One Halloween to Rule Them All

We'd been planning these costumes for a year. We had a stroke of brilliance after Halloween last year and decided we HAD to do this next year. We even roped our good friends (practically family at this point) the Knoxes to join in the insanity fun. 

And then Jon's dumb job made him travel the two weeks before Halloween. We thought about putting it off a year, but decided to just run with it. And so, Jon or no Jon, the Halloween festivities began!

First, Samwise Gamgee

A better view of the hobbit feet: 

And every Fellowship needs Merry: 

Pippin and Galadriel are best buds: 

(one day this can go on their wedding video)

Forget the Elvish seriousness in the movies and books--Galadriel is really a cheeseball: 

Except when the party is over and she's exhausted.

Then it's all Elvish stoicism.

Also, she hates her circlet (which she helped make and design): 

And the hamster ball makes a comeback as the Eye of Sauron: 

I might have had a little too much fun with my makeup.

It's not every day you can write the words from the One Ring across your face: 

The Bloods' contribution to the LOTR theme: 

(Samwise HATED his hobbit feet. LOATHED his hobbit feet. Why? Because they covered his precious shoes. It didn't matter that the shoes were still on his feet. It mattered that he couldn't see them underneath the hobbit feet. Even after removal of the offending feet, he was clearly traumatized). 

Now for some Knoxes: 

Gandalf the Grey 

(this was supposed to be Jon's costume, but Craig makes a great Gandalf)

The lovely Arwen:

Gimli: 

The most adorable Gollum you will ever see: 

Frodo (who was only willing to put on his decidedly non-princess costume 

because he got to wear the One (ear)Ring around his neck): 

Gimli has a hard time eating pizza.

Beards can be such a pain. 

(Yes, that is TOTALLY her actual hair. The Knoxes are as hardcore Halloween as we are).

We also recruited Kaia from another awesome family.

Legolas makes an excellent bearer of Samwise the Whiny: 

Merry and Pippin, looking very serious: 

Not so serious, this time with hobbit feet: 

Arwen takes the Eye of Sauron for a ride: 

And Sam enjoys lounging inside of it and eating some candy: 

But mostly Sam wants to be with Lydia, the love of his life: 

Even when Lydia is getting pictures with her friends, Sam is not far from her side: 

The full Knox/Blood/Uhlig Fellowship of the Ring

(don't miss the awesome Melissa as Boromir and Anna as Aragorn)

Epic.