Halloween Past Picture Dump!

As I've been making my sons' Halloween costumes for 2021, I realized it's been a long time since I've posted any of my Halloween costume creations. So here is a photo dump from the last few years.

In Halloween 2016, Thing 1 was really into the movie Zootopia, so he wanted to be a fox police officer. But he didn't want to be the character from the movie. He wanted to be his own character named "Alex".

Thing 2 on the other hand was really into the Warriors book series. So he wanted to be his own original Warriors character named "Snow Star".

With their grandparents. I had to post this one, because their grandpa died of COVID this past January. He always loved seeing what original ideas they came up with, even though he rarely understood what they were.

I loved the quick costumes I threw together for us... middle aged Harry and Ginny Potter!

For Halloween 2017, Thing 1 wanted to be a glow in the dark stick figure. This was the easiest costume I'd made today. I just taped a bunch of glowsticks to an all black sweatsuit.

Thing 2 wanted to be Tails from Sonic. You can't tell form the picture, but the costume actually has two tails, like the character.

Halloween 2018 the boys wanted to return to Five Nights at Freddy's, but this time they were characters from the Sister Series franchise.

Halloween 2019 brought the least recognizable costumes I've ever made. They wanted to be Komasan and Komajiro from Yo-Kai Watch. Hardly anyone knew who they were, but they loved how the costumes turned out, so they was the most important thing.

Halloween 2020 was the year Halloween almost didn't happen. Most people in our little college town had decided they weren't doing trick or treating (I still handed out candy in costume though!), so my boys decided not to go out. I was really sad they didn't want to dress up, because they were 13, which meant they were getting to the end of their trick or treating life. But I was able to convince everyone to throw together some costumes from our Halloween hodge podge tote/dress up tote to go do a window visit with Superman's mom who was in a rehab facility recovering from knee surgery. 

Superman was Dud from Lodge 49. Thing 1 was a construction worker and Thing 2 resurrected my Mario costume from Halloween 2015 (I was Mario the year he was Yoshi). 

I opted to be a mad scientist. (Fun fact, I actually officiated a wedding that afternoon for a couple that were dressed like Frankenstein's Monster and the Bride of Frankenstein. They requested I come in costume, so I figured this was appropriate!) 

And in honor of our dog's first Halloween with us (we adopted him early in 2020), he was my evil experiment gone wrong...a Spider dog!

 

Halloween 2015

As I've discussed in previous posts, I LOVE Halloween. I LOVE making homemade costumes for my boys and myself. This year, my sons wanted to be characters from their current favorite video game: Five Nights at Freddy. Thing 1 wanted to be "Nightmare Bonnie" (which is a tattered and scary version of the regular Bonnie) and Thing 2 wanted to be Foxy the Pirate.

These costumes were great fun to make. It took a lot of craft foam, fleece, and hot glue, and I'm really happy with how they came out.

Halloween 2014

Once again, it is fall...my favorite time of the year! And in just a few weeks, it will be my favorite holiday... Halloween!!

This past summer my son turned seven, and I can almost tear up just thinking about what amazingly sweet, kind, smart, and fun boys they are growing up to be. I just keep commenting on how much they are maturing and becoming more and more independent. And this year, almost as if to prove my point, for the first time ever they have chosen two separate Halloween costumes. (Did you hear that? That was the sound of my heart breaking just a little.) Since they were babies, they've worn coordinating twins costumes, but this year, they are really letting their growing independent personalities and interests show! I'm simultaneously proud and a bit sad.

Before I reveal their costume choices for this year, let's take a moment to review their costumes from Halloweens past:

2007: Thing 1 and Thing 2

2008: Bert & Ernie

(Kinda plain...they wouldn't wear the wigs or face paint)

2009: Rock stars! (complete with black nail polish, eye liner, and pleather pants!!)

2010: Thomas the Tank Engineers

2011: Ketchup and mustard (what for Thing 1's picture on the French's Facbook page on Oct 30!)

2012: Red dog and rainbow dog*:

2013: R2-D2 and R2-Q5 (aka "the darkside R2")

And for this year, Halloween 2014....
Thing 1 chose to be... Sky Does Minecraft

And Thing 2 chose to be... Yoshi

 *While the dogs were not *my* favorite costumes, they boys LOVED them! In fact, they loved them so much, they STILL dress up in them at home and occasionally wear them out. In fact, red dog made an appearance last fall when the boys had to dress up as a book character for a class book report (Thing 1 went as Pete the Cat and Thing 2 went as Clifford the Big Red Dog)

And this past weekend, we took the kids to the local Zoo Boo and Thing 1 opted not to wear his Sky Does Minecraft costume because it would "be too hard to sit in" when riding the train, roller coaster, etc. So he opted to wear his Rainbow dog costume instead and keep the Sky Does Minecraft costume for Halloween night.

So it just goes to show...sometimes it's not the most complicated or "original" costumes that the kids love best. Sometimes it's just the simple ones that allow them to use their imaginations!!

Hope you have a Happy Halloween!

Fall!

School started this week, which can only mean one thing: Fall is on its way!

I love fall! It is my absolute favorite season!

I love the light jacket weather, the falling leaves, the cool nights, wearing scarfs, drinking hot chocolate, going to football games (don't even like football, I just like going to the games)...and I LOVE Halloween!

Halloween is still 75 days away, but my mind is already racing with ideas for Thing 1 and Thing 2's costumes!

(An aside: My sewing machine is currently in the shop. Quelle dommage! But, it should be ready sometimes in September, so I should (knock on wood!) still have plenty of time!)

Before I think about the coming costume, I would like to review their costumes of past:

2007: Thing 1 and Thing 2

2008: Bert & Ernie
(This is definitely my least favorite costume, but they were 1.5 and really wouldn't have worn a wig, a hat, makeup etc...so we went very simple)

2009: Rock stars!

2010: Thomas the Tank Engineers

2011: Ketchup and mustard

So what do you think they'll choose to be this year?

They love playing Angry Birds on my phone...so maybe:

We could even get our new puppy into the fun...

They love Cars 2...so maybe: 

Or

They loved watching the Olympics, so maybe...

Or on second thought, maybe I could get Superman to do this one! ;)

Whatever we choose, I feel like nothing can beat the ketchup and mustard. We got sooooo many people staring and complementing us on that one. It was so simple, yet original, and everyone loved it! (Props to Thing 1 and Thing 2, because they came up with the idea all on their own!)

Hmmm...about 60 days left to decide!

Update:

The boys decided they wanted to be dogs. Thing 2 wanted to be a "red dog" and Thing 1 wanted to be a "rainbow dog." Not my favorite costumes ever, but the boys loved them!

Almost done

Halloween is almost upon us.  Time to get together the finish pieces of the boys' costume.

We liked having the wagon with us so much last year that we decided to refashion the Thomas the tank engine into a hot dog cart.

Because I'd been using the wagon as a garden cart, and it'd been left out in the backyard all summer, and was completely waterlogged (yea, we didn't make it with very good wood), we had to rebuild the bottom and sides.

Then we spray painted it a shiny metallic silver and resprayed the wheels and handles black.

Finally we painted the sides.  And what hot dog cart is complete without an umbrella?

We are finally all ready for Halloween.  And not a moment too soon, because tomorrow there is a Trick or Treating event in town along fraternity/sorority row that we plan on hitting up!  First time with all of the costumes together!  Can't wait to take some pictures.

Updated pictures:

My Back Up Plan

My back up plan, for if/when Thing 1 and Thing 2 decide they don't want to wear their costumes for very long.

They'll also be great just-because tees, dontcha think?

Cut the mustard

As a reminder, my 4 year old twin sons wanted to be ketchup and mustard for Halloween this year.

Thing 1 is my mustard eater and Thing 2 can't get enough of his ketchup. So, in my mind that is how I would dress them. But over the past week and a half, they have each been telling me that they are dressing as the other condiment. I have no idea how this will shake out on Halloween night.

But for now, I finished the Ketchup costume last weekend.

And spent this morning finishing the Mustard costume.

I used the ketchup costume as a base for size and height. Then made the slightly more bell-bottomed shape and narrow squirter top. It fits Thing 1 great so far.

Then I hot glued the labels I'd already made, and I added his weight in ounces to the bottom. Then used yellow puffy paint to make lines on the squirter to look like ridges.

Finally, I had to bribe Thing 1 to try it on for me. But once he had it on, he really had some fun with it pretending to soak Superman with mustard.

Next step: the hotdog cart!