My typical Halloween style is to head to Party City October 31 around 2PM to let the kids select a costume. By then, stock is limited, but what's left is usually at least 50% off. I actually consider the limited stock to be a good thing. My kids know they can't get anything scary, and I don't discuss it as much with them but they also can't get anything skanky. Or whatever adjective you use to describe unsavory male characters. For example, Aaric would not be allowed to dress up as a Mac Daddy. Call me old fashioned, but I like for kids to look like kids! Anyway... my rules typically eliminate around half of what's left. Then, I impose further price limitations. This usually gets us down to 2 costumes. If we'd gone in 2 weeks earlier, we'd have a big wall to choose from. Instead, I get to say, "Aaric, you can choose between A and B. Mikayla, pick either C or D. Xander, lookie, you get to be E!" (He's little enough to not care.) It works great.
This year, I saw some cute costume ideas in the Family Fun magazine while waiting at the doctor's office. We decided on the Flower Fairy for Mikayla. Looking at the picture now, I can see that I took it about 10 steps further than their suggestion. (Actually, that's not the same picture that was in the magazine. They showed little girls with green leggins (stems!) and green clogs, and then more flowers on the shirt. But still...) I blame Liz (and this is just the most recent example. She really does look for any opportunity to fling confetti all over the house. I say she's crazy. No one ever tell my children that there are parents out there who get that into holidays.) I think it's Liz's fault that I got possessed to spend a couple hours deconstructing a fake bouquet of flowers, and using hot glue and fabric glue to affix them to the various parts of Mikayla's costume. Which I found out yesterday afternoon, she needed for today. And I couldn't find my hot glue gun, but luckily, Kenna had one and she brought it over last night.
During that time, I was also working on three Rainwater Regatta boats.(good grief, who has time to make a fancy one like that?) And late last night we read on the spray paint bottle that it needs to dry for 10 minutes between coats, and THEN a full 24 hours. Um, we'll be using these boats at 1pm today. I might have sprayed another coat on this morning. And then got fingerprints on it. Oops.
Pictures will be taken, but you know the drill. I'll post them in July, maybe.
6 comments:
I love it! "Look you get to be E" is the greatest!
This year we gave our kids their costumes as birthday presents! ha ha! Is that so cheating?!
I think that's totally fair! I do also like buying actual dress up clothes and using them instead, when possible. Mikayla has a Princess Fiona dress that is very well made (from Target) that we got on sale one year. It was way too big for her, so it'll still fit for a couple more years. I think that'll probably be her costume next year. I just hate buying the cheapie ones that are going to fall apart pretty quickly.
I actually probably will get the costume pics up this evening, because I also plan to detail how I did it all. In case anyone else feels like going insane and copying my ideas.
pine wood derby kicks those little boat's butts!
is that where that apostrophe should go? i moved it a few times.. i'm not sure still.
Pinewood Derby is in the spring. Rainwater Regatta is every other year in the fall, Space Derby is the other years in the fall.
I like the fall ones, because the boats and space ships are just made of balsa wood, and come pre-shaped, so that all you have to do is sand them. We just sanded to smooth them out, but other kids did actually sand them to shape the bottom more like an actual boat (or, rather, I suspect their parents sanded them like that). Anyway, I like that they're easy and require no heavy duty tools. They're good for when daddies are away.
So, I want to hear what they decided to be. With my luck, my kid would be the one to change their mind, after I hot glued flowers everywhere... How is the Flower fairy coming together? I realize I am several days late on my comment here, so any pictures ready yet?
What are Aaric and Xander going to be? My curiousity is killing me!
The boys are boring. Aaric still has his mad scientist costume from last year that fits him fine, and he said he was okay with wearing it again. I may stop by Party City to get stuff to spray his hair green and do something crazy with his face - the lab coat is made to look like something green exploded all over. It's called Dr Toxic or something like that. And Xander is wearing the pirate costume that I bought when Aaric was 4. It's been through the laundry a million times, so it fits a tiny 2 yr old just fine. If he'll wear it, I may get him a hat to go with it.
Post a Comment