Tuesday, September 22, 2009

The hunt for a Halloween costume

Halloween is only a few short weeks away, and the coming of fall and the bright costumes in the stores means only one thing: Trick-or-treating is on the minds of my little one.

I'll admit this season makes me cringe. I hate the idea of wasting money for a costume that will be worn for an hour - barring any meltdowns like last year, where we made it about half a block - or is so cheap that it falls apart during the requisite dress-up times. That being said, I also can't shell out for a $45 dollar-plus-accessories princess costume, either.

Thank goodness for hand-me-downs.

My daughter, who's intrigued by her friends doing cheerleading, is happy to dress up in a gently loved cheerleading costume from a coworker's daughter. And the little guy, who in his recent growth spurt outgrew the one costume we'd been given, will be able to be cozy in black sweats and the dog ears his sister wore two years before.

But the best costume ideas were for us. The other day in the car, we started discussing Halloween. My daughter still was very excited about being a cheerleader. And then she offered ideas for mom and dad.

"You will be a Kansas Mommy," she informed me. A Kansas Mommy? "That's when you wear a shirt that says Kansas on it, but not a shirt with a Jayhawk on it." (Smart girl!)

"And Daddy will be a basketball daddy. He can wear a basketball shirt."

I love the way my kid thinks!

4 comments:

beffuh said...

Heh. We never came up with our costumes until 15 minutes before we were supposed to leave the house--I don't ever remember actually buying costumes. One year my brother was a duck-billed platypus--a piece of brown carpet that was lying around got a hole cut into it (to slip over his head) and a yellow billed hat and he was good to go.

Robbie said...

See, I love seeing creative costumes like that! I lose track of all the vampires, cartoon characters and costumes that are exactly the same.

Lisa said...

I like your daughters ideas. :)

Robbie said...

Lisa, me too! :-)