"Fancy dress."

Remember my don't dress like a skank on Halloween post from a few days ago? Well, don't worry. I took my own advice.

Two of my flatmates and I decided we wanted to do a group costume, so we looked up famous trios. Some of the ones we found included: the three musketeers, the three amigos, the three little pigs, Snap, Crackle and Pop, and Charlie's Angels. (We seriously considered Charlie's Angels, especially since we've got a Charlie next door. But he was out of town, so we nixed that idea.)

About an hour of brainstorming and a couple of shopping trips later, this is what we landed on:

Please excuse the poor lighting in our kitchen.

Can you tell what we are?

Here's a closeup.

Hint: Think nursery rhymes...

That's right! The three blind mice! We used pipe cleaners and headbands to make the ears, eyeliner for our noses and whiskers, broomsticks for our canes, donned some neutral colors, and tadaa! Simple, inexpensive, fun costume. Here's a few more pictures from our evening.

(Clockwise from top left: mouse with cheese, the group, a very scary Thomas, and "She cut off their tails with a carving knife.")

Such a fun night.

And now it's November. Holy cow. Where has the time gone?

Friends don't let friends dress like skanks...even (especially?) on Halloween.

Did you know that Halloween isn't a big deal outside the States? I mean, yes, it's recognized as a holiday in the UK and elsewhere. But I've met so many people here (Brits included) who've never actually celebrated it. (Oh, and they call costumes "fancy dress," which can be really confusing.)

When I think back on Halloween as a kid, there are two things that come to mind.

The first is trick-or-treating, obviously. My favorite part was the big candy exchange that always happened when we got back to the house. We'd would dump all our candy out on the floor of the living room and figure out who got what. It'd start out as a mad scramble for the Reese's. But by the end it would become a lot more democratic, as we attempted to make deals involving Tootsie Rolls, rock hard bubble gum and those weird black and orange paper-wrapped chews.

I hated those things.

The second is cake. Halloween is my dad's birthday, and we'd always make him the same cake: chocolate with chocolate icing, decorated with candy corn and those little pumpkins. My brother and I always got to finish off whatever icing was left over. Those were the days.

But Halloween changes as you get older. Especially for girls. This sums it up rather nicely:

"The hardcore girls just wear lingerie and some form of animal ears."

Seriously, though. It's getting a little ridiculous. If you don't believe me, have a look at Emily G's Unnecessarily sexy Halloween costume roundup. The older you get, the harder it is to find a non-skanky costume. I did a little research and put some pics together to illustrate my point. It's the same costume concept at different ages.

Am I the only one who finds this depressing?

Look, I realize that Halloween is tomorrow and it's probably too late, but if you haven't already decided on your costume, I've got a request: Please don't go as a slutty "sexy" nurse or Disney princess or skunk or remote control or plumber or Big Bird or watermelon or Chewbacca.

It's been done (seriously, I found all of those). It's old news.

And girls, we can do better.