Introducing Wall-E and the Rock Star (or the year I decided I’m done making Halloween costumes, maybe…)

I am very sentimental about certain things in life.  I LOVE for my kids to have homemade Halloween costumes, Christmas outfits, Easter outfits, gifts to give their teachers, etc.  I just have this certainty that some things require me slaving over or they won’t be right.  And yes, that often means I end up staying up late or thinking bad thoughts as I spend time with my seam ripper, and yet, I can’t convince myself to go store bought.  This year’s Halloween costume experience may have helped me come to my senses.  It’s not that either of my children’s costumes were at all difficult this year, in all reality, I got off light.  It’s that my daughter is getting stronger and stronger opinions as she gets older and she no longer is okay with Momma making all the choices.  The nerve of her…  ;)  I'll just say, we had some differences in creative opinions this year.  I am realizing that arguing and agonizing over Halloween costumes may not the best use of our time and maybe buying a costume (as painful as it is for me) might soothe some tension and free up a BUNCH of time for me to do projects that I have total creative freedom over.

  As the title suggests, Oren wanted to be Wall-E from the Disney movie this year.  We went through a rather long Wall-E phase a year or so ago and he still loves it.  I found some really great directions for a Wall-E costume online and went for it.  It’s far from perfect, but he LOVED it and he got so many compliments on it.  Who knew you could be so cute in a cardboard box and safety goggles??

  Emma wanted to be a rock star.  She had very specific ideas for her outfit and the final result is a large compromise from both of us.  We bought tulle and a few shirts originally.  I was thinking of a tutu, but she drew out what she wanted for me and it was obvious she wanted a pettiskirt.  Well, I tried…but tulle in a pettiskirt just didn’t work.  Honestly, I tried, but unless she wanted to go as a “grungy, I don’t care about my appearance and bump you for thinking I do rock star”, she was not leaving the house in that thing.  So, I told her it wouldn’t work and she agreed to the tutu.  Luckily, I could cut it apart and salvage almost all of it for the tutu.  I spent hours gathering that thing up, only to spend about 1 cutting it apart and reassembling it as a tutu.  Then I ironed on some rhinestone gems just because I had them and I thought it would be really cute to add to it. 

   She said all along that she wanted to use a white t-shirt and spray paint black on to it and then I’d appliqué a guitar on the front.  Well, Saturday morning (yes, I was finishing it hours before she was supposed to wear it) when I showed her what the paint would look like on it (using a old shirt of Chris’ for practice) she decided that she just wanted polka dots above and below the guitar.  So, I made a black satin (since I’d bought it for the pettiskirt) guitar and used some purple and blue scraps to match the tutu.  Then I showed it to her on the shirt and she changed her mind again and said she wanted the spray painted look.  I got the shirt all ready to paint and she said really all along she’d wanted a black shirt (which I’d tried to get her to go with from the beginning and been denied).  So, in the end we put the black guitar on the black shirt and when Chris said you couldn’t really see it I told him to hush before I started crying from the stress this easy costume was bringing me!!!!

  In the end, she was so cute.  I’d gotten little press-on nails and some hair spray paint and we glammed her up rather nicely.  We’d made some shoes together recently (our cheap-o version of Twinkle Toes that I refuse to pay $40 for) and she threw those on to.

One of Emma's oldest friends--they were born 3 weeks apart! 

   Final result--both kids were happy with their costume and I was proud for them to show off what we created together.  They looked absolutely precious and we had a great time with some good friends.  We have trick or treated with the same family since the girls were very little and we always enjoy it.  The Halloween Carnival was a lot of fun with bounce houses, games and (lucky me) even a new goldfish as a prize.

Notice the tutu and all glamour nails are gone...it was a fun night of playing!

So my life lesson here is that while I may love the end result of homemade, there comes a time when I may have to admit that store bought is at least an option, if not the best route to take.  Someone remind me of this lesson next October, huh???

  We've got one more opportunity to wear the costumes.  Chris' high school is having a trick or treat at the school on Tuesday and we'll attend that as well.  I'll try and get some closeup pictures to add here when I can...come back on Wednesday or Thursday to see those!