Big Daddy Wizard and Baby Witch, Halloween 2013

Okay, so a week late – better than never? I have a Hanukkah/Thanksgiving post coming up, and I have to keep my holidays in order around here… never mind the fact that that I still haven’t gotten to our Ocean City trip from August. o_O

HOW is it November already? Seriously.

Anyway, Cole has been talking about Halloween since mid-summer. After the past few years, he was *really* excited to go trick-or-treating, and to dress up. After Woody and Thomas, I’ve accidentally set the bar pretty high in the costume department, and Cole is pretty opposed to anything store bought. He wants something that not every other kid will be wearing, which I can definitely understand – and while he is still little and as long as my creativity holds out, I will do my best.

He originally wanted to be a table, and I was SUPER excited about that because it sounded pretty easy to do, and then he wanted to be a volcano, which certainly would have been original, but might have been more difficult to implement, and THEN Daddy talked him into being a T-Rex *holding* a volcano instead – which sounded a lot harder (thanks, Adam), but I was gamely Pinteresting up some ideas when he landed on his final idea: witch.

Hmmmm… I sort of hit a creative wall there – I wasn’t entirely sure what he was asking for, and he couldn’t tell me what a witch looked like (“Like a witch, Mommy.”), so I was unsure what the appeal was. I did not want to inadvertently miss some accessory which was in his mind the entire point of the costume. (For example, the red stripes on last year’s Thomas costume? VITAL.)

I also wasn’t sure if he was asking for a girl costume (which I would have been okay with – he’s FOUR), or if he was drawn to some other aspect of witch-dom. After a bunch of conversations, we established that he wanted to be a male witch – a wizard. Specifically, he wanted to be a “Big Daddy Wizard.” Okay. He was still less than helpful with any details about what a Big Daddy Wizard looks like, but I gave him options as we went along, and he was totally happy with the final result.He had face make up on because he wanted to look older and mean, but it made him look really weird when he smiled, so that’s why he looks strange here.

 Essentially his costume was a simple felt a-line dress/robe thing, that I based on the tutorials here and here. His hat was stiffened felt sewn into a triangle – I was worried about making it too big and accidentally went a touch too small – oops! It worked out for the most part, though, and didn’t really seem to bother him. Special thanks to Aunt Angela for manning the sewing machine!  I cut the stars out of yellow felt and used spray adhesive to stick them on; hot glue might have been a better choice, but I didn’t really need his costume to last forever, so it was fine.

The pièce de résistance was his wizard staff. You guys? It glowed. I felt kind of awesome for putting this together: it started out as a solar-powered color changing LED garden globe, and I asked Coach to cut a dowel to fit, which I painted and hot glued to the bottom.  Shout out to the AMAZING Lowe’s sales associate who not only helped me find the dowel to fit, but did not bat an eye at its intended purpose, and in fact told Cole that he “knew all about wizards, and this was going to be a great wizard stick.”

I should point out that it was about this point in the process that Cole asked me what kind of magic spells he would be able to do. Apparently, he REALLY believes in my crafting ability.

Anywho, I hot glued on some aquarium crystals (which Cole kept calling diamonds), and it was done.

I feel kind of like a Mommy rock star here.

 Lulu was way easier. First of all, she was not nearly as opinionated on the whole thing, and would have been more than happy to wear the “BUH fwy” costume I got on clearance last year for $1.50. Unfortunately for her insect aspirations, Cole is a little bossy, and demanded that she be a Baby Witch. (I’m pretty sure this is the last year we will get away with her costume being an accessory/afterthought to his. Also, for the record, he chose my costume – black cat – based on his theme as well…)

She’s pretty easygoing, and fell in LOVE with the tutu I whipped up, so it was all good, though. I mainly used Suzanne’s tutu tutorial (tututorial?), but I used 2 strips of tulle for each knot, and I attached them a little differently than she did; I took 2 strips of the same colored tulle and folded them together in half. Then I put the folded loop over the ribbon and pulled the ends through. Clear as mud? I didn’t take pics while I was doing it, and I’m too lazy to take some right now, so if you *really* need further clarification, let me know and I’ll get on that… I added a flower to a $1 witch hat, and voilà! Baby Witch.

Blurry, but the only solo shot I have of Lulu. Oops! Poor second child…

Both kids did GREAT trick-or-treating! They walked on their own, said “Thank You” and “Happy Halloween,” and came home with quite the haul. Halloween: WIN.