Halloween Pictures

Halloween was more fun this year for me than in the past.  We decided to have Halloween the way I remember it - with a more homemade feel.  I get really annoyed by the expectation to wear a costume with a big wow factor, and by how expensive Halloween has become.  With five kids to buy costumes for, it was getting ridiculous. I wanted the kids to find out that it could be so much more fun to be creative.  It took very little convincing to have them agree to making a costume instead of buying one.  All I had to do was to tell them I would only pay $15 toward each of their costume.   They quickly calculated how much money they had, and each person decided whether it was worth the cost to them to buy a costume.  Nathan didn't dress up.  Eve bought her costume.  Malinda and Eve made their own.  In the end, we all found making costumes so enjoyable, that they want to do it again next year.

Joshua's costume was already determined in July, so he was a fireman as usual.   Here he is in our living room.  This one was taken a few days before Halloween, but it has him with his beloved torch.  On Halloween day, he had his torch with him, but not at the times when I had the camera, so I thought this picture was a better representation of what he looked like on Halloween.  We, of course, went Trick-or-Treating to the fire station.  He was in awe, but not afraid to talk to them.  He wants to go back and get invited in!

Here is Malinda during the parade at school.  She was a tiger.  We made her costume with a T-shirt, some duct tape, and pipe cleaners.  She designed the ears (they look like triangles in this picture, but they really had a great shape - rounded triangles with a pinched point at the top.)

Eve was a ladybug.  She looks so cute!

Leah wanted to be a honey bee, but all of the costumes except one were soooo inappropriate! We tried to buy the cute, modest one, but it was super popular, and everyone was sold out - both online and in the stores.  I hope that tells the costume designers something about what people want, and that they will design more modest costumes.  Anyway, Leah and her friend Ashley were both bees and went Trick-or Treating together.  Leah made her costume with a T-shirt, duct tape, and pipe cleaners.  I was going to sew a little skirt on the bottom of the tee, but we ran out of time.  The wings were from last year's fairy costume.
We Trick-or-Treated around the neighborhood, at church for a Trunk-or-Treat, and went to Grandma and Grandpa's house.  It rained so we got wet, but it wasn't cold - it was actually really fun!  I love where we live, because the whole neighborhood is out and it's a great social event.  The kids get to see all of their school friends either on the sidewalk or when they knock at the door.  It's probably the only thing I like about Halloween - seeing the friends and seeing how excited the kids are to be dressed up.  Now, if we make our costumes again next year, then it will tap into my love for creativity and that will be another thing I like about Halloween.