Want to See the Crocodiles? (Babble)

I’m glad I started my kids’ Halloween costumes early this year or I would be freaking out about now.  It’s been a hectic month, and we just got back from a weekend trip to the cottage where we shut it down for the winter.  (I love fall, and Michigan is beautiful this time of year.  Check out Mona and Quinn on the path to the lake.  Looks like a painting to me:

It was a brief but lovely trip.)

So between life and work in general and a few days out of town, squeezing in costume making time has been tricky, but I’m finding moments somewhere.  I made sure to finish the thirteen-lined-ground-squirrel costume before we left, and I recently finished the crocodile, too.  (I have a few more days before the dance at school to get Aden’s porcupine outfit finished, but the rainy weather is not cooperating in terms of getting her quills spray-painted.)

In any case, want to see the crocodile?

The trickiest part was Mona’s snout.  She wanted it to be detachable, and it took me a little while to figure out how to do that.  I finally found a somewhat rigid surgical mask at Science Surplus and built my cushion foam jaws around that.  Seems to work.  The teeth are made of some cheap air-drying clay I found at Target.  Glue seems to be holding them in place so far, but I can always make more teeth if they start to come out.  (The tooth fairy isn’t responsible for lost fake teeth, is she?)

That’s the surgical mask glued inside so Mona has room to breathe, and an extra piece of elastic to keep the thing around her head.

Mona was very clear about wanting a hood, as well as the detachable snout.  She has specific ideas about visual things, so I was worried I wouldn’t put this all together in a way she would like, but she’s very happy with it.  The hard part is keeping her out of it before the school dance and trick-or-treat, but after that she can wear it to choir for all I care.

(Now to tackle those porcupine quills….)