peter pan clan

how was your halloween?

ours was an adventure.

left to right: tinkerbell, smee, tiger lily

peter pan and captain hook

as i've mentioned before, i always love to go with a theme for our costumes. with the exception of our first halloween together, bryce and i have always had some sort of couple costume. but as our kids (ava) get older, they (ava) are starting to make things more difficult. ava suggested a few great ideas, which i was totally onboard with, but then she would change her mind... she just couldn't decide on just one costume and it was seriously stressing her out. it didn't seem enjoyable at all. i love halloween and i hated seeing my daughter so upset over such a little thing, so i talked it over with her and tried to help her make a decision. at first mention, emaline was set on being captain hook. and i wasn't about to dress emaline up as a mean pirate while ava got to be pretty wendy or tinkerbell, so i suggested peter pan. she wasn't too keen on the idea, until i explained to her that i would make her costume and add some girly glittery accents to it.... then she was finally onboard! so i got to work...

with the help of bryce, i cut and sewed peter's outfit out of fleece, then added a collar, fringe at the bottom and a belt all made from glittery tulle. i added braided twine and a dagger to her belt, spray painted her hat, and added a feather. the green tights were a task all on their own... i thought i'd be able to find them easy, but couldn't find the right color, (or any shade of green) anywhere and ended up having to dye them in two different colors to get just the right color. but when all was said and done, ava was pleased with the outcome, in fact, she was thrilled and absolutely excited! all that work was certainly worth it!

we already had a pirate dress costume in our dress up box, which resembled captain hook's ensemble, so all i had to take care of for emaline was her hat, shoes, hook and sword. easy peasy, just like emaline. her favorite part of the costume was either her curly hair (which was much curlier on the night of halloween), or her hook which she kept dragging across our throats in the most gentle yet brutal motion ever.

we also had a tinkerbell costume on hand, which was actually sized for a 4 year old, so i tied the straps and pinned together the back and it was a perfect fit for baby. i bought some fairy shoes from the dollar store, cut and sewed them to baby size then added a white puff ball to each shoe and her costume was done.

my tiger lily costume was made from a (really ugly) thrift store dress... i had to remove some appliques and ribbing, then added some ribbon and cut a slanted fringe on the bottom and my dress was done. i bought a witch's wig, and braided it into two, then made a headband with two feathers to fit over my wig. the wig ended up looking better than i thought it would and was asked multiple times if they were extensions. hah! it was obviously a pretty dark night.

and then there was smee...

somehow every year, bryce's costume is the one that gives us the most trouble. i searched for weeks for a blue and white striped shirt... i thought for sure it would be easy to find, but after multiple stores and weeks of searching i realized that we would have to figure something else out. so i bought a blue shirt from the thrift store, and planned to spray paint white stripes onto it. i will save you the trouble of finding out on your own that spray painting large areas on fabric, such as these stripes, does not work. i blew through an entire can of paint and didn't even come close to making a decent looking stripe. i then purchased some fabric spray paint, which was the biggest joke and waste of money. ultimately, we (bryce) ended up just painting the shirt with plain old acrylic paint. of course the cheapest and easiest idea was the one that ended up working, it also happened to be bryce's first suggestion. we had to rush to finish it so it was no where near perfect, but for a halloween costume it came out just right. i sewed a red t-shirt into a stocking cap, shoved some white cotton into the sides added some spectacles and smee was finally complete. but my favorite part of his costume and probably all of halloween was his booty. i laughed every time i saw it. and yes, he stuffed his shirt as well, just in case you were thinking that he was starting to let himself go in recent months.

so there you have it... our partially homemade, slightly ghetto, peter pan costumes.

now what were YOU for halloween?