She Thinks She's Edith Head...

One of my favorite of our family traditions is our group Halloween costumes.  It's evolved over the years.  It began as a command decision in 2002.  I found three inexpensive little American Indian costumes one year, and realized that I had the beading skills necessary to jazz them up; so I bought them.  The girls were "One Little, Two Little, Three Little Indians" that year.  Sadly, I don't have pictures of those costumes, although the costumes themselves are still floating around the house. 

In 2003 Tara asked if they could be butterflies (she'd been studying them at school).  So I got wings and antennae for them and we painted their faces a bit.  Ian was old enough to complete the set; so I wrapped him in one of LH's brown oxford shirts and put antenna on his head.  He was a butterfly emerging from a chrysalis.

In 2004, we had our first whole family theme, a pirate crew.  I borrowed and made costumes for the children.  LH went nuts in the costume store and bought hats for us all and an expensive full-on pirate captain costume for himself.  I've not let him back in such a store since. 

Ian was still little enough to be carried around a lot, so I made him into a parrot.  I was so extremely proud of how cool we all looked that I actually said (as we drove into the church parking lot for 'trunk or treat') "First thing, we get someone to take our picture and then I don't care what happens."  Yep.  I know.  *sigh*

We got a friend to take the photo and then a few minutes later, as we were just sitting down to pot-luck supper, we realized that Ian wasn't crying because he was hungry.  He had, in fact, dislocated his elbow sitting down hard while holding LH's hand in line for food.  Sooo...I spent the rest of the evening in the ER with my little parrot.  The nurses made a HUGE fuss over him and the tech positioning him for his x-ray popped his arm back into place on accident.  LH took the girls home after 'trunk or treat' and, bless him, set himself to folding laundry as penance. 

The next year, we were a zoo.  You can totally tell which costumes I purchased and which ones I made.  Poor Emma's sorry looking elephant costume was a low point for me.  I just couldn't get her ears to stand out properly.  LH and I were zookeepers, which was fitting for that year.  I vowed to start the costume making process MUCH earlier the next year.

In 2006 we were Pharaoh's Court. Ian was supposed to be a mummy, but he decided at the last minute that he REALLY didn't like his costume and wanted to go in his Thomas the Tank Engine pajamas instead, so you'll have to use your imagination.  The next day, it occurred to me that I probably could have talked him into a cat costume of some sort, which would still have fit the theme. 

In 2007 depression thwacked me good and I didn't have the energy to make costumes for us all.  Thankfully, it was a very good year financially and we had the wherewithal to purchase them.  I realized after purchasing costumes for the children that our theme was 'The Children's Bookshelf" -- we were all types characters that one would find in the books in our children's room.  LH recycled his pirate costume and I was Red Riding-hood in the lovely wool cloak my mother had made for me in college.  I love that cloak.  Our car was decorated as a forest, with woodland animals supplied from the children's toys. 

In 2008, LH had already moved to Minnesota and I was frantically trying to fix up the house to put it on the market.  We decided to be the Four Seasons and Mother Nature, if LH had been home with us, we'd have made him a Time Lord (the 9th Doctor with the cool leather jacket).  That's a tornado and clouds in the background. 

In 2009, in the height of all the recession mess, we voted as a family to use costumes from previous years and donate the money we'd budgeted for Halloween to a food pantry.  LH and I pulled out Red Riding-hood and the Pirate again.  The others wore their costumes from 2007 for the last time - those were their favorites.

In 2010, Anoka's Halloween fever bit me hard and I spent a month making these Quidditch costumes.  I'm still pleased with them.  We reused the banners for our family birthday party last spring.  We'll have to find a way to use the costumes themselves again before everyone's outgrown them. 

And, this year.  It seems like every other year we have something really fantastic.  This was the off year.  We had the choice between Vikings (a la How to Train Your Dragon) or Phineas & Ferb.   Our chosen theme was fun (we had a great time with the wigs & hair color), but there were very few people who knew who we were without a little explaining.  And we got cold rather quickly.  The fun part of this year, though, was taking Tara with me to thrift stores hunting for costume items.  She was astonishingly good at finding just what we needed in a ridiculously short period of time.  Look how tall they all are!

I'm lobbying hard for the Vikings next year.  They're warmer.  I call dibs on Valhallarama;  I totally want to wear a horned helmet, furs and long blonde braids.  :)  And, extra brownie points if you know who Edith Head is (without googling her).