Halloween Masterpiece(s)

This very well could be the last year I made my kids' costumes LOL!  It was a mere ... 8 years ago (wow was it really that long ago?).  I put so much work into them, that I let them quite literally wear them out in the months to come, because I wanted them to get USED (kind of like my quilts).  My kids obviously wanted to be "Buzz Lightyear", so I got a pattern, felt (never again), and got to work...

Aren't those little toes the cutest?!  It's been so much fun reliving those years through seeing other parents  getting costumes made for their little ones!  It could very well be the last year that my oldest does trick-or-treating, as he's now officially as tall as I am :-O.  But then again, I said that last year!  But I've earned enough gray hairs to tell the rest of you younger moms and dads to enjoy these precious years!!

When my boys got to be about 9-10, I figured they were old enough to start creating their own Halloween costumes!  Free candy is very strong motivation to get their creative juices flowing, and they have far surpassed anything I could ever come up with over the last few years, even without a sewing machine!! 

I encourage any other parents to do the same... let you child (once they're old enough) invent their own costumes!  It's been such a blast for me to see what they come up with each year.  One year my youngest was a ghost, and my oldest was a "MEAP test", the Michigan standardized school test... all we needed was white fabric, and 2 white poster boards and a black paint/markers.  Big brother got so many  laughs!!  It was also much less work for me, and much more satisfying for them!  Happy Halloween!!