I found the camera right were I thought it ought to be.  I just didn’t see it at first glance.

Garden gnome with homemade sign

Full length shot.  He wore this costume late on Friday, so he didn’t change before coming home.  “Just don’t ask me to stop at the store,” he said.

Yard decoration.  That’s one HUGE gnome.

World’s cutest witch.

When it was time to go, she refused to wear the hat, and decided yellow rain boots were a better accent.

Note the “true to life” sweaty hair. That jacket is a lined raincoat.  It was NOT made with Georgia Halloweening in mind (temps in the 80s).

Jenny dressed as a witch for the piano recital, but switched to Rapunzel later on.

I made this dress for Katie two years ago. We didn’t mind splurging on the wig ($8). We were going to make her a really long wig out of yarn, but she didn’t like yarn. So, she got a short wig instead.  Pfft.

I did the whiskers for the piano recital.

Bill did the whiskers for Trick or Treating.

I think the musketeer costume turned out very nicely.

I had to purchase the blue fabric, but the silvery ribbon adorned a present I received years ago.  I’ve used it for many costumes.

I basted white, lacy ribbon to the collar of an ordinary dress shirt.  No permanant damage done.  Bill made that ostrich  feather out of paper and a drinking straw. The hat is a black foam top hat to which Bill hot glued a brim made from black foam.

Halloween 2010

My home is a testament to last-minute Halloween scrambling.  Sewing machine, fabric, lacy ribbons, white fluff, black foam, scissors, and other debris are covering the dining room table.  The kitchen table is piled high with things we haven’t put away because we were working on costumes.  Other areas of the house show vague neglect, and various costume pieces and accessories drape chairs and fill corners where they were thrown after our late night return from our neighbor’s party.

I would love to post photos, but I can’t find my camera.  The last time I remember having it was when I took pictures.  I do not recall what I did with it after that.  Hm.

The costume that made me giggle the most was Fritz’s.  The kids dressed up for a recital at a “retirement community” and one of his pieces was entitled something-or-other gnomes.  So he wanted to be a garden gnome.  It was a simple costume made from things I already had (besides his own clothing, I needed some red felt and some white fluff for a beard – everybody has white fluff in their craft supply box, right?).  I made Bill his own beard when he said he would dress up at his office, because the one for Fritz was too narrow for Bill’s face.  But they could use the same hat, thank goodness, because I had only a little bit of red felt (Bill: wide jaw, skinny head; Fritz: narrow jaw, fat head?).

Fritz was left behind to hand out candy while we took the other kids around last night.  The weather was mild, so he sat out, in costume.  Many of the little kids in the neighborhood were scared of him, because he looked like Santa Claus.  Jolly old elves are terrifying to 3 year olds.

Billy was a musketeer, and looked fabulous.  Since, I don’t have a picture, I’ll offer a thousand words to describe him…(yeah, no).

Katie was a cat. 

Jenny was Rapunzel.  We even bought her a wig (we spoil our children).

Peter was a fireman, because he is a 5 year old boy.

Mary was a witch – heh heh heh.  Really.  If you asked her what she was going to be, she would say, “A witch! Heh heh heh!”  I don’t know where she learned evil laughter, but it was disturbingly funny to listen to it.

I went as Cinderella, before the ball, which means I went as is.

Bill was an off-duty soldier.

Hopefully, I’ll find the camera after the sun rises.

I think this is the first year I’m finding the end-of-October festivities to be more fun than overwhelming.

First of all, my husband is home.  Even though he really hasn’t done much, other than add some creative suggestions, it just makes everything better.

Secondly, neither the church nor the homeschool group has had a volunteer step forward to organize an All Saint’s Day party, so I have only one costume to worry about.  Yes, I know some people restrict their children to just the saint costume, and more power to you.  My kids and my husband enjoy more traditional Halloween costumes.  And this is the one time of year that I consent to add to the dress up bin.  So I’m happy there’s no saint party…call me evil; I’ll call me less stressed.

Thirdly, my youngest is 3.  That makes a huge difference.

And then, this year, I have found my older children have finally reached an age where they are very useful in envisioning and creating their own costumes and very helpful in assisting with younger siblings’ costumes and very cooperative in accepting homemade alternatives to store-bought perfection.  Katie wants to be a cat.  Older brothers offer and produce black baseball pants, black socks and a black turtleneck shirt.  She finds me ingenious when I use pink nail polish to paint black foam ears with a triangle for the inner ear.  Years ago, she would have insisted (did insist) on a store-bought costume.

And, as influential as I am with my kids, nothing beats having an older brother to convince a 5 year old that his navy blue church pants are perfect to go with the borrowed, yellow firefighter coat.  He had wanted red pants, and I had dreaded informing him that we don’t happen to own red pants.  Problem solved by my 12 year old.

Fritz sprang a costume idea on me yesterday afternoon, which I would not normally permit.  But it is so funny and so easy that I jumped right in.  When Bill came home, he saw our work, said that his office was having dress up on Friday and he thought he’d steal Fritz’s for the day.  It has me giggling, since I’m sure most people in his office think he’s the most humorless man to walk the planet.  I will be sure to post pictures tomorrow, but won’t spoil the surprise today.

We’re definitely having fun here, and that’s a really nice change.