Halloween costumes monsterous fun

| Friday, October 27, 2006

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In honor of Halloween, the Journal asked its readers to send in some of their best Halloween costumes. Readers responded with photos of such characters as SpongeBob, a snake and Captain Underpants. Take a look.

Jim and Sheri O’Connell enjoy making their children’s costumes each year. Their favorites include:

Landon O’Connell, 3, went as a “Doctor in Training” on Halloween 2004 (see below left).

Victoria O’Connell was 4 in 2002 when she went trick-or-treating

as a pink cupcake.

Nolan O’Connell, at right, shows off his Sponge Bob Squarepants

costume when he was 8 in 2003.

Nolan O’Connell, age 6, went as a cell phone for Halloween 2001. Victoria, age 3, went as the Statue of Liberty that same year, in the photo below right.

Landon O’Connell, age 3, went as a Jack-in-the-Box for Halloween 2005.

Monsterous fun: To Robert Hood of Rapid City, Halloween is one of the best times of the year. “It’s my Christmas. It’s fun,” he said. Hood went as Frankenstein last year. Already 6 feet, 4 inches tall, Hood added 10-inch shoes which he made by adding two-by-fours to boots. The Frankenstein head is 33 inches tall. That means that Hood towered more than 8 feet tall. The homemade shoes also added some great affects. “When I walk around, it really makes a loud clunk and echoes,” he said. Hood’s son, Trae Hood, 6, is pictured above left in the tube as the mummy. The head weighed so much that Trae had a hard time standing upright, his dad said. Hood also loaned his skeleton and Frankenstein head to neighbors Tanner Fenenga, 12, and Evan Meese, 10. Evan went as the Frankenstein and Tanner as the four-wheeler-driving skeleton, seen above right. Hood plans to hit the Halloween streets again this year. He and his wife, Melissa Hood, will attend “Deadweird” dressed as Frankenstein and the bride of Frankenstein.

Aging superhero: Rapid City teacher Steve Kirsch went to school in his underwear last year and had a blast. “I’m a seventh grade science teacher at South Middle School, and I come up with a homemade/self-created costume each year to wear to school. I had a student a few years earlier who was big into the Captain Underpants books and introduced me to that character. I decided he would be a good “fit” for my next Halloween costume if I modified him a bit. So I came up with the idea to be “Captain Underpants in His Later Years,” created the costume and went to school in it. A few years later, I decided it was time for the Captain to make another appearance, so I made a few improvements and again for Halloween I dressed up very early on the school morning in my “superhero” outfit. I had put the costume on and then needed to get my 1½-year-old daughter Ali up and ready for daycare. She figured out I was her dad but still didn’t quite know what to make of me. Then, as I got ready to change her diaper, I got another inspiration. I had an extra piece of red material I had used to make my cape, so I put it on Ali and transformed her into another Captain Underpants book series character called “Super Diaper Baby.” Mom took photos of us and, as you can see, Ali was not really scared but was a little amazed and confused about the whole thing. It was sure embarrassing driving to school that morning trying to not notice if other commuters were checking me out or not. “Captain Underpants in His Later Years” did his best that day to protect all the fine students at South Middle School from evildoers.

Festive trio: Kim Westland of Spearfish has three boys. Each year, she tries to come up with a theme for the three of them. “I have three boys; Austin is 11, Zachary is 10, and Bryson is 9. When they were very young, I went to Wal-Mart to get Halloween costumes, only to discover that the costumes were between $10 and $15 each,” she said. “So, I thought it would be fun and much cheaper if they were the Three Blind Mice, and it was cheaper because the total cost was $12. The next year, they were the Three Little Pigs. They have since been the Three Musketeers, Three Men in the Tub (pictured above), the Three Amiagos, (Donald Duck’s nephews) Huey, Duey, and Louie, My Three Sons, and the Three Bears. We have had great fun thinking of and creating the costumes, all of which have been made by my husband, and my mother-in-law does all the sewing. This will be our last year as the boys are growing up and not quite so interested in being part of a threesome.”

Slithering: Debbie Stuck of Rapid City has been sewing Halloween costumes for her family for years. “My grandson, Mason Daknis of Spearfish, is just crazy about snakes. He wanted to be a snake for Halloween. I love the challenge of making a costume, and Mason was really great about going through the fittings and a few prototypes. We followed him as he walked around on Halloween — the tail of the snake really freaked people out as it slithered by in the dark. It was great fun.”

Trekkie: Eugene Schnitger sent this photo of one of his favorite costumes. “‘Borg’ is from ‘Star Trek: the Next Generation.’ This costume was created for the opening of ‘Star Trek: First Contact.’ The Star Trek fan club I belong to was assisting the movie theater with the opening night, and everyone dressed up. I later entered the ‘Borg’ in a costume contest at a Star Trek Convention and won best of show. The costume has won many other contests and has made several appearances at the Black Hills Duck Race. I have since retired ‘Borg.’”

Autumnal: Candy Erk Manthey and Markus Erk sent this photo of their son, Colton Erk, with a descriptio nof his costume. “Colton is 2 years old in this picture and wearing his very first Halloween costume. It was an original creation of mine, and it brought lots of smiles at our church on Halloween night. If you can’t tell, he is a ‘Leaf Pile,’ complete with his own rake. The costume was easy to make. I cut a neck hole in the center of a circle of cotton material which was patterned with brightly colored fall leaves. Then, I used a hot glue gun to attach lots of silk leaves randomly over the material, and I completed it with a set of earmuffs covered in silk leaves ... again, glue guns are magic! It was perfect because it was comfortable and fit over any type of clothing. Although our son is now 8 years old and has enjoyed more typical costumes such as a pirate, spider and mummy, this first costume still remains my favorite.”