Halloween Costume Ideas

Like most moms out there, we have a love-hate relationship with Halloween. Of course all the excitement and treats and seeing our kids looking so cute in fun costumes is great! We moms, though, usually are the ones making the treats, dealing with the tantrums after the sugar high and sewing those fun costumes (that we usually want to burn using our pumpkin scented candles halfway through the process.) We thought it would be fun to take you on a journey of our costumes past. Enjoy!!

Way back in 2005, when we had been friends for a few months, we decided to take our kids trick-or-treating together. Our kids are soooooo little! Where does the time go?

It’s hard to imagine these sweet toddlers are now teenagers!! Steven and Caleb make a perfect Batman and Robin. Natalie and Maggie were so excited to be Cinderella and Minnie.

Meghan:

This was the first year I decided to coordinate costumes. Brooke was Alice, Maggie was the white rabbit and Natalie was the Queen of Hearts. I even had shirts made for Ryan and I that said Tweedledee and Tweedledum. I was about 7.5 months pregnant and decided I will be keeping those pictures to myself! Ha! Brooke and Maggie’s costumes were bought but I made Natalie’s from a Snow White dress pattern, modifying where necessary to get the Queen’s look. I also veto’d the zipper and used velcro instead. I’m definitely not a seamstress! (Notice the flamingo before flamingos were popular!!)

Here we are as the classic cast of Wizard of Oz! Brooke was Glinda the good witch, Maggie was a munchkin, Natalie was Dorothy and Cole was the cowardly Lion. Maggie’s costume was the only one I made. I used a nightgown pattern and a bonnet pattern to get her darling look. That light pink was covered in candy by the end of the evening!

I did have five kids the year we did the Toy Story theme but, of course, Quinn’s Buzz Lightyear costume arrived the day AFTER Halloween. Brooke was Barbie, Natalie was Bo Peep, Cole was Woody and Maggie was Jessie. Brooke’s Barbie was the costume I made that year. I couldn’t find a pattern for a child’s spandex bodysuit (imagine that!!) so I had to create one myself! I even made the leg warmers out of colorful fleece. Don’t look too close but I was pretty proud of this one and my girl knew how to show it off!!

I nearly died when I saw this baby Snoopy costume online and knew immediately this was our theme for this year. Every other store-bought Peanuts costume was scary looking however, so I opted to create the rest of the cast. I used polo shirts for the girls and sewed a skirt on the bottom, adding details with a sharpie marker. Brooke was Sally (her wig still cracks me up), Cole was Charlie Brown, Natalie was Lucy, Quinn was Snoopy and Maggie was Linus. Although Maggie was a boy character, this girl always was carrying a blanket and sucking on her fingers so we thought it was a perfect fit!

Don’t mind Natalie’s creepy eyes… Neverland here we come! Brooke was Wendy, I was Mr. Smee, Natalie was Princess Tiger Lily, Ryan was the crocodile, Quinn was Captain Hook, Cole was Peter Pan and Maggie was Tinkerbell. I always feel accomplished when I’m able to come up with enough characters for my whole family to participate. I made the Wendy costume from a nightgown pattern and the Princess Tiger Lily from a Native American costume pattern. My costume happened to come from random stuff in my closet. Ryan’s costume is a pair of green coveralls, a green hat and duck tape!

This was the first year we attended Mickey’s Halloween Party. We decided we would go as the Muppets cast. Cole was Gonzo, Maggie was Fozzie, Brooke was Kermit, Natalie was Miss Piggy, Quinn was Animal, Ryan and were the critics. I only had to make “suit” shirts for Ryan and I that year. I love years when I don’t have to spend hours sewing. 🙂

At Mickey’s party again and we ran into our costume inspiration! My youngest always thought Winnie’s name was “Quinny the Pooh” and I didn’t have the heart to ever correct him. I decided this year to be super low maintenance and find clothes the colors of the characters and just make felt ears. Brooke was Eeyore, Cole was Tigger, Quinn was Winnie the Pooh, Maggie was Piglet and Natalie was Rabbit. My kids were nice about it but I could tell they thought their costumes were lame! Sorry guys!! I’ll try harder next time. Maybe…

So this coordinating thing has kinda become our family’s tradition. My kids talk about it all throughout the year. “What are we going to be this year guys??” Imagine our JOY last year when we realized our new favorite movie had five main characters and there were three girls and two boys!! Perfection! Quinn was Anger, Cole was Fear, Brooke was Disgust, Natalie was Joy and Maggie was Sadness. I found 90% of their costumes at the local thrift store. The hair color stuff and eyebrows were found at the party store and I painted Joy’s starburst with fabric paint. Quinn made a fierce Anger but he sweats his red hair everywhere!! Be sure to check out our Instagram and Facebook to see what my kids end up being this year.

Lara:

We haven’t been consistent with the homemade or themed costumes. But we have had fun doing cool and different things for Halloween. I think it’s always come down to not being able to buy the costume because it doesn’t exist OR that I refuse to pay a ton of money for the cheap costumes they sell.

That year, the boys were obsessed with Sonic the Hedgehog. I think they had 1 ugly sonic costume that I was not going to buy and there was no way there was a Shadow costume in existence. I think this officially started my costume making.

I needed a costume for our Halloween Bunco. Whipped this out in a few hours! Now Halloween Bunco gets really competitive and I usually go with really uncomfortable costumes.

That year Hailey wanted to be Jewel from the movie Rio. Well, it didn’t exist and I couldn’t even find a blue bird costume. So I made it! There’s also a classic Harry Potter, which is my fav, and my rock star son is a character from Guitar Hero? haha, I can’t remember.

DOONEESE!! She’s my absolute favorite character on SNL. I was dying to do her for years but wasn’t sure I could pull her off. Again, this is for Halloween Bunco. The bald cap wouldn’t fit all the way on my head with all my hair so I had to do a patch job in a pinch. Probably my favorite costume ever.

Again, with the Halloween Bunco but this time I went for a bad school picture. This one was uncomfortable one too! It’s an art people! We don’t need comfort!! I actually made the headgear with some elastic headbands and paper clips. The braces are just fake teeth with braces on them.

Hailey has a My Little Pony obsession and I didn’t like the one they were selling at Target. I can’t pay $40 for a costume with badly glued on felt. I just couldn’t. It was the same for the Star Wars costume. There’s actually a post on how I made that rainbow dash costume. Caleb’s Anakin costume was just a bunch of layers really. I sewed a simple shirt and pants.

The next year Hailey wanted to be Pinkie Pie. But not just regular old Pinkie Pie. Pinkie Pie from the Grand Galloping Gala. Yeah, it’s a lot. This costume almost killed me. I didn’t want to dye her hair like we did with Rainbow Dash because it was awful! Imagine a lot of screaming. Pinkie Pie’s hair would also be hard to emulate too. So, I made cartoony hair as a hat. I’m really happy with how it turned out.

Since her sister was a My Little Pony, I had to do the same for baby girl. She’s just regular Twilight Sparkle. They don’t sell them for babies, at least I’ve never seen one, and so I had to make this as well!

Caleb wanted to be a penny. I love that he wants to step out of the box. We found a jacket at the thrift store and just sprayed it with spray paint. Oh and if you want to stick things to your face use a glue stick. It’s non-toxic and washable. I used some bronzer and mixed it with water and rubbed it all over his face and hair. He ended up winning a first place trophy for this costume.

Here’s the gang. I didn’t have much time this year for myself so I went as a dead battery, get it? ha

I’m busy this year working on our other costumes. I’m not good enough to get them done early to share. It’s always down to the wire. I think it’s so much fun to make fun and unique costumes even though sometimes I’m hating all the work I’m giving myself. But it’s once a year and we are making memories!

Thanks for going down memory lane with us! We hope you have a creative, happy and safe Halloween this year!