October

 

 

I LOVE October!  Pumpkins and candy, corn mazes and colorful leaves, football and fall shows, and maybe most of all... costumes.  I start stressing about costumes around mid August.  I don't do anything about it until mid October, but it's always in the back of my mind as we try and figure out what we're going to be.  We talked about a lot of ideas, but being big and pregnant is really limiting.  Chris finally  said we should just pick one and go all in.  We decided on the Frankenstein family.  Chris likes classic Halloween characters and LOVES makeup.  He was pretty excited when we bought his prosthetic forehead and neck bolts.  Even better, he got to use his "death pallet" and "rotting flesh" makeup from his Zombie days.  Chris' costume came together quickly.  We found some big clompy shoes at DI and he already had the tattered blazer and pants.  His 80's mullet wig turned out to be PERFECT for this costume. (He still considers it one of his greatest purchases.)
We found a simple white dress for Jane at DI and the tattered arm bandages were easy enough, but the tricky part was her hair.  I decided to make her a yarn wig by tying bunches of it to a baby hat.  Then I slipped it over a pumpkin and began styling it with scissors, a glue gun, and some fabric stiffener spray.  I was pleased with how it turned out, but since she won't even wear a bow these days, I had little hope that she would even wear it.  She surprised us and tolerated it most of the two nights we wore these costumes.  
I already had a white sheet in my costume box from an old toga party, so I sewed it into a simple tunic-style dress for me.  Getting the hair up was the key to this costume.  Thank goodness I have a crimper and a three barrel curling iron for just such an occasion.  Using "second-day hair"  I made it as frizzy as possible and wrapped a chunk around a small baby cup at my crown.  Then I just teased the heck out of it and pinned pieces up locking it in place with some hairspray.  Chris then helped me spray it black and white on the sides.  Once up, it was actually quite light and secure.  I could have worn it all day like that.  Getting it all out was another story.
Chris and Jane really stole the show.  People could hardly tell who he was, and let's face it, you put any costume on a 1-year-old and they look absolutely adorable.  It was a lot of work this year, but so fun. Yes, we sure do love Halloween.

 A profile shot.