It's that time of the year again: The time where the kidlets try to figure out what they want to be for Halloween and I try not to panic when I realize how much this is going to cost me.
Last year, I lucked out. Pig Jr. chose to wear a Thomas the Tank Engine costume we had purchased several years prior when Horse went through her Thomas phase. Rooster wore Horse's former flower girl dress with a tiara Pig purchased in a department store somewhere. Horse wore a black sweater, black turtleneck, and black leggings, along with cat ears on a headband and a tail pinned in the proper location. The holiday cost me around a whole whopping twelve bucks to deck out all three kidlets. Granted, we had purchased each and every item earlier, but at least there was not much of a financial outlay during the month of October, unless you count the candy we had to re-purchase after I got into it.
This year, I had already been getting nervous. We've had some major expenses in recent history, more coming up next year, and I really did not want to have to shell out thirty bucks a kidlet for the costumes that are out in the stores. I'm cheap. I'll admit it. I decided to drag our stored Halloween costumes down from the attic and root around to see if anything could be reassigned, reused, or altered in any way possible to outfit the kidlets.
The first item I pulled out was the Thomas the Tank Engine costume Pig Jr. wore last year. It would still fit him, since it's a "one size fits most" type of pull-over thing. He wouldn't even look at it. Nope, he was not interested. Thomas is clearly for babies and he is a big boy. Dang it. Cross that item off the list of possibilities.
Next, I pulled out a dragon costume. It was sized to fit Rooster or possibly Pig Jr., depending on who wanted it more and could cram it on their body. Pig Jr. immediately informed me he did not like the dragon. Rooster said she did not like it much, but she wanted to try it on and check herself out in the mirror. A glimmer of hope stirred in my heart. Alas, it was to be denied when Rooster said it was okay, but she did not want to be a dragon. It was also slightly short in the torso for her, although I am sure we could have made do for one day.
Before I even lifted the next costume out of its storage bin, Pig Jr. was practically squealing with delight. It was a bird costume. I think it was supposed to be a parrot, and it had survived several years' worth of Halloween parties and trick-or-treating with both of my daughters. Pig Jr. was jumping up and down with excitement as I helped him into the suit. He ran into one of the bedrooms to check himself out in a mirror, and came back hollering about how we was going to be a bird this year. Huzzah! One down, two to go. The funny thing was that I just assumed he would not be interested in being a bird because the "feathers" were of lighter pastel colors and he tends to gravitate towards darker ones. I guess he liked the pink on the bird's beak and the orange of the body, because I have never before seen him more eager to dress up in costume.
Rooster was the next to choose a costume. She saw the flower girl dress next in the container and was attempting to put it on while I was still turning Pig Jr. into an avian wonder. (Tangentially related train of thought: If Pig Jr. is dressing up as a bird, does this mean pigs will fly?) Anyway, the flower girl dress fit Rooster perfectly. When I next drew out a long red cape and offered it to her to wear a la Little Red Riding Hood, she was in her element. Two down, one to go.
There were two things left in the bottom of the plastic container. One was the headband cat ears and the matching tail, and the other was a witch's costume Horse wore two years ago. I figured there would be no way that witch's costume would still fit her. She's had two years of growth spurts between now and then. Horse, however, came running over and scooped up the witch's outfit immediately. She tried it on and we discovered that with the right leggings and shirt, it will do nicely. And since she has about a zillion pairs of leggings from which to choose and a number of different shirts with which to fiddle, she is good to go.
All three kidlets now have their Halloween costumes, and I did not have to pay one red cent this year in order to outfit them. I beat last year's cheap twelve-dollar budget by twelve dollars. I have no idea how I lucked out in this regard, but I did. Yay, me!
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