Our very "green" Halloween

I absolutely LOVE Halloween. It's such a creative holiday (can I call it a holiday?) and I usually go all out. Every year I end up taking over the deciding of costumes by insisting on a theme for the whole family, but they all still love me and everyone goes along without too much fight. But times are tough - I think I'd be hard pressed to find anyone to disagree with that, so this year my challenge presented itself in the form of trying not to spend a bunch on making all the kids' costumes and our theme became a "Green Halloween" as in reduce, reuse, recycle (aka: not spend a bunch of green). I was determined to come up with costumes that could reduce the amount I usually end up spending on an outfit they wear for one night, and instead reuse or recycle old costumes - but still make sure the kids felt that same "I have an awesome costume" confidence they enjoy when they show off to their friends.

First Nathan reused the Scuba Diver from 2 years ago, from our "Under the Sea" theme. He is probably the only kid who could squeeze into clothes from 2 years ago. But, that was a costume we spent plenty on the first time, so it was a good one to get more use out of. Ok, ok, so he does get lots of use out of his Under Armour shirt and ski pants, there's just not much need for a scuba mask and snorkel in the mountains . . .
The best part of the costume was it didn't take much convincing - he was pretty eager to wear it again, got lots of compliments at school, and even won a "best overall costume" award too. Not bad for a redo!

And Livy - this one was a little more difficult. There was no way I was going to be able to get her back into the very skin tight mermaid costume that went along with the scuba diver, so it was literally the last minute before we had hers all figured out. It is not unusual for me to be up late into the night working on costumes, but to still be trying to come up with something was a little stressful. In the end, though, I think we did come up with a winner - Medusa. We recycled a Lucy from Narnia dress and made a headband of rubber snakes. Actually, she was pretty proud of it, also got tons of oohs and aahs, and since it took me more than an hour before school and then again before Trick-or-Treating to get all the snakes in her hair, I think it counts!

Then Elle - This one was easy - she got lucky borrowing a French poodle costume from her cousin Gwen! It was delivered to her in Moab when we met up with Aunt B and Uncle Brodie for the 24 hours of Moab, and it has been all I can do to keep her out of it until Halloween. Now, I can't get her out of it to send back to Gwen! It was worth it though - she loved wiggling down the street in it making her ears bounce up and down. It was the cutest little costume - and so nice and warm! The others started to get cold and tired, but Elle was determined not to miss any doors by turning in early to warm up.

Finally JD - sweet JD. He recycled an Eeyore costume I made for Nathan way back in the day. In fact, if I remember right, it was the frenzy of making this costume that began it all. There was something about working my fingers until they bled that made me feel like a real mom. My own mom would always stay up late pretty much the whole months of September and October making the most amazing costumes for all of us, and somehow this seemed to be the way it should be. So, my first attempt at following a pattern and using my brand new sewing machine that a whole bunch of family had chipped in to get me for my BYU graduation, somehow eventually turned into Eeyore and it was a lot of fun to bring it out again. The problems came when JD didn't get a nap at all and then got freaked out by the very first Trick-or-Treater that came to our door in a scary mask. Not a good combo for the night, and he wasn't very cooperative for pictures.

All of them together ready to go (JD is still freaked out) -

And since Jake was down in Hurricane for another mountain bike race - this time a 25 hour race since they were taking full advantage of the time change, more about this later I'm sure - we were on our own for Trick-or-Treating, and then off to the Shippen's for their annual Halloween party.