Halloween Costume Review: family edition

I LOVE HALLOWEEN!

As I stated in my last post, it's practically Halloween every day in my house. But, of course, there are some things that are saved for this time of year, and dressing up in costume is one of those things!

I am a huge proponent of group/theme costumes. We haven't gotten to do them every year, but I have definitely pushed to make it a thing in our house. I'm pretty excited for when the kids will be a little older, when they really get it, and they'll be able to help come up with our family costume theme. So far I've kind of worked around their ideas of what they'd like to be, but I'm looking forward to having them consider the whole theme, the whole family's costumes, rather than just deciding what their favorite thing of the moment is, and then me wracking my brain trying to come up with subsequent costumes to make it into a theme. lol

Growing up, we never got to go buy costumes at the store. We always pulled things from our closet, scrounged things from our parents closets, and made whatever we could, and that's how we decided what we were going to be. It wasn't "I want to be this" and put it on/go get one. It was "what do we have, and what can I put together to make it look like a costume?" I feel like that's definitely been a bonus, helping to fuel that side of my creativity. Plus, homemade costumes are always so much better. (Well, maybe I'm a little biased. lol)

With all that said, here are a few photos of our last few Halloween costumes, starting with last year.

2016 - Royalty:

Dad the King, wee man the knight, little miss the princess (I had a crown but she refused to leave it on, so we subbed this embellished headband), and I was her magical steed. LOL I knew I'd end up carrying her at some point, so might as well make it part of the theme!

Here's a closeup of my makeup... unfortunately, there was really limited lighting, and a pos phone camera, so you can't see just how SPARKLY I was.

And here's a pic of the horn/ears that I made for my costume.

2015:

No group costume this year - Wee man got to go shopping for his costume with his aunties that year, little miss was too little to justify any sort of fuss, and we had this adorable fleece dino outfit, which kept her plenty warm. So then it was up to hubby and I to throw something together for ourselves, so he grabbed a scary pumpkin mask at a Halloween store, and I fabricated a witch hat out of some black card stock, tape, and a mini-hat fascinator I already owned. Add some makeup and voilà!

A better shot of my makeup, with little miss all wrapped up and ready to go.

2014:

Hubby and I didn't dress up this year. Things were ridiculously hectic, we were in the midst of a pretty tumultuous time in our lives, and all I wanted was to focus on wee man, and make sure he had an amazing time. I was (and am still) damn proud of the robot costume I made, and brought him to one of the malls for an early trick-or-treat and some festivities, then around the neighborhood.

(This one was taken at the mall. There were so many kids in different costumes, and so many activities going on, I could NOT get him to hold still! lol)

Stuffing his face with a chocolate bar that he had carried in his hand for his entire evening trick-or-treat.

He was SOOO tired, and just wanted to eat all the things before bed. But mommy and aunties coaxed him into a few photos before the costume was totally destroyed. lol

2014:

This year we were invited to a neighbor's last-minute Halloween party. I'd already gotten wee man his dino costume, and with very limited time, energy, and funds, hubby and I went rifling through our closets to come up with some very last-minute costumes. A little makeup and curling iron action, and I was able to pull together a "creepy doll" look. Hubby already had a bit of the look, so we put some pieces from his closet together, and there we had Elvis Costello!

2013 - Baby Batman and Puppy Riddler:

When I saw the Batman sleeper, I knew I had to have it. He was far too little to do trick-or-treating, or anything of the sort, but being the Halloween lover that I am, I had to dress him up! And what's Batman without a villain to vanquish? So I grabbed hubby's green shirt, and went to town with the electrical tape. HAHAHA

I'm Batman!

---

Our costumes for this year are still coming together. Hubby and I are still figuring ours out, and the kids have made drastically different choices. I may veto and put things together as I see fit, but I also don't want to deal with any tantrums from unwilling participants. lol Family costumes will be a thing, dammit! ;)

Do you have your costumes planned? Are they finished and ready to go, or are you like me and practically everything is done the day before? Do you like the idea of family/group costumes, or prefer everyone for themselves?

I hope you enjoyed taking a look back with me! I'll be making more Halloween-related post in the next couple weeks, including a few of the themed goodies I've made for the kids the last couple years, some costumes hubby and I had in the years before the kidlets came along, and of course, more Halloween artwork.

See you then!

Megan