Halloween

I saw on BelleNoelle's blog a post about Halloween costumes. She rocks and makes all her son's costumes. I, on the other hand, am totally lame and buy all my kid's costumes (although, if you can guess the size your child will be next year, you can save a bundle by buying costumes on clearance a few days after Halloween)

If you have a desire to make costumes but no real ability (I can't sew a button on so making a costume is totally out of the question). You should check out Family Fun Magazine for some really great ideas. I haven't checked all of them on the website, but this month's magazine has some super ones that I could totally handle. The egg is great and if I hadn't already bought this year's costumes, I would seriously consider making that one for one of the kids.

Even though I buy my kid's stuff, I make my own. A few years ago, I went as a tree (no one got it and several asked if I was supposed to be mother nature). The next year, I went as mother nature and again, no one got :( Both years, I took grey sweats (shirt and pants) and dyed them brown (same set both years) and then hot glued on fake fall leaves. I also clipped the leaves in my hair to simulate a tree that was starting to lose it's leaves. For the mother nature costume, I wore a baby doll in a sling with my tree costume. With both costumes, I wore my brown Birks.

Last year, I went as an orange crayon. Grey sweats, dyed orange (love me some Rit dye) a piece of orange construction paper rolled into a cone and then stapled to an orange piece of paper made into a headband. Then I glued together 4 pieces of black construction paper and cut a big oval out of it. I wrote Crayola on it and was good to go! :) This year, I found some really cute animal faces/ears. It is a head band with ears and fur on it and has a little piece that goes down the face and has a nose on the end. I bought the lion ($3) even though Lizzie wanted "baby jaguar" (merow merow LOL). I'm going to rip the leaves off the tree costume and use the brown sweats with the lion face and I will be a lion for Halloween :)

A few points that my costumes must meet. They have to be comfortable. I have to be able to move and play and everything with the kids. They can't be scary or sleazy (I used to have a devil costume that won me more than a few costume contests because I looked like a whore in it) and they have to be CHEAP! I've wanted the Tigger costume from the Disney store for years, but it is at least $50 and I won't spend that on something like jeans that I would wear everyday so I certainly won't spend it on a once a year halloween costume.