You're Going to be Ghosts This Year

I just realized we have two weeks until Halloween! Only two weeks! That doesn't give me a lot of time to come up with six costumes. Now don't hate me, but I'm actually one of those moms who makes their kids creative costumes every year. I know, I know, your opinions of me have just lowered. I don't sew or anything, but I'm pretty good with a hot glue gun. Well, truth be told I'm not actually that good with a hot glue gun, (Do you know how badly it hurts when you get hot glue on your hands?) but I get by.

So, I like to make creative costumes and I secretly love it when my kids are the only ones in school with their costume. Does anyone my age remember the costumes we had as kids? They came in identical boxes and they all had the same components - a plastic costume with little plastic ties at your neck that would rip before you even got to school and a hard, molded plastic mask. The masks would have cut-outs for your eyes and mouth. Every kid had to stick his tongue out through the little mouth opening because, well, because it was fun. Inevitably, we'd scrape our tongues on the sharp edges of the hard plastic. The best part of those masks was, of course, the little rubber bands of death. You know - the tiny rubber bands that were attached to the mask with even tinier staples and no matter how careful you were, you always snapped yourself in the head with it. And of course, your face would sweat so much in that hot plastic that you'd have actual puddles in the mask by the time you reached the end of the block. Oh yeah, those were the days. Honestly, I can't complain because I only had a couple of those costumes. My mom was a homemade-Halloween-costume-maker herself. It's probably where I get my passion for making my kids costumes. I don't mind getting that trait passed down from Mom. :D Hee hee - just kidding, Mom!


Medusa from Clash of the Titans. What kid wouldn't want to be Medusa for Halloween? Now there was a movie with incredible special effects. My son had to watch that movie for school last year during their unit on Greek mythology. After seeing Harry Potter and Star Wars, the awesome, "realistic" stop motion animation in Clash of the Titans, just didn't seem so spectacular.


The Jolly Green Giant. I don't know about you, but I know I always wanted to dress up like the guy from the can of green beans.


Ahhh, Sleeping Beauty. Yes, I know she looks a little evil, but note that her plastic costume is flame retardant!


And the devil costume. Notice his teeth? Who knew the devil didn't brush and floss regularly?
Thank you so much Debra and Tracy for sending me those pictures from your collection!

My mom made some cool costumes for me and my sister. I've made some cool costumes for my kids, but my sister has made the ultimate costumes for herself over the years! They're absolutely remarkable.

Here are a couple of the costumes I've made my kids over the years. I wish I had more pictures of them on my computer. I don't have the time or the energy to do anything this year. I think they're all going to be ghosts.


Marge Simpson (it's bubble wrap painted blue for the hair.) I stole this idea from my sister.

A whack-a-mole game

Yeah, giving him a big padded mallet probably wasn't one of my better ideas.


A penguin and elephant I made years ago. I just used sweat pants and then cut up and glued sweat shirts. My mom did a little sewing for me on these.


Our boy genius, Jimmy Neutron.


I made a plain ole Sponge Bob costume for my oldest son way back before Sponge Bob was a household name. When we went trick-or-treating, people kept saying stuff like, "Oh look honey. It's a piece of cheese." He used that costume for two years and then we redecorated it to look like Mermaid Man.

Umm yeah, I had nothing to do with this. Gotta love a man who isn't afraid to let his hair down. (Yes, I did walk several paces in front of him)


Yep, that's a typical picture of my "princess".