I don’t really post this much about any other holiday, but Halloween is made of edible glitter so feel free to ignore me if you disagree.

in Random Crap

Part 2 of my Halloween posts.  

This is a short one, but I have a longer one coming up today if I get my shit together.

Last week I shared my Halloween costume for this year and YOU TOTALLY GOT IT and I heaved a huge sigh of relief because I have found my people.

Today is part 2 (of a four-part series) regarding who in our family is wearing the geekiest costume ever.  Today’s entry is Hailey (age 9) as Little Dead Riding Hood:

"I brought you soup. Poisoned soup. Made from cats."

You might think this is fairly non-geeky, however it was inspired by one of her favorite book apps, but then she decided to make up how own Little Dead Riding Hood story where Red falls in love with the wolf, which I think qualifies as app-inspired fanfic shipping.

This is how small geeks are made.

228 thoughts on “I don’t really post this much about any other holiday, but Halloween is made of edible glitter so feel free to ignore me if you disagree.”

Read comments below or add one.

  6. My daughter wants to be a Powerpuff Girl Minecraft Creeper Fairy Princess this year. Gonna see how this one turns out.

  9. Awesome. I’ve never seen her resemblance to you as strongly as in this photo.

    (Most mothers would probably recoil at that comment, but given your feelings on the holiday and your rightful pride in her costume, I’m guessing you’re fine with it.)

  24. am I the only geek here that thinks your DOOR is TARDIS blue? 🙂
    And that is a FAN-tastic Costume
    Karin

  32. That is a fantastic costume. I can’t wait to read her fanfic. 🙂
    Perhaps as a bonus chapter of your second book?

  42. When she’s old enough for them, you HAVE to get her the Fables series by Bill Willingham. I think she’d love them. Well, you’d BOTH love them, if you haven’t already read them.

  45. This is what we call “raising ’em right” where I come from.

    Also, squee, can I go trick or teating with y’all? Just don’t make me dress up as a cheerleader from SNL.

  53. Oooh!! <3 <3
    She looks JUST LIKE Little Dead Riding Hood!
    That's adorable.

    And please keep posting about Halloween because it is the most important holiday of the year.

  55. OMG, she looks fabulous! I would be the proudest geek mom EVER if I were you. Though mine is inventing her own Super Villain costume (she made her own super hero a couple years ago), so I’m maybe the second proudest geek mom. Well…maybe third, after that mom whose kid started the pink Darth Vader trend. WELL…fourth, after the kid dressed up as the eerily perfect Edward Scissorhands. Though that one totally depends on the degree to which it was the kid’s idea and thought it was awesome. Whatever. I love this holiday. We should totally have more opportunities to play dress-up during the year.

  57. That costume would have scared the crap out of me when I was nine. But I was still afraid of everything when I was nine, so anyway…

    Amazing doesn’t cut it.

    Looking forward to seeing Victor’s costume.

  58. Hold up!
    If this is #2 in a 4-part series…and this is going to involve some math for me so I could be way off…and you have 3 human family members, then…part 4 should either involve the cats (which would be awesome) or a vote.
    Or perhaps something else entirely. It’s not like I can prognosticate.

  59. It’s totally not the geekiest… But that’s pretty much because I think it’s really beyond amazing. I love it!

  60. I look forward to Hailey’s memoir in twenty years, detailing life in the Lawson household. And I mean that the very best way possible.

  63. Hailey should totally steal from something I did last year as Red. I had a “tattoo” on my arm – heart with arrow that said Big Bad Wolf around it. =)

  64. I wish I could dress up as something “dead”. I wanted to be a zombie. But I work in a nursing home and apparently its inappropriate to dress up as a dead person in a nursing home. I kind of see the point but its Halloween!

  68. She looks amazing. Geeklings are the best. My husband and I are both geeks so we say that our daughter is geek squared, geek times geek equals geek squared.

  69. Love. But you still remain the front-runner in geekiest costume in the fam.

    PS: She is a gorgeous lil ghoul! Great costume.

  74. I admire the commitment, time and effort you and the fam put into your Halloween costumes. Hailey looks GREAT, super dead!
    On a whiny note: Ed, my other half, is killing the holiday for me this year. I wanted to decorate, but Ed reminded me we are now sans child. (I guess the dog doesn’t count, even though I bought it a costume.) So, I plan to spend $100 on candy that I’ll pretend is for trick-or-treaters. Hopefully, Ed will have to work that night so I can turn off all the lights, hide in the dark, and eat all the damn candy myself while scaring the crap out of myself by watching horror movies alone!

  75. Love it! She is adorable. My son is the 11th Doctor this year and my daughter is going as a Greek Princess. I am in the process of trying for an undead Greek Princess but so far that is a no.

  79. WOAH. I am jealous of Hailey’s ability to pull of Dead. I tried something similar last year and wore it to work– I work in a psychiatric hospital and no one else dressed up so my efforts were completely lost on them.

  80. What a briliant costume idea! And she looks darling in that scary, zombie, dead riding hood way.

    Kudos for nurturing her geek-soul. They are brilliant to have.

  86. Oh that is utterly amazing. If I ever have a daughter I may have to steal this one. Really hope my kids end up being that creative.

  87. Awww. Precocious Daughter has informed me this will be her last year to trick-or-treat. No more mini-goths or hipster Elmos or vaguely inappropriate bananas. *sigh* Enjoy your girl dressing up as a dead fairy tale character while you can, is what I’m saying.

  89. AMAZING job on the makeup–my daughter used to always want to be something dead and I was good on the costumes but not so much on the makeup. This year she has probably aged out of Trick or Treating (she’s 15) but she and her cousin are going to dress as the Boondock Saints (no makeup required!).

  91. Best!

    Could you possibly do an edit or post with how you did her make-up? The face would definitely go with my daughter’s Dead Punk Fairy costume.

  92. Oh my god — that costume is fabulous, and Hailey looks absolutely perfect in it. I am 40 years old and I am flat-out jealous. I firmly believe that I would have grown up to be a much more well-adjusted person if my parents would have simply let me indulge my inner geek/freak on Halloween, rather than forcing me into costumes that ranged from bland (cheerleader, anyone?) to an open invitation to the perverts of the world to make creepy comments (the year I went as a tootsie roll and old guys kept asking if they could eat me. Ugh)

    You are an awesome mom.

  93. Love it! My 16 yo is playing cello in a Hauntcert next week, and is thinking of a costume. She was going to do makeup like that anyway, but now? I’m suggesting Little Dead Riding Hood. Brilliant.

  99. reminds me of “Into the Woods” where Red and her grandmother skin the wolf and grandma makes the pelt into a new coat for Red. 🙂

  100. Hailey looks awesome!
    I’d be proud to have a daughter with such taste, style, and wit, and I’m sure you are too!
    Well done having a daughter that can look so good playing the living dead!

  101. Madly Brilliant costume, just as yours was! It’s going to be hard deciding which one to pick.

    Best parenting ever- inspiring kids to be creative 🙂

  102. I went as Little Dead Riding Hood a few years ago, but my costume wasn’t quite this awesome! I’ve also gone as a deranged mouseketeer named Daisy. Way to go Hailey!

  104. She looks amazing and has the facial expression and attitude to go with the outfit. Win-win-win!!!

  107. Ok – great costume, but what I want to comment on is….. is it coincidence that the blue on your front door is Tardis Blue???

    Is that how you decided on the house? Or did you paint it? If so, what color did you use? 🙂

  110. I love her costume so much. Go Hailey! Seriously, whomever said Tim Burton could use this was so on the money!

  111. Hailey is genius. I wish I would have thought of it first. Might have to make a similar costume for the Zombie Walk here… benefits the local food bank charities. Zombies come to town and bring canned goods (after all we don’t need it … we’re zombies.) Best costumer ever. Geeks rule.

  112. That is fantastic! I love it!
    And please, feel free to post as much Halloween as you want because it’s a tie for my favourite holiday.

  113. I just have to say, that although I didn’t initially get your costume, it’s more of a reflection on me being out of the loop on alot of things…but I hope I’m still considered at least on the outskirts as part of your people. (Like I’d be invited to the party but my seating name tag would be on the kids card table out in the garage.)

    The little dead riding hood thing is brilliant, and totally steal-worthy.

  116. *love* One of my fave geek kids costume was from a blogger whose 4-year-old daughter wanted to be a “shrieking eel”. Totally bad ass. I want to be that kid’s BFF.

  119. You realise that your daughter is going to become a cult leader, right? Because no one that awesome can avoid having an army of obsessed devotees around her.

  121. Superfantastic! Your photog friends are going to beg you to dress her up like this for multiple photo shoots to go with her story 🙂 What fun!

  122. OMFG this is fantastic. You are an awesome family; so glad to see Hailey embracing her geekiness early. Rockstar!

  123. First off, she looks AMAZING and I love that she is doing a character from a book app. So cool.

    Also. Is that your door? Your TARDIS blue door?? I, too, have a TARDIS blue door (actually not of my own doing. The house came this way (SCORE!)).

    GO GEEKS!

  125. My sister went one year as Little Red Riding Hood and the next year as Little Red Riding Hood AFTER the wolf attacked.

  127. That is phenomenal…I wish I was creative with costumes… my “best halloween costume” was when I put a name tag on and told people I was on Wheel of Fortune….. pathetic 🙁 haha

  128. Hailey looks amazing! If you ever decide that writing isn’t your thing, you should become a makeup artist – she looks like she’s going to be in a movie!

  130. The US never ceases to baffle me- Halloween is such a big thing yet people seem offended by seeing washing hanging outiside to dry – people for all walks of life over here in the UK can’t wait to hang out on a nice drying day.

  131. The Red’s Wolf story must be shared! Not for nothing, but it would make a cool easter egg in the next book. Like hidden liner notes under the dust jacket.

  134. Red riding hood is my favorite character of all time! I certainly think hers is winning, as I also pair red with the wolf >w>

  135. My daughter said instead of her being an undead Greek Princess she wants to be Goddess of the undead. I can work with that. Also my 10 yr old son thinks Hailey is cute.

  136. You are such an awesome mom! This is so freaking awesome. My kids would have loved for me to have been this participatory in Halloween (which I hate but am still loving your Halloweenist approach to life ). My daughter who turns 21 on Dec. 1 told me she wants to go to a biker bar known as the Pole Cat down the street from our house to celebrate her birthday. If only I had been under your small geek influence back when she was Hailey’s age…………………….

  140. Jerrie–Go over to http://www.takebackhalloween.org and look under “Goddesses”; you’ll find Persephone–THAT’S the outfit you want. (It’s also the outfit I’m hoping to do as well, so I’m prejudiced in its favor, but still, the whole web site is well worth checking out.)

    As for Hailey, she looks wonderful; the makeup job is great, and the outfit is to die for–did you make that, or did she put it together? Yay for geeky kids!

  141. holy crap if she was standing outside my window id pee my pants.
    also i think shes got a niche waiting for her story “50 shades of red riding hood” happy halloween yall!

  142. Wow, she looks absolutely amazing! Like she was made up by one of those movie Makeup Artists!!!

  145. She looks exactly like you! As John said above, Hailey’s memoirs in twenty years will be fantastic. I hope she’s just enough like you to write a book that will make me laugh until I pee my pants. That should be easier in twenty years, when I become elderly and my family buys me Depends for my birthday because that’s always hilarious.*

    *not hilarious

  146. Quite literally the coolest costume I have ever seen. Love the entire ensemble!

  151. Firstly? Little Dead Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf are now my “OTP”. I lurves this costume/idea so much.
    Also, thank you so much for supporting Chaotic Good for Extra Life! You made my team-mate so thrilled! (She is also Jess, there’s three of us on the team – a 50% ratio… next year we may have to do a Jess-themed team!)

    Thank you for being so amazing!

  154. The poisoned apple didn’t fall too far from the poisoned apple tree, I see. Hmmm. I feel there needs to be some kind of grammar clue here that says to the reader that this analogy, or whatever it is, does not mean to imply that you and/or Hailey are poisoned. It is merely a Halloween reference. Or a Snow White reference…..God, now I’m confused. Just what AM I saying. Hailey, you look great and you must be so smart, considering your gene pool. There. How about that? However, speaking of grammar, a pentacle would make a great seasonal grammar sign? Maybe we could use it instead of a semi-colon or something. And how about Snow Red. About a princess who ate a poisoned apple and turned into a vampire and then fed off the dwarves until she died and now she’s coming to YOUR town. Just in time for Halloween. Yeah, I’m going. Hey. Don’t push.

  155. Ah hi. I’m sorry. I meant that she fed off the dwarves until the dwarves died. And now she’s coming to your town. NOT necessarily your town, could be any of youse towns.

  156. So love the costume and the Dead Riding Hood! Creative!!! I showed my 8 years old boy who thinks she would be a great girl to truck-or-treat with and thinks she would be great with his “I was a policeman and then got infected by a zombie” costume 😉

  158. Nice to see the apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree… and rolled right into a twisted version of Geekdom Wonderland.
    But seriously, Hailey is one cool little chick. Nice work, Jenny.

  160. AWESOME! I love Little Dead Riding Hood and I think I will totally have to steal it sometime. I have personally already done Halloween as Little Red-light District Riding Hood.

  166. That is fantastic! She looks amazing. I love the basketful of skeletons.

    I’m amused to see that other people are also reminded of Wednesday Addams.I keep hoping that my daughter will one day be willing to be Wednesday for Halloween. (I have a Morticia dress, myself.) What is the point of having a morbid daughter if we can’t dress up as Addams Family characters together? But she just wants to be a vampire this year. I guess I can live with that.

  167. Fantastic! Also, have you seen the pinterest picture of a little girl who wanted to be a cemetery angel? WEEPING ANGEL REALITY!

  169. She may not be geekier but she is creepier. She deserves extra geeky points for standing next to a TARDIS blue door though!

  171. That is so much more awesome than being yet another princess. Meanwhile, my daughter is trying to convince my sons to go in drag. She refuses to accept that they both might be straight…she has priorities.

  172. Personally I think her outlook on life is awesome. And YOU my dear and your wonderful husband are both a wonderful influence on her life and I love the way she is encouraged to be herself. I did the same with my children. I will say this (because as my friends say, “you’re always the Debbie-downer”. It may take her a while to find her real-life people. Just be prepared. I’m very glad my kids met their real-life people (let’s just say they were all over the age of 18 when that happened). It’s painful, it’s amusing, it’s a lot of crying jags, it’s a lot of “they SOOOO didnl’t get it MOM!!!”. It’s a truly weird journey and completely worth the effort.

    You have no idea how happy I am that someone else has raised their child to be themselves. I love her style, her smile and her (fine!) bubbliness (and that’s probaly not a word).

    Good job Jenny and Victor. You have managed to raise an individual. I truly hope she keeps this in her high school years because if she does? Hello Texas school system – you actually have someone with honest back-up in your ranks. It might confuse them but she has so much more than so many others.

    The two of you rock. Hailey’s very blessed. (just ’cause you cuss like a sailor doesn’t mean you don’t recognize lucky when you see it.)

    Keep on keepin’ on. As you were.

  179. Your daughter is SO CREATIVE. OMG I really want that to exist. I wonder if anyone has written that fanfic yet. If not, I’m sure it’ll exist pretty soon, after this post!

    (Pst! Someone write it! Go go go!)

  180. The perfect balance of lovely and creepy. What fun! I love that she is adding to the narrative.
    My mother hated Halloween. Most often our costumes were those cheap paper masks with printed plastic bibs, year after year. Until 4th grade when I begged for a little more effort. My mom gave me a bucket and a mop and dressed me in one of her faded snap front house coats/smocks. She said it was from a Carol Burnett sketch. I never bothered with Halloween after that.

  182. I totally love this!!

    One Halloween (when I was about 25), I dressed all in red: red hat, red dress, red stockings, red shoes etc. And to keep with the theme, I carried a red toolbox as my handbag…. loading it up with as many red accessories as I could find.

    So far so good. Right?

    On the way to the party, I stopped at a grocery store to get some wine. Now…this was sort of a dicey neighborhood, so they had a police officer/security guard as you walked in. The guard was being super friendly, complementing people on their costumes.

    When I walked in, she cheerily asked, “What are you?” And I told her I was “The Lady in Red”, of course!!

    But to top it off, I showed her my red toolbox/handbag…and proudly/loudly exclaimed…”I EVEN HAVE A RED GUN!!!”

    OMG…..life went into sloooowww motionnnnn…..as I brandished my vintage red *toy* cap gun. Noooooo….oooo….!!! What…the….hellll….was…I…thinking…..???

    I hadn’t even had any wine yet!!!!

    Luckily, this was pre 9/11, and everyone regained their sense of humor rather quickly (even though it felt like eons)….but I had to quickly exit the store…without any wine. AND I lived to tell about it!

    Happy Halloween, you guys! XxxOOO!

  184. Your daughter is seriously going to have some of the most awesome childhood memories when she grows up. I’m so jealous!

  185. Hayley looks fantastic! This reminded me of when my daughter was younger and I had to make her a pink cloak and a sparkly scythe. She is a blonde, Terry Pratchett fan and wanted to go to her school fancy dress as The Dim Reaper (Death of blondes).

  187. she looks great. that’s what my nine year old is going as, but it’s simply inspired by the Halloween store where we saw the costume (for $50) and decided to make our own from remnants of other costumes. 😉 so, haley is much more advanced. 😉

  190. That is spectacular! Hopefully, you all don’t have a Buffy-esque Halloween! Or, do. Whichever you’d prefer…

  196. I love, love,, love your blog. I have never commented before, but I read your blog every day! That is a great costume! Poisoned soup indeed.

  197. Love it!
    My daughter’s favorite costume so far was the year she went as Butterfly-fairy-princess-pirate-with-a-sword.

    Have you seen “Zen Ghosts”? Lovely book, and it has an owl-pirate. A for Awesome.

  198. I’m sorry but Hailey’s costume rocks more than yours. The girl has got it. She’s got the sweet and dead look down.

  200. Her makeup is fabulous. I can’t do that well and I have been practicing for 25 years.

  202. hahaha! Love it! She looks so freakin’ awesome! I love unexpected takes on expected characters. Last year I went as Little Red Riding IN the hood. I was sort of a cross between the girl from Dragon Tattoo and red riding hood. It was SO fun getting all pimped out – lol.

  203. That’s adorable, pretty, and creative. She definitely gets geek points for creativity.
    You should set up a poll once you post Victor’s costume to help determine the geekiest!

  205. Halloween is the most awesome holiday EVA! Plus, your little girl is adorable in that costume.

  206. I have such a bad experience with fan fiction!

    When I was getting all bored in summer, my friend mailed me the “fifth harry potter book” that we were all eagerly waiting for!

    And I had no concept of fan fiction at that point. So I’m reading every page and thinking what?! JK Rowling’s getting down and dirty in this one. How is she even going to market this…and then I came to the last page which signed off as “Harry Reader”…I have never felt more disillusioned.

  207. So cute! (But don’t tell her that. She looks too old to appreciate “cute”.).

    I made my small geeks by getting them so used to the sound of Star Trek and dr who that they LITERALLY can’t fall asleep unless they hear it from the next room (which stinks the few nights I have a good book) plus by dressing them up in costume and hauling them to the Renaissance Faire every year since they were babies. So far it’s going well… They haven’t turned on me yet. 🙂

  212. I love that she is doing out of the box Halloween costumes. When I was a kid my mom always made my costumes. To be fair she made half the neighborhoods costumes she’s a kick ass seamstress (she just recovered a family friends couch cuz she’s hard core). But after a fairy princess at age 5 I was went pretty off book from there. Adults don’t really understand why a 7 year old wants to be the Queen of Hearts. I couldn’t help that I was going through a Alice in Wonderland phase. Everyone has jumped on my bandwagon now. Even better was explaining the dead waitress named Marylou, age 10 was a weird year.

  213. Hailey wins the internet! Everything is perfect; the costume, make-up, skeletons but most especially her expression. If she trick or treated at my door I would give her the entire bowl of full size candy bars.

    Hailey is going to have great halloween memories. Unlike some of us who were forced to wear a ballet leotard year after year.

    Beth

  214. Oh my! I would LOVE to hear Hailey’s story about Red falling in love with the wolf. Is it really a werewolf despite what we’ve all been told all these years? Her costume is wonderful and she looks FAB!!!!

  215. Awesome! I might have a pic of my three boys… one as the Doctor, one as a Cyberman, and one wearing an Apollo era spacesuit.
    😉

  218. FABULOUS! Of course, this is coming from someone who regularly dresses as a zombie. Still, FABULOUS!

  219. You should read Angela Carter’s “The Company of Wolves”. It can be found in her collection of fairy tale variations called “The Bloody Chamber.” I think you would REALLY enjoy it. (Red Riding Hood tames the wolf with sex)

  224. Last year, my SIL dressed my 3 little nieces in their recital costumes with zombie makeup. We had a zombie daisy, princess and Spanish dancer. Brilliant.

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