Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Group Costume

I know that it's three weeks past Halloween, but I've been busy, Okay? I just want to tell you this most awesome thing that happened.

Halloween is my other favourite holiday. I love dressing up. When I was a kid, I would have my next year's Halloween costume planned before this Halloween. O who am I kidding? I'm still like that. I think I have three or four years planned.

You know what I love even more than Halloween costumes? GROUP Halloween costumes. As if you have to ask, the explanation is that with group costumes, you have even more costumes! And they coordinate! Yay!

One year my friend Bill leaned over to me in sacrament meeting in our single's ward and said, "You should be Wilma Flintstone for Halloween." He was so right! I loved the idea. He told me that Berit should be Betty and BAM! Group costume was born.
Berit and Me 1992

I used to coordinate my Mum and Step-father's costume for the Halloween party that his soccer club would have every year. One year they were a shower and a bar of soap. My mother replicated the Ivory logo on a cardboard box exactly. I thought she was a genius.

Another thing about growing up was that we always made our costumes. My mother is very talented in the sewing/being creative/make it work categories. Also, we were poor, so we couldn't afford cheap store-bought plasic costumes. We also has this trunk, called the costume box, where we would chuck any of our old, weird stuff; stuff from plays, Baby Sister's skating costumes, Step-father's old hippy clothes, old Halloween costumes. Every year we would dig through the costume box and figure out what we could add to whatever we found in the box in order to make an awesome Halloween costume.

DH's mom is a brilliant seamstress also, so he always had home-made costumes.

When I got engaged to DH, I was so excited to finally have someone to dress up with!! One year I tried to be Mulder and Scully with him, I even dyed my hair copper-penny red, and made FBI badges, but at the last minute he pulled out claiming that a) Mulder doesn't wear glasses, and b) the kids at the school we were volunteering at wouldn't 'get' our costumes. Bummer pout.

Finally, Huey came along, and he was a baby and therefore unable to speak up for himself. When he was three months old I was a vampire and he was the world's chubbiest bat. The next year he was a wolf and I was Little Red Riding-hood. That year I convinced DH to wear a plaid flannel shirt as "The huntsman" and I was in heaven!! Yay for family costumes! The year after that Huey was a lion, I was Dorothy, and because I ran out of time, DH was not the tin man (much to his relief). The next year we had gone to see Toy Story on Ice and he got a perfect Woody hat, so he was Woody, and I was too tired to make a Buzz and Jessie costume. The year after that Huey discovered Star Wars, so he was Anakin Skywaker, and Dewey was a newborn, so his costume was bought by DH at a store.

Since then, life became what it is and costumes were purchased. Huey is very similar to DH in the no desire to dress up department, and a both are Halloween Humbugs. I try to get the boys to commit to costumes by Sept 1 so that I can make them, and let my creative juices flow, but they just wanted to be Power Rangers, or Clones, or Bumblebee, and I don't have a ton of time to put into Halloween costumes, so there you go.

A couple years ago DH whined about how his mom always made his costumes, so we came to the agreement that I would start making the costumes again and the Sept 1 rule was put in place, to be pushed back to Oct 1 because no one could decide on a costume. That year I made an AMAZING Steam Boat Willie costume for Huey that he didn't wear because no one could figure out what he was, so he just took off all the costume bits and went as 'the colour black'. I wish I was kidding, because I spent hours on that costume.

Dewey loves Halloween like I do, so he's been all on board with costume planning. This year we read Harry Potter together, so he decided to be Harry Potter and I was going to be Luna Lovegood and it was so fun to plan. We had our costumes all coordinated and bought the minute the Halloween stores opened up.

At three forty-five on the night of the ward Halloween party which started at six thirty and Huey had to help set up, Huey called me and said, "Mom, what can I dress up for the ward party?" I wanted to kill him. I have been asking him what he wants to dress up as and trying to talk him out of trick-or-treating because he's too old simultaneously since the middle of September!! He had a few ideas, but when I asked him if he wanted to join in on the Harry Potter theme with Dewey and I, he didn't even let me finish my sentence and interrupted by asking me if I would buy some red hairspray so he could be Ron.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I could not have been happier. Huey already had a Gryffindor tie from the time he was Harry Potter for Halloween in grade five, he has a grey sweater, white dress shirt and Converse. I ran by the grocery store on the way home for the red spray and voila - five minute costume. I was elated as the stress of a last minute costume was allieviated in five minutes, and, you guys, GROUP COSTUME!!
Best. Family. Photo. Ever.
Where was DH in all of this you ask? He wasn't there, he was working, but with his glasses, dark hair, and cowlick, he could have easily been James Potter. I wouldn't even have had to tell him he was dressed up, I would have just told other people.

Unfortunately, Huey could not be talked out of not going trick-or-treating as he had plans to go with his buddies. Also unfortunate, dressing as Ron Weasley was too 2007 for Huey, so he still needed another costume. I had done some research as I know my son and I knew I had to have a contingency plan, so I ended up on Halloween night putting the finishing touches on a Rubik's cube costume.

Fortunately, Huey has already planned with his pals to be a greaser next year, so I have visions of a Cherry Valance costume for myself, and Dewey and DH can be Johnny and Sodapop...

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