Halloween Aftermath - Costumes

Oh, Halloween, my favorite. Here are some highlights and lowlights, with some interspersed craftiness.

1) Simon is allergic to peanuts. That pretty much sucks, but I selfishly look forward to blessed day that comes around once a year when he gets handed 50 peanut-infested candy bars that I get to eat (for his own good). Seriously, there is no meaner mother out there. This year, when we got back from trick-or-treating, our bowl of candy was cleaned out, so Ben started picking out the peanut candy from the kids' bags to hand out. I was all, "Are you serious - that's my candy." Ben was all, "are YOU serious?!?"

2) I believe I've mentioned that I don't believe in store bought costumes. Not because I'm an especially talented crafter, but because - well, come on people, the kid is going to wear it for 2 hours a year, do you really want to pay for it? Now's the time when you say, "Come on woman, the kid is going to wear it for 2 hours a year, do you really want to spend 5 hours gluing it together?" To which I say, that is an excellent point, but yes, I do. It's fun.

For all my judgment on store-bought costumes, Simon has been given and has worn a store bought costume ever year. This year was no different. I sniffed in judgment as he opened a Buzz costume for his birthday. In my imagination cardboard and felt Buzz is way cuter than nylon and plastic Buzz, but common sense told me to shut up.

So, imagine my eyes glimmering in manipulative hope when Simon announced that his Buzz needed wings! We can make wings! Out of cardboard and glue and paper! Yay! (OK, help me out here: I thought that "yeah" meant "yah" and "yea" meant "yay", but there seems to be some confusion on that out here on the internet, so in interest of not being misunderstood, I'm going to start writing yay. Next thing you know, I'll be ending all of my paragraphs with LOL.)

The only problem was that Simon's eyes were also glimmering in excitement at the thought of making wings. Why was that a problem? Well, he had some actual ideas of his own, which were just wrong and were threatening my project. (Hi, my name is Susie, and clearly, I have a problem.)

It was a challenge, but I told my inner control freak to simmer down, and he and I worked together on making wings. We cut up a purple binder to use the vinyl on the outside and modpodged it all to a diaper box. Simon asked for "sparkles," so I let him shake glitter all over my kitchen, and if I do say so myself, those wings were worth the mess. Have you ever seen better Buzz wings created by a five-year-old and his weird mother?!

3)Yes, this is only point 3. I have about 16 more to go. I made Talya and Charlie's costumes based on this brilliant Martha tutorial. When it comes to halloween costumes, Martha has some ideas that are clever and don't require sewing. Talya was a princess and Charlie a frog prince. They were pretty much adorable. It is insanely hard to find a green hooded sweatshirt for toddlers. I had to buy him a girl's version from Target. I cut off the ruffles, but the sleeves puff a little, which just make it more "princely" I think.

This was Talya's first ever foray into the Princessphere. She doesn't know about Disney or Barbie, and it is just adorable to me that her first princess was all about being cute and pretty and pink. I edited Martha's idea to include a long blonde braid - because the last thing I want my daughter to believe is that to be a beautiful princess you have to have blonde hair. I'm telling you, my neuroses know no end.

4) Speaking of neurosis, one of Ben's is the thought of the kids getting cold. It's one of the things that shows his Indian-ness, that he thinks wet hair or chilly weather will lead to The Plague. Maybe he's right. Either way, we layered our kids until they could have all passed as multi-colored marshmallows in jeans. I think we may have been the only family in our hood that actually had overheated kids at the end of the night.

5) The kids were not the only ones to get in on the fun. We hosted a grown-up party last night. Ben and I went as Tiger and Elin the night of The Incident.

There's so much more to say, but my kids are cleaning the windows and tv with diaper wipes and two of them just ran outside without coats or shoes - don't want them to get The Plague! Happy Halloween.

(Linking here:)