Mini Costume Box

The gift I was most excited to give this year was to Mona.  It's a box of little figures made from the scraps of her old Halloween costumes.

It wasn't exactly a surprise since I did the same for Aden when she turned 12, but Mona was delighted by her box.  Aden's box still makes her weepy.  Mona is not as sentimental, but always appreciative, so it was a different sort of reaction this time around.  It was still worth the effort to hand stitch all those little costume figures, and I like the idea of my kids having mini versions of their Halloween costume memories to hold onto (rather than feel they must forever keep the actual costumes).

Happy Halloween 2015!

 Halloween was on Halloween here in Milwaukee!  It's a Christmas miracle!

Unfortunately for the city-wide trick-or-treaters it rained here all day, but for our neighborhood's nighttime trick-or-treat it was merely cold and a bit damp.  I was surprised at just how many people came to our door this year considering how unpleasant it was out, but we went through many hundreds of pieces of candy like we usually do.  Lots of Ninja Turtles this year, along with many Batmen, Supermen, and Star Wars characters (the best of which was a dad dressed as Luke Skywalker with a baby in a Yoda hat strapped to his back).  My favorites were a dad dressed as a cockroach, a little boy in a homemade tiger shark outfit, and a small child in a beautiful macaw costume.  Oh, and a little girl in a homemade robot costume who said "Beep Boop!" for thank you

I got pictures of the kids in their costumes before they went to the Halloween dance at their school the day before while the weather was nice.  I love how much they love to dress up!  

The Recycled Kangaroo

Aden wanted to be a kangaroo for Halloween again this year.  She loves being a kangaroo.  She likes being soft, she likes having a big tail, and she likes having a pouch (which conveniently holds either candy or the dog).

Aden has been a kangaroo many, many times.  It was the first costume idea she picked for herself when she wasn't quite three.  (I made several suggestions, but when she realized she could use the pouch of a kangaroo costume for Trick-or-Treating, that was it.)

The main thing I learned from that first kangaroo costume was that in subsequent costumes not to include feet.  I didn't expect my kids to wear their costumes over multiple years (and for any and every occasion), but they do, and room for added leg growth has proven necessary.



So as much as Aden liked being a snowy owl last year, and a zebra the year before, she really liked her kangaroo costume from the year before that and decided to wear it again.  It just needed a few alterations.

Mold-A-Rama Rama

Our family talked at the beginning of the summer about things we want to do before vacation is up.  The top thing on my list?  Get one of every Mold-A-Rama figure at our zoo.  And today was our Mold-A-Rama Rama.

What is a Mold-A-Rama?  Well, if you're not from Milwaukee (or a small handful of other places according to a quick Google search) that's a very reasonable question, since I've only seen the likes of these machines here.  They were built back in the 60s, and maybe they were all over at one time, but I've never personally seen any outside of the Milwaukee County Zoo.

There are twelve of them scattered around the park.  You put in two dollars, and you get out a plastic figure molded on the spot that is shoved into a holding tray while it is still hot.  It's seriously kind of wonderful.

The Finished Kangaroo!

Done!  I'm done!  (And I'm actually ahead of schedule and not stitching up the last bit of someone's costume right before the Halloween dance.)  Here is Aden in her newest kangaroo outfit:

Plus it turns out the dog fits in her pouch, so she is a very happy girl.





Three done and none to go!

So now I should maybe, I don't know.... make violins?

Aden's Affinity (A Kangaroo Tale)

Aden asked to be a kangaroo this year.  Again.  She likes having a tail, and she likes trick-or-treating with a pouch instead of a bucket.  But seriously, I am not sure how many kangaroo outfits I've now made.  Aden and Mona were both kangaroos in 2004:

Then I don't remember if I had to make a new kangaroo costume for Aden the following year or if she just wore the same one again in 2005.  I have a feeling she wore the same one because that costume remained a regular part of her wardrobe all that year.

A Kangaroo Tale (Babble)

I’ll bet most of you don’t do errands with kangaroos much.  Pity.  When you grocery shop with a kangaroo it makes everyone smile and the whole experience is more amusing than it has any right to be.  Sometimes I have three kangaroos along.  Sometimes just a big one.  Sometimes a teeny one.  But most often it’s the middle sized one, and this week that one went to choir.

Both of my daughters are members of the Milwaukee Children’s Choir.  They love it.  They have beautiul little voices and choir is fun and it meets every Tuesday night.  Last week Mona asked if she could go in her kangaroo costume.  I made that thing two Halloweens ago and I’m amazed it’s still holding together.  Mona likes to lounge around in it at home and I don’t care if she wants to wear it when we go out, but she’d never worn it to choir before.  I asked her if she was sure, and she was, so off we went.

But when we got there, in Mona’s words, “Everyone’s embarrassed of me.”  All the kids in the choir were so delighted that Mona was a kangaroo and everyone wanted to sit next to her, but it made her too self-conscious to participate.  She sat on my lap or on the floor for the whole hour, and despite both the efforts of her sister and the kind words of the teacher, Mona wouldn’t join in the singing.

One of the most interesting things about Mona is that she does wonderfully eccentric things and has great dramatic flair, but it’s private.  In any other kid her behavior would look like an attempt to get attention.  Her tastes lean toward the extravagant, but it has nothing to do with what other people think.  It’s all for her own entertainment, and if anyone takes notice she withdraws.

As she’s gotten older (if you can think of the ripe old age of six as ‘older’) she’s become more worried about what other people think.  I don’t want that to affect her creativity, but I understand it.  I don’t like being the center of attention either, so I don’t push anything.  I just want her to be comfortable with who she is, and if who she is is sometimes shy, that’s fine, but it’s hard to watch your child miss out on something he or she would enjoy without a good reason.  I felt bad that Mona missed out on that choir class.

Many months ago Mona asked me what she should do if people ever laughed at her.  I thought about it a moment, and decided the best response would be to give them a haughty look and say, “Jealous?”  She liked that, and we practiced it by her walking into the room and I would point and laugh, and then she would say, “Jealous?!?” with a big smile, and I would look dumbfounded which cracked her up.  By the next day she couldn’t quite remember it, so when I laughed at her she said, “Nervous?” which I actually like even better.  (I mean, really, if you were trying to put someone down and he or she said, “Nervous?” wouldn’t you suddenly be nervous?  How great is that?)

In any case, we talked about how she should have reacted at choir rather than missing out on a nice time.  I didn’t make her go sing because I appreciated that she was embarrassed, but I pointed out that everyone loved her as a kangaroo.  That nobody was mean about it, or upset.  There was no reason to say to anyone ‘jealous?’ or ‘nervous?’ or anything.  It was all good.

Well, that must have sunk in, because this week she asked again if she could please wear her kangaroo costume to choir.

“Are you going to sing this time?”   Yes.  “You promise?”  Yes.  “You won’t be all self-conscious and embarrassed?”  No, I’ll be fine.

So I made her bring along a change of clothes this time just to be safe, and off we went.  Maybe she just needed a week to mentally prepare, but this time she was completely comfortable.  Everyone was thrilled the kangaroo was back and Mona sang and participated in all the games and had a lovely time.

On the way out of the building (with Quinn sound asleep in his own kangaroo costume weighing a ton in my arms), I asked Mona how it went.  She said, “It was great.  But no one asked for my autograph.”

I love that crazy kangaroo.