With Halloween just a week away, the sprint is on to get our house and costumes ready for the big day. Usually by now, our kids already have their costumes or at least some part of it, and our house is mostly decorated. But since we were away, we are a bit behind this year. While I normally love to get festive with decor, in Saskatoon, if you don’t decorate outside early enough, you’re forced to do so in frigid temperatures. That’s not fun for an oldie like me.
At least Brighton has said he’ll be going as the same thing as last year – a grim reaper – so that’s one costume down.
Our girls have decided to be different things this year though, which means I get to help source and put together their costumes. While it would be easy to just buy the pre-made character costume, often they are more expensive than they are worth and this late in the game, won’t arrive in time if you can’t find it locally. DIY costumes can add up too, but I do my best to look for pieces that are still wearable when it’s not Halloween.
Yesterday after school, we went costume shopping and were able to find some stuff for both of them.
Blythe and her friends will be going as Alvin and the Chipmunks, which seems to be trending this year. She is going to be Simon Chipmunk, so we were looking for a blue hoodie and brown sweatpants. We found them here and here. Good thing that brown is also trending these days, as I don’t think you’d normally find sweatpants in that colour. Now I just need to add an “S” to her hoodie. She’s requested that I sew or iron it on, but I think the simplest solution is with a sticker. If she wanted to remove it afterwards, it would be much easier.
Whitney is dressing up as an anime character named Nana Osaki, with whom I am not at all familiar, but definitely fits the fashion vibe that she is into these days. We only found some legwarmers and fishnet stockings so far. She has gradually moved from cute and innocent to strange and scary to cool and more risqué over the years. Gone are the days when she dressed up as more wholesome characters like Tinker Bell…
… or Elsa.
During the big Frozen phenomenon, Whitney wanted to be Elsa. I found her a beautiful dress off of Etsy, (though the seller now sells different apparel), and found the other elements – tiara, wig and wand – elsewhere. She played dress up for many years in that costume, sans wig mostly. Better as a brunette!
Since Blythe was only a year and a half, she went as Olaf, rather than Anna. I was able to make her into a snowman by sewing and gluing felt pieces onto this white hooded toddler jacket that we had, paired with a white sparkly tutu. The two of them were adorable together!
Whitney’s first Halloween trick-or-treating, she was a monkey. The costume was from Old Navy and she was the cutest. Our next door neighbour at the time had a son slightly older than Whitney who also happened to be going as the same monkey that year. It was so sweet! That costume was eventually passed down to Brighton, who ironically was born in the year of the monkey, and both he and Blythe would often play dress up with it. So that was a win for a pre-made store-bought costume.
We also need to get some pumpkins, to either carve or paint, the latter of which is my personal preference. I’m better with a paintbrush, than with a knife.
Last year, we also carved ours too early, so by Halloween, they were rotting and falling apart. It added to the spooky seasonal vibe, but made for not so nice looking Jack-o-lanterns.
As for my own costume, I’ve been considering going as a witch this year… lots of black dresses to choose from in my closet and also lots of kitties to complete the look. But dressing up is not something I do every year. As long as our kiddos get to go trick-or-treating, that’s the ultimate fun and goal for them every Halloween!
What will you be going as this year? Whatever you choose, wishing you a safe and Happy Halloween, a little bit early!
