga. Ti was in such denial that he wanted to go. I pretty much forced him to... I mean if you can sit for hours watching all their youtubes, then why would you drag your feet to see them live?! I knew he would be happy in the end... and he was! The show was indescribable. It's been 4 days and I am still on a Jabba high. I screamed til my head felt like it was going to burst, took some deep breaths, then screamed some more. We sat in a packed house of over 5,000 people. When the crew took off their masks at the end of the show I just couldn't believe I was looking at their actual faces- it was completely surreal! It was such an amazing experience that I'm so glad I got to be a part of!