I love Halloween! It's definitely one of my favorite holidays, probably as much as I love Christmas, even though I've only had 2 Halloweens here so far. We don't celebrate it back home like we celebrate it here. At least not when I was still there. Now, Halloween back home is different. They have parades, and costume contests and marathons and lots of Halloween festivities and I kind of feel bad I'm missing out on all of that.
As always, I was looking forward to this Halloween (my 3rd). You see, we kind of started a tradition. Instead of buying and spending unreasonable amount of money for costumes for Roand, we decided to make our own. Or at least buy items that can be worn again, and not even as expensive as the actual costume, or make use of the items we already have. And we try to make it a family costume if we are to attend a Halloween party. It's so much fun planning for a costume and a chance to be creative without spending a lot.
2012
For our first ever Halloween, Roand dressed up as Mr. Fredricksen from our all-time favorite movie, Up. Roand was 3 and was in a stage where he's super crazy over balloons. For this costume, we bought this Harajuku Mini blazer from Target, and topsider Sperry shoes and paired it with items he already owns. For the glasses, we just took the lens off from a 3D glass.
We also made him an Ellie badge. I looked up for an image online and had it printed. I wanted to glue it to an actual bottle cap but I wanted it bigger than bottle cap size so I figured this will do.
And of course, we have to have balloons, otherwise, he'll just look like a little man. We wanted to make a mini Up house too but I think we didn't have enough time so we settled to just adding pictures of Dug, Russel and Kevin.
These photos were taken at the mall while he's Trick or Treat-ing. They were gushing over how cute and original Roand is. They even asked if they can take a picture with him.
Here, he reminds me of Noah from the movie The Notebook.
Here is Roand's costume number 3 still with the same blazer, for Christel's Sweet 16 birthday. We were dressed up as Psy ala Gangnam style hahaha! And we actually won as best in group costume yay!
2013
For our second Halloween, we dressed up as Kickass characters, another fave movie of course. Roand as Kickass, me as Hit Girl and the husband as Colonel Stars and Stripes. This time, I made Roand's costume, entirely hand-sewn. I have little idea on sewing so I just patterned the whole thing from one of Roand's coverall and studied how the pieces were sewn together. For Roand's mask, I think I used a beanie for the pattern. We bought a purple wig online and a mask and a plaid skirt from a thrift store for me, and husband used a camouflage jacket he already owns and made his own mask. I believe we were able to pull it off don't you think?
2014
This year, Roand is dressed up as Jake from Jake and the Neverland Pirates.One of his fave characters at the moment. I was supposed to dress up as Izzy and the husband as Cubby but we were quite busy this month that we didn't get to make our costumes. Although it should have been really easy. I guess it was a good thing we didn't because we might end up not using it anyway due to recent unfortunate events. Anyway, this would've been how we all looked.
For this costume, I was able to find tutorials online, complete with patterns meant for a 4 yr old. The tutorials were really easy to follow. Even easier if I knew how to use a sewing machine, and if I had one. Roand already had a Jake bandana and a toy sword and binoculars that we bought as a set. We cut up an old white tshirt and tied a string to it similar to Jake's. We also used an old black tshirt for the belt, and Roand's blue pants that he already owns. I think we spent a total $15, excluding the toys. We saved a lot compared to buying a similar costume that costs $36.99 (we checked lol!)
Can't wait for next Halloween! I'll have a little girl to dress up by then!
