By all accounts it was a banner year for Halloween around here. No doubt it helped a lot that we began to think about costumes sometime before the week of.
We've seen a lot of great ideas over the years. Every year as we follow the kids around we muse about all the potential group costumes we could pull off. Every year we shelf those plans until we are walking around the next time. This year we started tucking away props well in advance. We won't always have the numbers at home to be able to pull this off so I didn't want to put off good ideas any longer taking for granted there will be other years.
At the last minute, the sewing machine was broken and we had lots of travel and other things compete for our attention in October. With Moira's help we still managed to get them skipping down the yellow brick road finally. It was super dark all day and we never had great light for pictures. We worked with what we had and this is what we came up with.
for anyone interested in costume construction here are the specifics:
The little girls dresses were the only things I have ever purchased ready made for Halloween. It was a big stretch for me! They came on sale locally with just two left – one in each of their sizes. Kieran's tin man was originally going to be made with metallic paint. We painted a funnel for the hat and then ended up literally duck taped an old shirt and pants. We cut a box and taped that too. I had hoped to find dryer venting for the arms and legs but in the end duck tape worked just fine.
Moira made her skirt – by hand – (see sewing machine note above) out of two rectangles of old bedsheets and a fairy wand/tiara set from the discount store. Aidan found an old straw hat at the thrift store. We peeled corn cobs for dinner earlier in the week and saved all those straw like layers. They were torn and duck taped into pants and collar and hat etc.
Brendans robe came from a Yoda costume we found. We ditched the hat and used this tute to make fringey main and cuffs. Some stiffer chunky yarn would work best. Mine was a curly wrinkly mess that didn't cooperate well when trying to stitch it down. Or glue as the case ended up being. Moira found some homeless costume bottoms in the dress up box and
There you have it. : )
I want to assure you I have accomplished nothing else terribly newsworthy this week. There are no INside pictures you notice. Don't imagine we also had an immaculate house and elaborate meals and heavy duty lessons every day. When you see a big thing happening here, know that we probably focused on that big thing. Thats my disclaimer <g>
Starry Sky Journal 
I was pleasantly surprised when I clicked over to check in on you all tonight. We had the same idea this year! A was Dorothy, G was the tin man and E was the scarecrow. I was a witch (sort of- I wore the hat) but we were missing the lion because we never got around to making DH a costume. You were right to take advantage of such a large (and lovely) group to dress! G is actually playing the tin man in the local play next week! We will be singing all those songs for weeks since we attend every performance! (Also, it rained here all.day.long.) Your crew looks amazing! Duct tape is a wonderful thing, isn’t it? Now that our homeschool group All Saints Day party is over I am ready to have every dress in regular clothes again! I know I have not commented in awhile but I think of you often and check in from time to time 🙂
Ohmygosh! These costumes are great!!!
Wonderfully done Kim. Moira seemed to have her hands full with all the prep also. Fascinating!!!! You are awesome and SO very talented!!
I love that your family is united in doing a theme together and it turned out so well. Fabulous props and adorable children!
That was EXACTLY it Laura! It was the joint effort that made it so much fun. I love it when we can all get together on a project no matter what it is.
Oh! How wonderful! Great job!