Halloween Group Costumes

I love group costumes. We've been doing group costumes since the first Halloween with our daughter. Since that Halloween I have bought her costumes (and dress up clothes) at Children's Orchard, my favorite resale clothing store. I look forward to the day in September when they put out the costumes. That first Halloween I found a cute lion costume. What immediately came to my mind is "Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!". I blame my dad. Wizard of Oz is his favorite movie. So Melodie was the cutest cowardly lion, we bought a scarecrow outfit for Rocky and a good friend made my Dorothy costume (I needed to nurse in it and all the Dorothy costumes I could find to buy were one piece). This was also the first year we went to a Disney Halloween party. At the time it was at DCA and called Mickey's Halloween Treat.

The next year (2007) was the first year we went to Mickey's Halloween Treat with my whole family. It was such fun to go with a big group in costumes of the same theme.

My mom had previously made the Snow White costume. For this party she also made all the dwarf costumes (except for the Grumpy costume which we borrowed from a friend) and the prince costume. I bought a black cloak for the Old Hag costume. Melodie was the poison apple. I found a devil costume at Children's Orchard which I reworked to be an apple. I took off the tail and horns and put on a stem and leaf. I also stuffed her with padding.

In 2008 the party name changed to Mickey's Trick or Treat Party. This time we went with friends. Our theme was based around Melodie's costume (guess where I found it?). When I saw it, I knew she would be adorable in it! I don't have many good pictures because this is the night I ended up in the emergency room because I was in pain. Turned out I had an ectopic pregnancy and had surgery the next day. I barely made it home in time for Halloween day. Anyway, Melodie's 50's costume was pink, so the first thing that came to mind were the Pink Ladies in Grease.

 

We went with an even bigger group of friends in 2009. This time I found a few costumes I liked, and Melodie was starting to develop opinions of her own, so I let her choose between a few. She chose a purple witch costume, so our theme was witches and wizrds. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of the group all together.

 

 

2012 was especially fun because we went to Walt Disney World in Florida called Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party. This year Melodie wanted to be Dorothy, and luckily I found a costume at Children's Orchard (you never know what you will find or not find). Rocky reused his scarecrow costume, and we knew we needed a witch. That left three of us (none of which wanted to be a lion or Glinda). Three was the perfect number for the Lollipop Guild munchkins.

The next year the prices got too high for us, so we didn't go to a Disney Halloween party. Melodie wanted to be a witch again, so Rocky and I kind of went with a theme. I was Maleficent (a wicked sorceress is a kind of witch, right?) and Rocky was Gandalf (the wizard for Lord of the Rings, which my husband is slightly obsessed with).
We actually thought we wouldn't go to another Disney party again, but my mom and one sister really wanted to go this year. There's even more of us now, so we needed a Disney movie with a lot of characters. We wanted the same reaction we got when we went in 2007. We received applause as we walked around and people wanted to take pictures of us. It was such fun! We ended up selecting Peter Pan (yay! my favorite!).

So here's how everyone is related to me and their characters:
a younger brother - John
a younger sister - Wendy
a nephew - Michael
brother-in-law - Indian Chief
a younger sister - Tiger Lily
a younger sister - Nana
a niece - Tinker Bell
a younger brother - Peter Pan
me - Tic Toc the croc
husband - Captain Hook
step dad - Smee
mom - a pirate
niece and daughter - mermaids

Huge props to my teenage brothers, one who wore a nightgown and one who wore tights. Such team players!

We borrowed the Captain Hook costume. One sister bought the pink pjs for "Michael" and the Tink costume. My other sister and I had pretty simple costumes that were more representations than actual costumes since 1) it was too for a full body furry costume and 2) I couldn't find anything in maternity. So for Nana she wore a brown shirt with dog ears and the nurse cap. For Tic Toc I wore a green shirt with a crocodile hat (a random find) and a clock necklace ('cause he swallows a clock!). I painted the stripes on the Smee shirt. My mom put together her pirate costume with various clothing choices. The big thing is that she made all the other costumes (John nightgown, Wendy dress, Indian Chief shirt, Tiger Lily dress, Peter Pan shirt and the mermaids).

We got amazing reactions at Mickey's Halloween Treat (another name change and this time at Disneyland). Applause, pictures and tons of comments. So much fun! We didn't see another themed group as big as ours. Hopefully we will do it again someday (my vote would be for Alice in Wonderland).

 

 

A Sister!

I'm well into second trimester, and I'm finally feeling better. Last week I had the ultrasound to find out the gender of the baby. Rocky and I knew for a few days before telling Melodie and close friends. We wanted to make it fun! I baked a cake that Melodie cut into to see if it was blue (she's having a brother) or pink (she's having a sister).

 

 

She was thrilled it was pink. She's going to have a sister.
We had to keep it secret for another week. We were going to be seeing family from out of town and thought we should do something fun for them too. I made this shirt for Melodie:

Grandma and Auntie Lori noticed quickly!

 

 

This was such a fun way to include Melodie in the announcement. She got lots of hugs.