BEST GROUP

So this past Halloween weekend, Ryan and I and two of our best friends drove up to Estes Park and attended the Shining Ball at the infamous Stanley Hotel.  For the second year in a row... yes, it is a tradition.  Only this year, we knew the caliber of costumes that can be seen at the ball and we were determined to make some of our own.

Except we waited until two weeks before the big event to actually start on the costumes... oops.  So one Saturday a few weekends back, we went to a local costume shop and looked around for good "group" costumes, just because we wanted to get ideas and thought the whole group thing would be fun.  We left with a few possibilities and I actually have to admit that the two boys made the final recommendation on what our group would be.  But then us girls did everything else :)
 

Here's a few clues... spiral curls, sparkly spray and red glitter, oh my!

If my awesome clues weren't enough, here's a group shot.  Yep, we're off to see the wizard!  At first we didn't know what a big hit it would be, but people LOVED it.  I think because it's such a classic.  Everyone wanted to take a picture because it was their favorite movie or someone they know's favorite.  It was such a blast.

I kept forgetting that I was supposed to be the cowardly lion, not the fierce one.  What can I say... and yep, we made the costumes.  We made the lion outfit out of felt and fake hair, Elyse put together her entire Dorothy costume and also made the Tinman costume out of a suit.  We also embellished the scarecrow costume by adding real straw.  There's even a real live Toto to go with it, but she couldn't make it :)

Oh yeah... and we won Best Group Costume!  This is kind of how it went: we got ready and arrived thinking our costumes would be fun and the idea of winning came up, but not at all seriously.  Then we realized we had a chance when people kept taking our picture and a lady came up to me while we were dancing and said we had to "stick around for awhile".  

Then they announced the best Shining costumes and the best individual costume, and then said that the best group goes to "The Wizard of Oz with the Lady Lion!"  What?!?!  There is some stiff competition at this thing and we've been looking forward to it all year.  Fun night.  I really wish I had taken some more pictures of the other costumes though, because like I mentioned, there were some incredible ones.

You can check out some of the other awesome costumes here at the Estes Park Gazette, along with a little clip about us.

Here's to scheduling our ghost hunt and brainstorming costumes for next year!