Halloween 2012 Costumes

Insane.  Masochist. Glutton for punishment.  These all pretty much describe my feelings about myself after getting Halloween 2012 all finished.  It was a big year for homemade.  Everything except Hubs's costume was made by me.  And it was exhausting, but so worth it.  I always forget what a big production it is to make everyone a costume.  It only gets more hectic with more kids.  Not only does that add to number of costumes, but it takes away from the time available to actually, you know, MAKE them.  Everyone except me chose their own costume.  Well, Q-ball didn't get a choice.  The only choice a baby gets about a costume is whether to coo or cry.  He chose to coo.  What a good boy.  :)  I was still trying to do everything on the cheap and I think I did fairly well.

I made her put on a white tee so she'd be less naked.

This year became more of a challenge because my kids are starting to have an opinion.  I assumed the girls would want to be princesses.  I brought up patterns on the computer for Blue Eyes to look at so she could choose her princess.  Once she saw this Cleopatra costume she was totally smitten.  No other choice was acceptable.  She liked the "wings" on the dress.  I'm sure it was because it was the most difficult, most time-consuming, and least important part of the costume.  But I'm a loving mother and still made it.  The white fabrics came from my mom's fabric stash, and I purchased the black wig fabric, gold lame, and the jewels.  The jewels really made the costume.  How did I attach them?  I hot glued those bad boys on.

The Pink Blur was one I got lucky with.  She still wanted to be a princess.  At first she requested Cinderella.  I reminded her that she'd been Cinderella the year before.  Tangent:  She'd been Cinderella the previous year only because I'd run out of time to make the Snow White costume for which I'd purchased fabric, and we had Cinderella leftover from Blue Eyes's previous Halloween costume.  I gently directed her toward Snow White and she jumped on that.  Pink Blur was so excited to be her favorite Disney princess.  I was so excited that the fabric I'd purchased the year before had enough yardage to make a costume to fit her.  Hooray for free!  Free for this year, anyway.  I bought Snow White dress up shoes online for the costume.  The only size listed was 3 yrs + and I figured it would be okay if they were a touch too big.  Nope.  They were HUGE on Blue Eyes and her feet are bigger than the average 5 year old.  Maybe I'll have to make another one of these dresses in a few years.  Or not.

Know what happens when his older sisters take off the flying saucer and throw it off the back deck? Mommy searches fruitlessly for the ring and Q-ball becomes naked Shrek...with shiny boots.

I was so so so glad that little Q-ball was here for this Halloween.  His costume is one I'd had my eyes on for years, just waiting for a little boy so I could use it.  Turns out the pattern is out of print and I had to get it off eBay.  I'm not sorry.  I totally love it.  He is adorable as a little Martian.  I ended up buying everything needed for his costume.  Again, totally worth it.

Hubs is a Star Wars geek and went as Darth Maul.  He was scheduled for a raise so he went ahead and purchased his costume.  He also made most of the horns for the costume by carving them out of wood.  It was pretty awesome.  My contribution to his costume was the make up.  Easy cheesy, right?  Yeah.  I think it took over an hour and a half.  I was impressed with how long it lasted.  I'm also impressed that the Hubs left his bald cap on for over 12 hours.

After the neighborhood Trunk or Treat the kids were done.

My costume was a recycle because there simply wasn't time to put one together after I finished stuff for the kids.  I went as Arwen, same as I did five years ago.  There is a ton of satisfaction, however, in knowing that it was bigger on me this year than it was the first time I wore it.  Take that, weight loss!
I felt like I deserved something new after all the work I was doing for everyone else's costumes so I decided that if I didn't get a new costume that I should have elf ears.  I was so excited to open up my brand new pair of elf ears.  I was less excited when my "pair" of ear tips were both for left ears.  I was so tired by that point in the day that I almost cried right then.  Instead I bucked up, put on one ear, and draped my hair over the other ear.  They were non-refundable so I got half my money's worth.  Or something.  Next year, I get a new costume.

The kids all had a blast and got way more candy than necessary.  That's all part of the fun.

In the end it really was worth it because the girls loved their costumes and I loved Q-ball's.  Such fun.

Here's to a calmer Halloween next year!