Homemade Halloweens and the 2019 Olympians

The kids favorite yearly holiday is Halloween. They love staying up late with friends and trick or treating, but not for the candy, they give most of it away. Xander keeps his Kit-Kats, which for the longest time he referred to as “chitter-chatters” as well as his Starburst. Annika keeps her peppermint patties, butterfingers, peanut butter cups and Sour Patch Kids for her dad. The rest they used to give away to the “Pumpkin Fairy” in return for books or crafts. But the past two years they have started to engage in the business of trading with their friends!

The main attraction to Halloween, however, is the pre-planning. They love coming up with “themed” family costumes, we eventually worked together to make them, and thoroughly enjoy our photography sessions where we act out our roles. Annika doesn’t usually “get silly” but for Halloween, when she is in costume, she does break out of her shell and pretend to be her character. Xander has never had trouble acting out his previous roles. He is either an animal or a “non-human” creature, like a gnome.

Halloweens of the Past

We have always chosen themes, usually based on what we were into that year. Our first year with a child, Annika and I were bumblebees, mostly store bought. In 2009, Xander was just born, so he was the caterpillar in metamorphosis and Annika the butterfly. The next year we all were Alice in Wonderland characters. It wasn’t until 2010 that our costumes became truly DIY. When Xander was two, he loved turtles and “turtle” was actually one of his first 10 words! It inspired me to orate the story of the Tortoise and the Hare at bedtime, and it made for a perfect Halloween costume - I became a carrot; Daddy the tree. Then we journeyed our way to the nature-loving Waldorf School and Annika chose a flower, Xander chose an owl. Other more iconic themes were Mary Poppins, their first movie. The Lion King Musical, their first Broadway play, and the most challenging costumes to create. The La Brea Tarpits, the most exciting museum we had ever visited. Xander was a wooly mammoth, Annika was a sabertooth tiger, I was a tar pit and daddy was an excavator. Another year, Annika was evil Maleficent and I was the happier version, while Xander and Daddy was a gnome in the enchanted gardens. In 2017, Annika and I teamed up as Rebel Girls Frida Kahlo and RBG. Xander really wanted to be a sloth, so Daddy wore Xander’s old wooly mammoth head piece. Last year was another full family theme with The Greatest Showman - yes, I was the bearded woman! That year was super fun and hard to outdo….but the show must go on….

Halloween 2019 - The Making of The Olympians

This summer, the kids read the Percy Jackson Olympian series and so…we became The Olympians. Annika, still my strong female chose Athena, Goddess of Wisdom & Warfare. Xander the ocean lover chose Poseidon, God of the Sea. They chose Demeter, Goddess of Nature for me because I love my garden and being outside. And even though “my dude” isn’t huge, they wanted him to be Zeus, God of the Sky. Apparently, Zeus was angry at his pregnant wife, turned her into a fly and ate her. Then he got a really bad headache, and his fellow Olympians cracked his head open and BOOM - out came his daughter Athena - fully dressed in armor. So they wanted a photo of that!

Making our costumes this year included repurposing old clothing or hand-me-downs, sewing, needle-felting and some hot-gluing.

Athena, Goddess of Wisdom & Warfare

Annika fits in my clothing now, so finding her a flowing dress was easy. We added a scarf, belt and some jewelry. The harder part was making the Athena Warrior Helmet. I kept staring at these sticky, gold stretch pants our friend Laura gave us and wondering if there was anything I could do with them. I nearly gave up and bought a helmet on Amazon when it came to me. I cut off the legs, altered the waistline to the circumference of Annika’s head and then tied the rest into a knot inside out! It was essentially a nylon “robbery” cap (without the face!). Then I needle-felted a red mohawk with 100% wool red roving and glued it on the cap. I also used the saved scraps from my sister’s bridesmaids dresses and repurposed them the same way I did for the Anne Wheeler/Zendaya bodice last year. This year I used Seema’s green netting with the “zari” to embellish Annika’s crown and arm armor. Both Xander and Annika’s arm armor came from scraps of the gold leggings.

Poseidon, God of the Sea

Xander’s costume was all made from scratch. We sewed a white tunic, dipped it in Blue Rit Dye and sea salt so that it looked like he was slowly coming out of the sea, sewed gold olive branch ribbon on his shoulders and weaved a deep blue velvet scarf through the shoulder band. Then we glued on several shells and sand-dollars we found in our craft bin from a Hawaiian themed birthday party we had ages ago. For both Xander and my costume, I made leaf crowns using the traditional Hawaiian Haku Lei method from snipped greens and olive branches (added some flowers for Demeter’s crown). This was fitting given that I was chosen to be the Goddess of Nature. Finally, Xander needed a trident. We found a fork pattern, traced it on scrap fabric, sewed it and stuffed it with batting and duck taped it on an old closet rod. After all the repurposing of clothing and old craft supplies all four costumes probably cost us under $30. The only supplies I needed to buy were the velvet fabric and the gold ribbon!

Olympian Showtime

The On Halloween day, we spend sometime with face-painting, get into character and enjoy some private showtime at home with our camera. Zeus got some laughs after tying on a last-minute costume, toga frat-party style. The laughter erupted when he decided to pose (in the backyard only) with his bulging biceps. There were battles between Poseidon and Zeus, and then Poseidon and Athena. Athena would have won if Mommy had made a proper spear for her. But Demeter was a peace-loving and simply harvested the family garden’s fruits. During these photo shoots, Xander often photo bombs Annika. However, this year Annika got “revenge” and photo bombed him. After many laughs, and mommy feeling like she got enough photos, we all put on our walking shoes and joined friends with hugs and the excitement of candy.

Trick-or-Treating California style is so different than my memories back in cold-weather Michigan. We drove from house to house with a coat covering our costumes. When Annika was one we only got out of the car once! When I was young, the object of the game was to find a costume that would keep you very warm. Doors were closed, doorbells were rung except at my friend Angie’s house. Her house was decorated to the nines and her dad would be dressed as Dracula handing out candy in the cold among the spookiness! I remember being scared to enter her yard in my early years. Ironically, right after I wrote this she posted photos of her home this year and its still amazing! Here, every street is like Angie’s house and your trick-or-treating group grows bigger and bigger with each house you pass! So it’s no surprise that when my kids make their “favorite things” posters for school, they list Halloween as their favorite “holiday.” I only wish we had the day after off! I guess, we will….next year. Until then, hope you all had a Happy and Safe Halloween. And maybe next year be inspired to repurpose old stuff and DIY a costume or two yourself!

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