Halloween 2010.

Looking back on the blog archives, it seems as though I haven't posted much since last Halloween. Oops. We had a good trick-or-treat haul this year and now that it's over (thank goodness!) I figured I'd share our costumes once again.

First, the youngest had been claiming she wanted to be a butterfly. I didn't really want to round up all of the pieces for that (costume+wings+headband+tights+???) so instead, I convinced her to be a bride. We had these old-ish flower girl dresses given to us from a one-off/damaged goods truck and the girls have always used them as dress-up gear. I've been getting sick of them laying around (they are large and puffy, thus take up mucho floor space), and I almost donated them until I realized they had prime Halloween potential. Add a $5 veil, and voila...instant bride! She looked so good it was almost scary in that oh-my-goodness-someday-she-really-will-be-a-bride kind of way.
Middle child also went with my well-placed suggestion, to be a zookeeper like last year. Looks like I detailed her outfit in this space a year ago. It's simple but I still love it, and she agreed because none of the friends at the new school had seen it before.
She had a fun project this year for school too, which was to "disguise" a pumpkin without carving or piercing it in any way. Together we found the idea of doing Oscar the Grouch and he turned out really well. A plain paint can, green spray paint, some felt, and an awesome black boa from Michaels. You know me, I love a good craft challenge.
And finally, the eldest has reached the "tweens" with a fierceness that we didn't quite expect. He really didn't want to be anything for Halloween. Boo. Being in 5th grade, though, they still do a party and I told him he wasn't going to be "that kid," the only one out of 80+ kids without a costume. So, after much thought and "What about a ____ ?" or "How about this one...?" we decided that he should be a contestant on the Amazing Race. This one did take a little time to find images online for the various clue cards/logos (Route Marker, Detour, Fast Forward, The Amazing Race envelope, etc). I luckily found some realistic images on Wikipedia. Print, laminate, punch a hole, and hook on a binder clip to his fanny pack and backpack...add a head bandana and a couple of foreign maps/language books hanging out the back of the backpack and he was done. He won "best dressed boy" at a Halloween party we attended. Too bad Mr. Tween had already gone home so his sisters claimed his prize!
As in past years, I'm glad Halloween is over. And now please let us all remember that Thanksgiving comes next...it's not Christmas yet, people! :)