Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Halloween Ten

Are you thinking about Halloween?  I am, my birthday is in a month and two days, which means I've also thought about Christmas, which means I should back track and go to Halloween.  November First, of last year, we made a ghost costume for Old Bunny, ever since J has wanted to be a Ghost this year. He has been talking about it for the last ten months.  A few weeks ago we went to DI for the whole reason of looking for a white sheet, but I forgot!  I never once looked at the linens, and instead spent $30 on other things.
But its time to be prepared, so I googled ghost costumes.  Sure ghosts are easy, just a sheet, and two holes.  But I wanted some extra ideas.  I like to have a visual, and I have never once paid attention to ghost costumes.  Not to mention I'm worried about my son's visibility.  I'm not convinced two holes in a sheet is very safe. But my son wants the most simplest ghost costume, two holes for eyes, and a round hole for his mouth. But his dad and I have different ideas, we don't think they are safe.
Photo from Real Simple
I was thinking something real awesome, but the more pages I showed him, the more he told told me, "that doesn't even look like a ghost" I do really like this one, and he'd actually have peripheral vision.
from MNN.com (mother's nature network)
 I think we will end up something in the middle, with face paint to give him the black circle eyes and mouth. Something less scary but like these.  He doesn't like scary.
Example 1
Example 2
Example 3
Overall I'm not too excited about facepaint, I don't like it, never use it, but I would rather face paint then no vision.

I have dreams of my children in the same theme costume.  I think it would be great if my son was a pirate and my daughter was a parrot.  Even thought my son likes pirate stuff, he doesn't wan to be pirate.  So since this will probably be the last year, my daughter can't tell me she wants to be a princess, I'm thinking a ghost costume for her too.  So I can have at least one year of cute matching kids.  Should I do the same ghost costume, like that one from the MNN.  Or, slightly different, I don't know if she'll let me put that type of costume on her.  I was thinking a white hoodie and a white tutu.  I know not so ghost like, but she is pretty picky and pretty girl, and I think she would really love something like this or this, minus the headbands.

He once mentioned being Spiderman a few weeks ago.  But I brought up the ghost again, and he said oh yeah. I hope he sticks with the ghost, one day I expect him not to want me to make him a costume, but I thought I would at least be allowed to until after kindergarten.  I'm not quite ready to buy a costume. Plus I'm not dressing Nan up as MJ, so he needs to stick with something I can make so they can be matching just one year. I did find a pink spidergirl costume but I would rather die than put my almost two year old in that.
Now what my daughter really likes to do is pretend she is a mommy, so for Halloween, maybe I should just put her hair in a pony, dress her in a downeast wonder tee, yoga pants, and put her baby doll in a sling. Would anyone guess what she is?

One last thing, an actually ghost pattern
I might have posted this on the wrong blog?  I'm confused?!
I have seen invested three dollars in a white queen sized sheet, it will give us lots of wiggle room.

1 comment:

  1. I swear by Ben Nye face paints, but when you're dealing with younger kids, who may or may not have outgrown the putting things in their mouth stage, I understand why a parent might have misgivings about using makeup based face paint. I found this homemade/edible face paint recipe via a parenting blog (http://blogs.smarter.com/babieskids/2008/05/22/question-what-would-you-recommend-as-safe-paint-for-face-painting/):

    Ingredients:

    -3 tablespoons cornstarch
    -1 tablespoon flour
    -3/4 cup Karo light corn syrup
    -1/4 cup water
    -food coloring, liquid or gel

    Directions:

    1. Mix cornstarch and flour together in a bowl.
    2. Gradually stir in Karo syrup and water until smooth.
    3. Divide mixture into individual containers as needed (Mix and store in baby food jars or discarded film canisters – or Glad plastic ware cups/lids — see pictures).
    4. Color each one with the food coloring of your choice until you reach your desired color (I like mine darker — they seem to show up on the skin much better).
    Leave one batch untinted.
    5. NOTE: I felt the mixture was thin so I added another tsp or so of cornstarch. The recipe didn’t say to do this, but the face paint still worked.
    6. NOTE: If using the gel food coloring (I find the colors are more vibrant), you will want to mix with your spoon first and then put the lid on the container and shake, shake, shake to mix it all up. Otherwise, your paint will be speckled with “pieces” of the gel food coloring.

    Here's another recipe if you want to avoid corn syrup:

    1 teaspoon cornstarch, 1/2 teaspoon water, 1/2 teaspoon cold cream, 1 to 2 drops food coloring

    I plan on trying these out in the next week or two because I think it would make a good post on alternatives to makeup for kids and sensitive skin, but I thought it might give you some ideas to consider. By the way, I think Example 3 is super scary cute!

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