I'm sure that I've mentioned before that I love Hallowe'en. Well, I noticed today that I really have not outgrown it at all. The Little Dude came home from school at about 3:30 and asked right away, "Is it time to go out trick or treating yet?" and I had to tell him that no, we had to wait until Daddy got home and then have dinner and then after dinner it'd be time to go out. We got out some art supplies and did a bit of drawing and cutting and stuff, but I realized that I was just as fidgety and impatient for Hubs to get home and night to fall as my pre-schooler was. I really did not know what to do with myself. I had no interest in either making or eating dinner. When L..D. asked again about when we should go out, I said after dinner, and he said "Lets have a real quick dinner mom, just guacamole and chips, ok? I will only eat THREE chips because I am so excited to go out trick or treating!" And that sounded like an excellent plan to me. Except the part about only three chips. Turns out he ate substantially more than that, but we did indeed have a quick easy dinner like that, though I insisted on boiled eggs and fruit as well, so that we'd have all the energy we needed to walk around the block knocking on doors. Finally it was time to dress up.
The Little Dude was Batman, as I've previously mentioned.
Apparently today in his junior kindergarten class of 11 there were no less than THREE Batmans. Or Batmen? I'm not sure how you pluralize that. Also two Spidermans(men) and an Ironman. And from what I gleaned all the girls except one were some form of princess. That other girl was a puppydog. Sigh. I don't love the gender split there, and all it implies, but I also understand wanting to fulfill your fantasies by dressing up in a costume. So despite the fact that I don't want the Little Dude to feel pressured to conform to macho stereotypes, I also respect his need to act out the empowerment and aggression that his little psyche desires in the safe arena of dressing up.
The line I drew was that we had to make his superhero costume ourselves. There has to be some creativity in there. Also, those $35 package costumes are overpriced crap. I am too crafty and cheap to go for that. And none of this Dark Knight fake muscles nonsense. We are Batmanning it old school.
Here's the making run down. I got his grey shirt from the thrift store ($1.49) and cut the Batman symbol out of two sheets of craft felt (98 cents), and sewed them to the shirt. Then his cape is made from a thrifted ladies skirt ($5.99) a nice poly/rayon blend, good and heavy and swishy feeling, like a cape should be. Also, lined, which is extra nice. Very simple to sew, just measured him, opened up the skirt, cut out a cape shaped wedge about 24" long, full skirt width at the bottom and 18" across the top. Cut the waistband off the skirt and sewed that to the to for the collar. Cut the extra length off the waistband and added some velcro and voila, a cape.
Then Hubs used a piece of stiffened craft felt ($1.69) to cut the mask from, which I them tacked to a toque that we already had. Warm and secure. And also, did I mention adorable. Grand total, $10.15. And no creepy fake muscles.
But I might venture that his favourite part of this costume was the basket in which we were planning to store our candy. He was so stoked about that basket, (or more specifically about all the candy that would soon be going into it), that he asked me to take this picture.
The Baby who is still blissfully unaware of the whole suprehero/princesses thing was content to wear whatever I put on him, and so my little pumpkin......was a little pumpkin. How cute is that. Honestly.
I gave myself a break on this one and purchased this ready made costume for $10 from the second hand kids store "Once Upon a Child". Its reasonably good quality and I certainly could not have made it for that cheap. Plus also, how cute! He loves this costume and wore it around the house the whole day on Monday when we bought it. Adorable.
Hubs had some spooky plans of his own and made this mask, which the kids took turns trying on.
Whooooh... Creeeepy Baaaaaby....
I decided to go as Secret Agent Mom, International Woman of Mystery....
...or Mary Tyler Moore, depending on how I played it. I chucked this together in the last half hour before dinner. Seriously though, my closets are so full of vintage stuff that I am pretty much always two accessories away from a Hallowe'en costume. I wear this coat all the time in the fall and winter, but the addition of a wig and a beret takes it into costume mode. The kids were funny about the wig. The Little Dude said in a very perplexed tone of voice, "you look like Mom, but....different." When I pulled off the wig to show him the real me, he thought is was pretty funny. Then we put the wig on Daddy. And that. was. hilarious.
The Little Dude looked and looked at him, and then said, "You look like that guy. That bobble head guy. The one with the hair. He winds up and roars. You know him?" We had to think for a minute at that, and finally it clicked in his little brain and he shouted "Chewbacca!" Oh my gosh, I thought we would die laughing.
And despite cold and rain, we went out and visited out friends and neighbours and had a lovely time. The Little Dude was very polite with his "Trick or Treat's" and "Thank You's" and the Baby got pretty good at it too, happily chirping "Gick o' Geet" and "Tak ou!" when prompted. Though the highlight of his night was when we walked past an open garage with a Harley Davidson in it, and he pointed and bellowed out "MOTORBIKE!" as clear as day, and much to the amusement of the Harley Davidson enthusiasts who were sitting in said garage. He got extra candy at that house. And to those that ask, much will be given. Now if you'll excuse me I've got to go and weed through their candy to pick out the allergy triggers and do a little taxing of my own.
Oh yes, Kieran reported his very gendered SK costume count -- all boys were superheroes, less one jaguar. He was a frog, which some boys told him was silly. K was not impressed. All girls were princesses or ballerinas, less one house cat. Seriously--it's 2012.
Anja was a purple witch by day and a giraffe by night. All costumes from Once Upon a Child as well. I'm not so crafty. :-)
Posted by: Sheila | 11/02/2012 at 01:01 PM