Halloween and maternal slackitude

I think I need to skip one holiday a year (mentally, I mean--for self-preservation). This year it's Halloween. I didn't put out a single decoration. I had lofty ideas, sure, but they got stuck in the brain maze. Not sure if it's the cleaning or cooking or laundry or soccer or ballet or carpool or grocery shopping or working or Madonna concert attending, most recently, but my energy level is bleak. I managed to crank out some rad costumes for the chickens, but that's where the festivity ends for us. And I'm OK with that. *adds  "slacking" to the list above*

On to the costumey fun and budget breakdown!

The kids decided "Star Wars" was an appropriate theme. The big girl, E, asked when they could stop dressing in group costumes. I told her that would happen when I stopped being their mother. SNAP/BURN. What is the pay-off of having a gaggle of children if you can't parade them around when the creative whim strikes?

 

E is to be Leia. She had a full-on crying fit when she saw herself with Leia buns using her actual hair. I personally thought they were BEYOND awesome, but Mom's opinion matters not at all to a tween. YAY for the interwebz because I found Min Woo's flickr page after googling "Korean bathhouse towel wrap." I will spare you the details on how I determined those keywords in combination.

^No, I do not read (or write or speak or understand) Korean, but the steps are explained visually. If we had a dog (sniff), I'd totally Leia-fy him or her as in this pic. Since we don't, big girl E will have to do. I thought she'd cry more about the head-wrap than the actual hair buns, but no. This ridiculousness was acceptable (brown broadcloth, $5.99 for a yard). To complete her ensemble, we added a white robe (Target, $22), white turtle neck (Target, $8--and will be used again under school uniform on chilly days), and sequin belt (homemade with sequin trim and a set of D-rings from Hancock Fabrics, $5). Oh and boots. I refused to spend money on white boots (white boots are never the answer, and especially not after Labor Day and before Easter), so brown will have to do (not pictured; $4 after Amazon promotional credit, online coup code, and Visa points).

The boy child is Darth Vader. He has a serious affection for villains right now. I'm OK with that, I think, until the slutty sluts who like bad boys come after him. Then he goes into a cage where I can protect his blue-eyed dimpled innocence. His costume is gently used from ebay, $8 with shipping. Target saber, $8 (not pictured).

The baby girl, Lil C, is Yoda. I mean, she's Yoda on the daily on the inside, but for Halloween, she's Yoda on the outside too. Her trick-or-treat bag is probably going to be bigger than her, but that's cool because, as we all know, "Size matters not." A friend graciously hand-me-downed this one when she heard of the gang's Star Wars plans. We added little green gloves from the girls' dress-up box. Because Yoda. Total cost = $0.

I left the middle girl, V, for last, because her costume rocks the hardest. She is so fierce with her fashion choices. That girl has confidence out the wazoo. She decided to be R2TuTu. We used an old recital costume of E's and some glittery foam for R2's control panel and called it good freakin' faboosh with a total cost of under $10 for the t-shirt, decals, and foam. Personally I would have gone less literal (no "R2 TuTu" on the shirt sleeves), but V is all about branding. I did some hand-stitching to keep the control panel and decals affixed.

Total cost: 70.99, but once I take out E's robe, turtle neck, and boots, which will all be used regularly after Halloween, it's 36.99, averaging to under $10 per kid.

Total awesome: You tell me because I certainly can't be objective. See you in the comments!

P.S.--If you're hoping for an update on the robot room... well so am I! The art that is going to MAKE THE ROOM has still not arrived. Stupid international shipping grumblecurse.