Continuing my walk down Halloween’s memory lane, we now come into the period of time when just being the mom of 3 small kids and a teenager was pretty overwhelming, so the costumes got pretty uninspired, or completely store-bought, depending on the year.
Below India is wearing the grapes that I referred to in yesterday’s post. That was Amanda’s costume when she was probably 2-1/2, but I couldn’t find a photo of her in it.
Maia the witch, Evan the chef, and India the bunch of grapes
Somewhere along the way Jim and I were bags of jellybeans, which proved a bad idea later in the evening when people were getting drunk and popping our balloons.
A truly uninspiring year. Maia the goth girl, India as Pocohantas and Evan as Luke Skywalker.
Maia the geisha girl, India the punk rocker, and Evan as Mr. Incredible. Ugh.
For some reason we recycled Maia's Geisha girl, but with more effort this year. Evan was a greaser, and India was a pirate.
I actually got this real kid's leather jacket at a consignment shop for $5, which is what drove the whole costume for Evan.
Maia made a pretty good Geisha.
India the pirate, complete with fake parrot.
Now we get into the photos of some more creative effort on my part again. This photo of India was the first year we attended my friend Justine’s annual Halloween party. It’s late in the afternoon on Halloween and she has a local hot dog truck come. It’s a great way to get the whole neighborhood together, get a quick dinner, do some socializing, and everyone takes off right from there for their trick or treating.
India was a momma pup with her box of puppies for sale. I do not have any idea what the other two were this year as I don't seem to have any photos of them???
I got into it this year. Evan was Frankenstein, Maia was a mermaid, India was a hot air balloon, Jim was the Hunchback of Notre Dame, and I was a witch.
The makeup was wearing off a bit in this shot, but this was my first year's witch costume.
This was a great costume. I took a store-bought mermaid's costume, but made a really fancy mermaid's tail with this awesome fabric I found. I made a veil out of fishing net that I glued seashells and sea glass onto and glued the net to a headband.
Frankenstein from the back. The head was made out of a plastic gallon milk carton. I bought a blazer from the thrift store.
These costumes are, no doubt, the cause of my complete Halloween burnout this year. I made every single costume from scratch except my own witch costume. My makeup alone took long enough.
I even offered to fly Amanda home for the weekend from College, as she would have been a perfect Glinda the Good Witch. She chose a weekend of college Halloween parties instead. Go figure.
Jim was the Cowardly Lion. It was absolutely freezing out last Halloween, and Jim was the only one that was comfortable.
Maia was a great scarecrow.
India as Dorothy complete with Toto.
Evan was the Tin Man.
And I was The Wicked Witch of the West. A role that Jim said suited me well. My friend Susan took this photo and I love the profile.
And just to show you how really old I am, here’s a photo of me and a friend when I was 20 years old at a Halloween party. I was a hooker and he was my pimp. I still laugh out loud every time I look at this photo. Look at my hair! And I still remember going to the thrift store to find his clothes and what a score it was to find those pants (they’re corduroy!) and that satin paisley shirt. Remember this was almost 30 years ago…you couldn’t wear this costume today with about being beaten up by an angry mob. I do not mean to offend anybody, it was all done in the name of fun.
what exactly are those things on your pink hot pants?? I roar with laughter at that photo every time as well!
These photos don’t do the homemade costumes justice. The details are amazing.
I think I have a picture of your kids dressed as chickens when they were really tiny. Another fab homemade costume!