Halloween Costumes

Growing up I always wanted to be the kind of Mom who made her kids Halloween costumes. Well, I'm happy to say that this is one way I've become that ideal Mom I used to dream of. With A LOT of help from Kenny, I've managed to make Halloween costumes for the past 3 Halloweens. I never make the little kids (I want to make sure their costumes are warm and sewn good,) but I have made the other ones. So this year we made costumes for the oldest 4 kids. It was a lot of work and very time consuming, but I enjoy doing it and I think the kids really like that we do it. So, we let the kids choose what they wanted to be and tried our best to create it for them. (Be prepared for a lot of pictures.)

Sarah Kate

Sarah Kate wanted to be a cowgirl. She had her shirt already and it was what inspired her to be a cowgirl. We make the chaps and vest, and borrowed the hat from a friend. Her costume was by far the easiest to make.

Ben James

Ben wanted to be a bat. Yes you heard that right, a bat. This was the hardest to make and without Kenny's help there's no way it would have been done. Kenny designed it and I sewed it (well Kenny help with the sewing also.) Now that's team work. Ben loved it which is the only thing we cared about. In fact he loved it so much he wore it for a week straight.

Ben as a scary vampire bat

And as a silly bat.

Hannah Beth

Hannah Beth wanted to be Princess Leia. She had to settle for a girl Jedi. She got to wear a dress and that made it OK. She loved her costume and is always wearing her dress around.

With her Jedi Cape. . .

And Hood.

Gracie Grace

Gracie was a scarecrow. We wanted her to be a scarecrow last year, but didn't know how to make one so we settled on a Indian. This year Kenny was walking through Walmart and saw the cute purple striped fabric for $1 a yard and thought it would make a cute scarecrow costume. We bought it and the scarecrow was born. I'm proud to say this one was mostly me. Kenny helped design the coat, but I sewed the coat, pants, and put the straw on myself.

Gracie didn't get much say in what she wanted to be this year (she really didn't care) but I think the scarecrow was a perfect choice for her. She didn't like keeping her hat on, but it sure made a cute addition to her costume as does her moppy hair.

We had to retake Gracie's pictures right before bed and it was late. She was being super silly.

Dan Dan

Dan was a firefighter. This is costume was actually Ben's on his first Halloween. I love recycling costumes and seeing my kids in the same things as there siblings. When Ben wore this he was 8 months old. Dan was a little big for it, but he still looked cute in it.

Adam Boy

Adam was a monkey. He was the same monkey that Daniel was last year (we love this costume, it's great.) Adam feels out this costume better than Dan did and he's 2 months younger. It's funny how different kids can be.

I've had a few people ask me if it's actually cheaper to make costumes than to buy them. This year I can proudly say yes. We spent about $25 on all the kids costumes combined. We found some great deals on fabric (Hannah's cape, Ben's bat wings, and Gracie's pants were all from the same fabric that was $3 for 5 yards) and we reused scraps from previous years. It was well worth the time to save that much money. Plus I personally think they turned out cuter than any we could have bought. Maybe that's just because I made them.

All of them together. Man there sure is a lot of them. :)