So one of the whole purposes of this latest vacation was to go to Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party, a costume-wearing, fireworks-watching, trick-or-treating bonanza. We had the best costumes: we all dressed up like my brother.

My family started brainstorming costumes over the summer, trying to come up with something clever and fun. We thought about dressing up as It’s a Small World children, or making my mom Buzz Lightyear and the rest of us her little green aliens. The catch was that we knew Matt wasn’t going to be keen on dressing up, so we rejected things that were too elaborate. Then Sarah suggested that since he wouldn’t want to dress up anyway, we should all dress up like him!

Matt has a distinctive look. Since my mom had breast cancer six years ago, he’s been shaving his head, so he’s perpetually bald. He would wear shorts every single day if he didn’t have to wear long pants to work, and had a streak of about three years going until that time came. Three years through Iowa winters. He even wore shorts to the prom with his tux jacket. Finally, he has the best collection of t-shirts with ironic screen prints on them. Piece of cake costume! We conspired to change into our t-shirts and put on our bald caps while he was off doing something else, and surprised the heck out of him. I think his reaction shots are the best photos from the whole trip.

(Dig the Donkey Kong shirt.)