Costumes 2012!

Theme: music.  From left to right, a Victrola (gramophone), Mozart, Half Note, and Viking Opera singer. This is the only picture we got of my costume and Abe's. I had an awesome gold skirt and green robe. Abe's Victrola reproduction was something to behold. He hid a portable speaker inside the box to play music too. 

Genghis considers his wig. He was very into being Mozart. It's his favorite composer. If you ask him what his favorite song is, he replies "Sonata by Mozart".

 Xena' half note was meant to attach to her shirt. But she made it clear that holding it herself was much more fun. (Side note: check out how she curls her right foot around - I never thought feet could look graceful until I met Xena.)

ancient halloween!

We love dressing up for Halloween in our family. For Abe, it started his Freshman year of college when he and his roommate constructed a 2-man full-body rhinoceros out of cardboard that could wiggle its ears and open its mouth to receive candy. (Sometime, ask Abe about his grades that year.)

Abe and I have continued to enjoy costumes since, though we have scaled it back some. I usually try to maximize for originality, comfort, and recognizability. Homemade is a must. This year, we came up with Genghis's costume idea first, and themed ours around him. We were particularly proud of coming up with a good theme that didn't have us all looking the same.

Here we are!

(Sorry Abe, for picking one where you look exhausted - it was one of the few without Genghis sucking his thumb.)

And a full body shot.


If the "recognizability" part didn't come through, Genghis is a mummy, I am Egyptian royalty, and Abe is the archaeologist who discovered our tomb circa 1912. Genghis won the award for scariest costume at the party for the singles congregation at our church. He also won cutest costume at the party for the family congregation (or something similar - we unfortunately had to skip out to make the singles' party just before the awards). This is his second year of award-winning costumes, which I'm pretty proud of (check out last year's caterpillar here).

Me in ... character ... I suppose.


For a time, I considered going as one of the Egyptian goddesses, like Isis or Hathor. But I didn't think I could pull off something that specific, and cow horns coming from my head may have thrown people off. In the end, it would have just been an excuse to live in the fantasy world of Amelia Peabody, which I continue to enjoy as light reading.

Genghis's costume was more time-consuming than I planned for. I wrapped an inside-out sleeper in a torn up pillow case, and secured the wrappings by loosely hand sewing them on. Hand sewing takes forever! Luckily, my mom got stuck en route at the Detroit airport over the weekend so she spent a night with us, where I promptly put her to work on the costume. She came up with a better technique for securing the bandages (I suppose you don't have 20 years' and 5 kids' worth of costuming experience for nothing) which saved the day.

If you're wondering about the white head, it's baby powder. Genghis vehemently opposed us wrapping his noggin in gauze.

remember when it was halloween?

Before it gets ridiculously late, here is my Halloween costume from 2010.


Inspired by Wallace & Gromit's "Feathers McGraw", a sinister penguin who disguises himself as a chicken.




I made the rooster cap and the feet out of old sweaters. The beak is felt, I've got a nylon on my head, and I'm wearing Abe's bathrobe. I love Halloween!

Perhaps even more cool than my costume, though, is the blog I stumbled upon while finding the Feathers McGraw poster. The photo I posted comes from blogger Jessica B., http://jbbentos.blogspot.com/2009/08/wallace-and-gromit-bento.html, who makes bento boxes based on various themes and book characters. A bento box is a traditionally Japanese lunch tray of assorted foods (Check out the wikipedia article). Jessica's work is amazing. The link I posted features a sandwich in the shape of Wallace & Grommit. She has also done Hunger Games, Twilight, Where the Wild Things Are, and more.

the very hungry caterpillar

We've got about 60 more photos, if you want to see them.