First up is my 5 year old daughter. She wanted to be a ballerina. Her costume is 100% recycled. You see, last year for a Preschool performance she had to dress like a ballerina. We purchased her tights and leotard and I made her tutu and hair piece. She kept the outfit for dress up...and she wanted to use it for Halloween! A little face make-up to make her feel special and we are done! Easy!
In line second is my 9 year old son. He first wanted to be a snow boarder...didn't think I could pull that one off very well. His second choice...a robber. Now, I’m the type of person who will look on the web for inspiration on which direction to take with ideas. So, we hunted a picture and came up with:
Simple enough I think. We raided his closet and found a black turtle neck shirt, a pair of dark jeans, and his black tennis shoes. Raided his sisters’ closet and found black gloves. The hat had me puzzled. That is until my husband looked at the picture and suggested a black watch cap that the Navy uses. Great! He picked up one from the Navy Exchange on his way home. A quick trip to the Dollar Tree adds a black flashlight. A quick search through the attic yields a black sack. I dug out my old black eye shadow and now my 9 year old has a “5 o’clock shadow.”
My 9 year old is ready for Trick-or Treating.
Next in line is my 13 year old daughter. Her costume turned out to be the trickiest. She wanted to be a Pokémon Umbreon. Now, they don’t sell these costumes anywhere we have ever looked. IF you are lucky the only Pokémon you will find is a Pikachu. After a search of the web we located the following picture:
The first part is easy. We raid her closet for a black shirt and black leggings. The ears and tail were what kicked me in the bum. It took several tries to get it just right. I first tried tracing what looked like Umbreon ears onto a piece of cardboard. I used the cardboard to trace a pattern onto a recycled black sheet that I raided from the linen closet. My first attempt after that was to glue the fabric to the cardboard…what a mess and a nightmare!!!! After some contemplation I decided to re-cut the ears out of the black sheet, sew two sides together and stuff them; which then required the demolition of an old throw pillow. This step rather upset my husband…I forgot it was his favorite pillow, even though it was nasty, falling apart, and beyond repair. During my trip to the Dollar Tree for the flashlight, I also invested in a black headband. After stuffing the ears and gluing red felt (salvaged from the fabric box of scraps I keep around) around to serve as rings, I then hand sewed the ears to the headband.
Finally was the tail. I wasn’t sure of the shape, so my daughter drew it onto a paper bag. I used this as a pattern to cut the tail out of the recycled sheet. Again, sewed the pieces together, stuffed them, glued a red ring around the end and we had a tail. I then cut red rings out of the red felt and glued them to the black shirt and leggings. Pinning it together we had an Umbreon.
Now, my daughter wanted her “rings” to glow. I went to The Dollar Tree, Big Lots, Walmart, Target, and Toys R Us to search for red glow sticks. Everyone had every color BUT red! Last minuet genius struck and we headed to Party City. Two dollars later and we now had glow sticks. As she got dressed I activated the glow sticks and a quick stitch allowed me to attach them to her costume. Black face makeup, a creative trick with her headband to allow a glow stick circle to hang on her forehead and Walla!
She wasn’t thrilled with how her face makeup turned out…but 2/3 of the people we ran into while Trick-or-Treating knew she was a Pokémon; and ½ of those people knew she was an Umbreon! She should be proud of her inspiration.
Then came the baby. At 4 ½ months he wears size 12 month clothes! Mainly to get over his diaper bum! We had been given a cute little sleeper outfit that said “My First Halloween, Don’t Scare Me!” Of course this is in a size of 6 months. My husband saw another baby in a cute little Devil costume. He then saw the same costume on Party City’s commercial. So, we just “had” to get it! Talk about a cute little devil! (no pun inteneded!)
Last was my oldest son. At the age of 14 he decided to stay home and hand out candy. He didn’t want to dress up. Needless to say Mommy was a bit disappointed. I am not ready for him to grow up. Even at 6’ 2”! But, I just couldn't leave him out of the pictures!!!!!
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