Frankenstein and His Bride

When Halloween was approaching, people started asking the kids what they wanted to be for Halloween.  It made me think to myself, “Huh.  Is that supposed to be their choice?” Maybe one day I will let my kids choose their own costume--I suppose when they really care enough.  For right now, they don’t even know that should be an option.  I think we will try to keep it that way until they come up with something real good!  Mostly I think up some family theme months in advance and start convincing my kids how much fun it’s going to be in order to get them on board.  I maybe was extra bad this year and told Jade she didn’t want to be some ordinary princess (especially one from Frozen), because A.  that’s how all the girls will dress and B. that’s what dress ups are for.  You can be a princess everyday.  You can’t be some scary, cool creation everyday. 

For Halloween 2014 I thought it would be hilarious to dress little almost-3-year-old Ridge as Frankenstein.

And I was right.  IT was hilarious.  I am a sucker for fake muscles on little boys, so we used a Hulk costume to make him green.  A shaggy men’s wig on top of the bottom of a milk jug created his large, square head.  Add some make-up and a suit coat from a friend, and we created our first monster!

Next up was Frankenstein's Bride. 

It’s kind of interesting how I based our family theme around Ridge’s costume, but Jade’s ended up being my favorite! 

For Jade’s costume, I ordered the cheapest bride wig I could find online.  That ended up being a women’s wig with no stuffing, so we used a half-filled beach ball and bottom of a milk jug to hold the wig up and on her head without it being too heavy. 

Then I used a shirt I snagged at a church clothing exchange and one of my old skirts to make the dress. 

  

I sewed them together and snipped and embellished a little bit.  It turned out to be my favorite kid costume to date.  And it only cost about $10 for the whole thing (that was for the wig). 

Don’t feel bad for my kids that they had to go along with mom’s plan, because they really loved their costumes and had so much fun acting the parts!  As mom, it’s my job to expand their horizons! 

   

To add to the scare factor, we dressed Tanner in the adorable little spider costume Ridge wore a couple years ago. 

 

At least on that day.  Tanner changed costumes every time we dressed up.  This particular day we went to Cooper Gristmill for a kids’ Halloween activity.  We had to get the kids completely decked out to take pictures for the kids’ costume contest at Cody’s work.  The gristmill activity was just a good excuse to do it that day. Picturesque, isn’t it?!

  

The kids were able to see how the old gristmill works.  

 

They also heard a ghost story, had snacks, colored, and made cornhusk dolls. 

 

Jade enjoyed the simple activities, but the best part of the whole day was walking in the woods behind the gristmill.   

 

 

The leaves were changing colors and were absolutely stunning!

 

In fact the scenery worked out really well for Halloween photos.    

 

This picture has got to be one of my all time favorites! 

And guess what?!  Jade won the contest at Cody’s work!  There were three categories and she won for “most creative!”  Cody was a little confused at first when he found a bright purple pony backpack on his desk at work.  Jade, on the other hand, was beyond thrilled!  She uses it for school everyday now. 

 

The next big Halloween event was the ward trunk-or-treat.  As we were going for a Frankenstein theme, I opted to create a mad scientist lab.  I started collecting garbage a month or so in advance.  Anything I thought would be useable in the lab, I saved.

Then I used a little black acrylic paint and food coloring with various food items and Halloween trinkets to create the shelving.  Cody helped add the finishing touches to a “machine” made out of boxes and stuff we could find around the house/garage.  I added a stuffed body for extra detail. 

 

Costing less than $10, this was our award-winning trunk at the trunk-or-treat!  We won for best trunk.  Please notice the glowing eyes on the monster.  That was intentional. :)

 

The item we probably received the most comments on was the syringes.  They are pens from the Halloween section at Target.  The best part is that Jade is the one that spotted them and was so excited to show me! 

Cody and I rounded out the whole theme as Igor and Dr. Frankenstein.  This night Tanner came along as a skeleton. 

 

Here we are, in all our glory:  Dr. Frankenstein and Igor with all the monsters we’ve created!

The last day we all got to wear our Frankenstein costumes was Halloween, of course!

 

Tanner was a pumpkin this time, because it had cooled off considerably and it was the warmest option! 

  

Luckily, our neighbor spotted us while we were attempting to get some pictures. 

 

He came out and took a few of all of us.  Have I ever mentioned how we have really great neighbors?

Being the frugal-minded gal that I am, I’m pretty pleased costumes for our entire family came in around $45!!  I’d say that’s pretty good for five people! 

Halloween night we went to some friends’ house for soup, then trick-or-treated around their neighborhood with several other families from church.  The kids had a great time and made a haul again this year!