Costumes! I actually finished all my kids’ Halloween costumes in
time! And not just in time for Halloween (which, sadly, doesn’t mean
anything here on the real day*), but for my girls’ choir rehearsal where
they were allowed to wear costumes, and the school dance which happened
mid-week before school let out for a four day weekend, for a small
neighborhood party, and finally Trick-or-Treat on Saturday night.
It’s worth all the effort I put into making their costumes myself
because it’s not just for one day. They wear them for all the little
seasonal events, then they wear them around the house, to birthday
parties, the store…. They make up excuses to be in costumes like coming
up with plays, or just decide life is better as something non-human for
an afternoon with no attempt to justify it. They wear their costumes
for years, so I have to make sure they are washable and sturdy. Mona’s
giraffe costume was practically in shreds by the time I convinced her to
let me retire it. So I don’t mind the work of getting those costumes
done because the kids certainly appreciate them.
I finished Mona’s costume first. She wanted to be a dalmatian, and
it worked out well. She picked out black gloves at Target for her paws,
and the final touch was her tag to put on her collar. I just cut out
some cardboard in the shape of a bone and spray painted it gold, then
wrote ‘SPOT’ on it and added a small heart (per careful instructions).
From a distance her tag looks kind of like a bow tie, but she’s happy
with it. That girl makes a cute dog, romping around and barking. And
this relates to nothing in this paragraph, but I need to mention that
Mona’s latest new expression is, “Quiet as a moth.” I love ‘Quiet as a
moth,’ especially since Mona isn’t.
Quinn had his heart set on being a blue jay for months. His costume
is particularly cozy and warm so he likes hanging out in it. One of the
most adorable things I have ever seen in my life is Quinn flapping
around in his blue jay suit saying, “Tweet tweet! Tweet tweet!”
(Before he headed out into the neighborhood with his pumpkin basket I
suggested he could say “Trick or Tweet” but since I stayed back at our
house to hand out candy I don’t know if he actually did.) It makes me
want to scoop him up and nuzzle his neck and tell him not to grow
anymore. How was he just a baby five minutes ago and now he’s this
three year old who can read and jump on one foot and pretend to be a
blue jay? When I tell him he needs to go back to being a baby he laughs
and says, “My age can’t go lower! It can only go upper.” I guess I
don’t really want him to be a baby again, but I’m shocked sometimes at
how fast it all goes. I just want to hold onto the blue jay moment as
long as I can.
And speaking of kids growing up fast, I can barely reconcile in my
mind that Aden was once that tiny baby who taught me how to be a mom. I
asked her what she currently wants to be when she grows up and her list
was interesting. She wants to be a chemist since she’s curious about
elements, a paleontologist, a baker, a barber, a person who works at the
humane society, an artist, she wants to help me at the violin store,
write a blog, and be a mother. I told her she’s already an artist, and
she can write a guest post for my blog whenever she likes.
Anyway, her dragon costume turned out to be more difficult than I
anticipated and I’m glad I left as much time for it as I did. I started
out making the basic costume out of fleece, and then I figured I’d just
sew the flimsy holographic scale print material she picked out over the
top of it. But I didn’t realize that I wouldn’t be able to do that
last part on the sewing machine and ended up having to stitch most of it
by hand. I cannot tell you how sore my fingers were from pushing that
needle for a day and a half, but Aden would come hug me periodically and
tell me how much she loved her costume so I didn’t mind it (much). I
just set myself up with a marathon of competitive cooking shows on Hulu
and sat and sewed and occasionally made Aden try her outfit on to make
sure I wasn’t slowly stitching myself into a proverbial corner. One
problem I kept running into was that the costume didn’t move the same
way with the second layer of fabric on it, so even though, for instance,
there was good freedom of movement in her arms in just the fleece
version, they got more restricted when I added the scales. Oh well. I
also ran out of time for adding wings which she really wanted, but there
are limits and my fingertips reached them on Monday.
Aden actually helped with some of the sewing. She’s interested in
learning to use the machine, so I had her thread both the bobbin and the
needle for me a few times, and even let her help sew simple areas like
the legs. She put the foam in all her spikes, and painted the lines on
her horns and her belly herself. I have a feeling next year her costume
will be much more of a joint effort.
If I had it to do over there are a couple of things on the dalmatian
costume that could be better, I’d stick with how I did the blue jay, and
the dragon I would approach in a way that didn’t mean essentially
sewing the whole costume twice, but overall I’m happy with this year’s
effort. But the important thing is the kids are, too. The true test of
their appreciation will be if they share any Kit Kats they collect! (I
already know they will. That’s why making costumes for them isn’t a
chore.)
(* So, why, you may want to know, does the actual Halloween not mean
anything? Because Milwaukee uses a system for always having
trick-or-treat in the daytime on the last Sunday of the month. Which
would mean something this year, except that Bay View, which is our
little corner of Milwaukee’s south side, has switched to night time
trick-or-treat on the last Saturday of the month. The first year Bay
View switched to night time trick-or-treat it was confusing because our
specific block fell on the boundary, and we ended up doing both daytime
and night time trick-or-treat which made my children very very happy.
When I lived in Columbus, Ohio, they had an even more confusing system
for trick-or-treat so that it couldn’t land on Halloween proper for some
reason. I grew up in the Detroit area, where trick-or-treat was on
Halloween and always at night. That just seems right to me because it’s
what I did as a kid. Of course the night before Halloween Detroit has
problems with people setting things on fire for fun, so some traditions
I’m fine with letting go. But trick-or-treat should be on Halloween.
And at night. And on Halloween. You know what we’re doing on actual
Halloween? Putting on costumes and visiting the frog exhibit at the
Public Museum. –sigh– )
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