I'm not a big blood-and-guts fan. Scary movies are just unnecessary (to me; if you're into them, enjoy! We all have our guilty pleasures). I also try not to expose our little guy to media (movies, TV, music) that isn't age-appropriate. Maybe I'm that prudish mother I never thought I'd be, or maybe my education background has put my jaw on the floor too many times (watching "Family Guy" in second grade? Seriously?!), but it's just who we are as a family. Over-the-top or not.
Believe me, though. I enjoy watching him experience things that he's old enough to wrap his head around, listen to a fun new pop song, and see what interests arise in him. Fascinating, and so fun to be a part of. Really.
I'm also not anti-Halloween. I get a little anxious over the mischievous activities (and excuse for mayhem and law-breaking), but for the little ones, it's downright awesome. Heck, we're actors, so it's in our blood to put on different clothes and pretend to be somebody else. It's how we do, yo. The candy's a bit much, but our rest-of-the-time attempts at clean, organic living don't dictate that we need to forgo the fun; for now, we'll just go to our relatives and maybe a friendly neighbor or two, leaving us with just a small handful of special sugary treats.
Oh, and my mom set the bar HIGH in the DIY costume realm. I don't remember ever buying costumes, although we did go to a costume shop annually to get ideas. (Awesome tip right there, folks!) My favorite was the year that I was missing tons of front teeth, when my mother turned a princess costume into a last-minute tooth fairy outfit. Genius. And, the older we got, the greater the competition between my older siblings to see how creative their Phantoms of the Opera could be. We also borrowed awesome dresses and bonnets for "Little House" costumes (even though I was super sick that year and couldn't actually trick-or-treat), and I swear we all used a black graduation gown as a foundation to many a costume.
Anyhoo, as an infant, Hadman was his spirit animal -- a giraffe (which was more of a sweatsuit than anything else, and the pictures of which are lost in a digital avalanche). Last year, he was Charlie Brown. It was perfect.
He's got a variety of favorite books. He's allowed to watch TV (and Netflix, sigh), so there are a handful of characters that he knows well. Heck, he's even familiar with superheroes (Dorky Daddy reads them), although I'm not sure he understands the concepts behind them yet.
When asked what he wants to be, he tends to bluntly say "Apples. And 'nanas. But apples." Um. As fun as that sounds, an apple costume is a bitch to put together. And he's not THAT big of a fan of bananas, so to make him one just seems...cruel, LOL.
Here are a handful of the ideas that I've found charming and quite possible for the munchkin. The cool thing about some of them is that they can go to live in a future dress-up trunk for daily use. Plus...oh, the cuteness!
Pilot | No-Sew Superheroes | Kermit | Chef
The scarecrow and cowboy costumes are both missing origination links. If you're the owner, please let me know so I can credit! Oh, and click on the chef link -- so many awesome ideas!
- He's not into planes yet, but that pilot costume (probably without the airplane) is awesome, warm, and half the outfit can be made of regular clothes. So cute and classic, right??
- Okay. I'm totally going to make a couple of these no-sew superhero costumes, regardless of our Halloween plans. So simple, so much fun, so "our guys."
- This is the perfect scarecrow!!! It's actually comfortable; imagine that! Cloth and yarn instead of the scratchy, hay-filled version? Sign me up.
- Hadley's pretty enamored by Kermit (he's the only non-Sesame Street Muppet he knows...well) thanks to Netflix and "The Muppet Movie" in its queue. Although this is a little guy here, it would be easily adaptable for a "big kid" like ours. ;-)
- Okay. The idea of "Hadman the Chef" is a stroke of genius. One of his favorite pretend activities is to "cook" and "make soup" with all of his handmade felt food. Much like the hero costumes, I'd like to make a chef's hat for future use, too.
These are just a few of the super adorable ideas I'm considering. I'm ultimately going to run a few of the ideas Dave has helped me narrow down by the little guy so that he knows what's going on and it isn't a huge (unwanted) surprise come Halloween.
What about you? Are you a store-bought costume person? Or a DIYer? What's a favorite costume of your childhood?
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