My Boy's Halloween Costumes

It's October and I think I've said before that Halloween is my favorite holiday.  No gifts to give.  No big meal to make, just a day to make believe.

My boys are grown and haven't needed me to make them a costume for a long time, but I have wonderful memories.  We lived in Park Slope, Brooklyn when they were very small and every year there was a big family parade down the main business street.  This is a photo of us getting ready to set off on to join the parade one year.

My older son was in kindergarten that year and I made him a nearly exact version of a Ghostbusters costume (lower right) ... Egon Spengler specifically ... and a very quick devil costume for my other son who was 2 (lower left).  I was an ear of corn.

And ... in the upper left is Martha McCain!  She is always game.

My policy with my kids was to let them tell me what they wanted to be and then I would do my  best to make it.  But, they had to give me at least 2 weeks.  So, some years it would be down to the wire.  This can be a very hard decision!

One year was easy, they wanted to be Batman and The Joker.

The year I finally relented and got my son his first video game (a GameBoy) that's what he wanted to be.  His brother wanted to be a cowboy. Not a lot of sewing that year.

But, I didn't get let off so easy every year.

My younger son tended to choose the more classic costumes.

While my older son thought up things that were a little different.

Actually, this was the second time these muscles were worn. Look at the group photo above. I originally made these for my nephew who is peeking around the head of the monster in the middle.

But my younger son did give me a challenge one year.  He wanted to be a headless man.

This costume was great!  My son was in 5th grade that year and there was a 3 or 4 year old kid who started crying when he saw this costume.  We had to lift up the shirt and show him that my son indeed did still have his head.

Those were the days when I did my best to be ... SUPERMOM!!!