Halloween.  Candy and Costumes.  Every year my children look forward to the candy, and I look forward to the fun of making costumes.  We’ve had some good ones over the years, I think.

2006 - Joe is Big Bird and Tom is Elmo

2007 - Joe is Super Why

2008 - Tom is Curious George (not home made) and Joe is The Man with the Yellow Hat

2009 - Joe is a Dementor and Tom is an Alligator

2010 - Joe is a Ninja

2010 - Tom is an Octopus

This year, Sam decided he wanted to be a monster, and not just any monster:  a red, furry, scary monster.  That sounded like a costume I wanted to make!  We traveled to our local fabric store and found the softest and furriest red fabric you can imagine.  Very Elmo-like.  My challenge was to create a monster that wasn’t at all like Elmo from this fabric that all but screamed Elmo.  Next, we found a pattern that I could modify to create this scary monster.  Can you see the ferocious potential in that cute little monkey?

The results were amazingly cute.  Red.  Furry.  Scary.  Happy boy.

I told the boys that I could do only one elaborate handmade costume per year, and this was Sam’s year.  Tom was happy to be a construction worker.

Joe wanted to be a Death Eater from Harry Potter.  We had the cloak from when he was a Dementor (notice the Harry Potter theme), and the mask was a modified store-bought skull costume.  A good friend loaned us a wand.  Easy.  And creepy.

Trick-or-Treating was lots of fun.  The weather was perfect (snow on the ground didn’t bother us).  Sam was totally into the concept of getting candy.  His belated “thank you!” as he walked away from houses was precious.  Tom was all business until his candy bag got too heavy to carry.  Joe scored his biggest candy haul yet – he’ll likely still be eating candy in June.

How was your Halloween?  I’d love to hear about your costume creations.