Rowdy Roehrig Zoo

The idea came to me as I was in our storage room and spied our tiger costume.  Noelle, Max, and Violette wore it, so naturally Zane would be wearing it this year too.  Why not have all the kids be zoo animals and Tom and I zoo keepers.  I feel like a zoo keeper on a daily basis, herding, feeding, and doing my best to train four rambunctious, stubborn animals.  Don’t forget the cleaning up of excrement! 

I ran the idea by the children and they couldn’t wait for Halloween to arrive.  Tom smirked and agreed it was a good idea.  I jumped into the Zoo theme, created our household name, The Rowdy Roehrig Zoo, and got very excited about it.  Noelle decided to be a zebra, Max an elephant (thanks for a costume from a friend), Violette a giraffe (yet again, another borrowed costume), and Zane wore the lovely tiger costume. 

We dressed up and frankly, I think we looked very cute! 

And a shot of the entire family:

The kids were troopers, exceeding all my expectations of length outside.  Max pulled our wagon, with either Violette or Noelle in it, almost the entire time.  They wanted to hit every house possible.  As their bags filled with candy their excitement grew even more.  Zane sat in the stroller and enjoyed being a bystander to all the people walking around. 

I loved having a family costume.  I did not realize Tom wasn’t as on board with it as I originally thought.  He put it on without complaint.  Sported the hat with the “Rowdy Roehrig Zoo” prominently displayed, and never said a word.  Later in the evening he pointed out that he felt a little deflated in the “man department” but wanted to make me happy.  Much love goes out to him for going along with my cheesy idea!