Halloween Happiness

Spiderman (D.I.), The Man with the Yellow Hat, and Captain Hook 2006

When I was younger, I loved Halloween. Costumes were my favorite. I would plan for weeks ahead what I was going to wear, what I was going to be. This fascination with "dress-up" has not really dwindled much over the years. I know most girls grow out of it. Perhaps because I don't have a girl to help into it, I've just stayed there, in dress up land. I have a pair of "hippie pants" I wear (when they fit) on a regular basis. I like to wear one of my (21! gasp!) skirts on weekdays, not just on Sundays. And when October rolls around--I really get started.

I like to sew, and Halloween is the perfect excuse. Please don't think this puts me into the "super-mom-sews-all-her-kids-costumes-every-year-blah-blah" category. I may have aspired to that category once upon a time, but I have learned. For Joseph's first Halloween costume, I bought fabric ($15) and a pattern ($1) and spent HOURS sewing a cow. Oh, was he cute! I got done and realized that "a little big" was really three years too big. So that got me out of sewing for a few Halloweens. For the next sewing round, Joseph requested a dragon. I bought fabric and a pattern and after TEN HOURS I finished his costume. I can't find a digital picture to show you, but it was polka dotted and amazing, but WAY too much work!!! Gideon wanted to be Prince Charming that year, and his costume (a tunic and a cape) took an hour total, and has now received hundreds of hours of wear. The dragon, being more difficult to get on, has only had about 20 hours of wear.

After that year, I decided to draw the line. Now, in my book, the following equation MUST apply before sewing commences.

Sewing Time (hrs)= Time Worn(hrs) x10

For the last three years, I have been on costume sabbatical. For those years, we went to the D.I. and got costumes. I REFUSE to spend time sewing Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers costumes, and that was the costume of request. Also, the year before, we bought Phantom costumes and Darth Vader (I don't sew Darth Vader either).

Joseph, Gid, and Dad in 2003. Mooooooooove Over!!!!

But this year, I pulled out the stops again. We have a cheetah, a rat, a frog (just sweatpants and a cool hat from my brother and his wife in Alaska) and a robot (mostly finished, no sewing involved) in the works. I had to finish sewing at my MIL's because my machine quit working. The Cheetah pants are doubling as pajama bottoms, and the ears on both the cheetah and rat are removable so they can double as hoodies when Halloween is over.

And the very first costume I sewed for a boy--that cow costume? We've used it for every boy.

Moo to You!