My kids absolutely love Halloween. They start brainstorming costume ideas in April and talk about it pretty regularly all summer long.
Our neighborhood is a great place to be on Halloween. Families spend a lot of energy decorating their yards with ghouls and gravestones and spider webs. On October 31 the elementary school (which is right down the street) has a Halloween parade where the art teacher gives you a special necklace if your costume is homemade.
Then, right before it gets dark, we have a neighborhood Halloween party and parade (with pizza for the kids and beer for the grown-ups) before everyone goes out trick-or-treating. Hundreds of kids ring the doorbell and we have to buy a massive amount of candy every year.
Having blogged for 11 years is so handy at times like this because I have a long visual record of my life as a mom. So first, a quick walk through Halloween past:
2004 Roxanne was a pumpkin and although I know I took photos of her on our front porch, I can’t find them now. I think it’s because I didn’t have a blog then. Blogging is good for record keeping!
2005 Roxanne was a cow. I bought this costume randomly at a party store.
2006 Roxanne was a witch (the first costume I made after discovering that all the witch costumes for 4-year-olds were “sexy witch”) and Simon wore the pumpkin costume. I wore a bee costume I’d originally worn when I taught 6th grade.
2007 Roxanne was a bee and Simon wore the cow costume. I’ve downgraded to wearing just a witch hat.
2008 Roxanne was Pharaoh (the start of a love of history) and Simon was a princess/fairy/ballerina (why be one when you can be all three!).
2009 Roxanne was Abraham Lincoln and Simon was a pink kitty (her lovey is a pink kitty).
2010 Roxanne was George Washington and Simon was a beaver (her imaginary friend was a beaver who built fountains out of concrete – gotta love imaginary friends).
2011 Roxanne was Amelia Earhart, Simon was an astronaut and Josephine was a puppy (she was too big for the pumpkin costume).
2012 Roxanne was a suffragette and Simon was Peter Pan. Josephine wore the cow costume.
2013 Roxanne was Medusah and Simon was a robot. Josephine kept changing her mind so I told her if she wanted to get candy she would be a bee. Josephine wore the bee costume.
2014 Roxanne was Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Simon was a mad scientist, and Josephine was a dinosaur.
2015 Roxanne was Rosie the Riveter, Simon was a water molecule, and Josephine was a unicorn.
And that brings us to this year. We have Roxanne as Alexander Hamilton. She’s a Hamilton superfan and we saw the play on Broadway this summer which was absolutely fantastic. Simon as pie/Pi (we used this tutorial). Simon can recite over 50 digits of pi. And Josephine is a dragonfly. I’m not sure why. I think she likes wearing sparkly wings.
It’s wonderful the way wearing a costume, even a very simple tunic-like one your mom sewed in half an hour, is transformative for children. My 5-year-old, 10-year-old, and 12-year-old continue to absolutely love Halloween and I don’t blame them.
Update: I added our 2017 costumes below.
Simon was a circuit board, Roxanne was H. P. Lovecraft, and Josephine was a snowy owl.
oh I enjoyed seeing your kids in their costumes thru the years! My kids are grown now, but I really enjoyed making most of their costumes as they were growing up! Have a Happy Halloween!
So fun! This year I have seen several Rosie the Riveter costumes already, I LOVE that this is a Thing. (SO much better than sexy nurse/cop/firefighter/librarian).
We had a butterfly princess /pirate mashup here. Because we can.
PS not sure why my type is all italic. I am not trying to do anythng special!
Agreed! I just saw a 5-year-old Rosie the Riveter!
This was so much fun! Roxanne is going places. How many children have ever (EVER) dressed up as Ruth Bader Ginsburg or a suffragette??? Not many, I’m sure. ‘Histerica1’ — What a character. Happy Halloween.
She likes to describe her costumes as “historical hysterical.”
Your oldest will be able to use that line up as part of her college applications!
Ha! I hope so 🙂
These are so wonderful! Thank you for sharing. Your daughters are amazing.
Aw, thank you!
These are great! I’ve been reading your blog since Roxanne was Abraham Lincoln. Sometimes I just think of that out of the blue, and it kills me all over again. And Ruth Bader Ginsburg! Thanks for posting these all together. Happy Halloween!
Oh my goodness! Thank you for reading for so long.
Your children’s costumes put a smile on my face! Thanks!
Abby,
Thank you so much for the “Flying Squirrel” pattern.
It is so cute, I can’t wait to try and make it.
First time doing anything like this,…. Wish me luck.
Thank You Again,
Debbie
Ruth Bader Ginsburg. That’s awesome.What fun seeing them through the years.
Thanks for showing all of the years. We don’t decorate much for Hallowe’en but I do put up a kind of bunting thing that has pictures of all the hallowe’en costumes. It’s fun for everyone to look back and remember how small they were once. (They’re only 9 and 5, but still.)
This is great! I love seeing the progression of your children at Halloween.
I LOVE the Notorious RBG costume!
What’s funny is they have the same birthday and Roxanne’s initials are RVG!
What amazing costumes!! My favourite was Roxanne as a suffragette followed by George Washington!
Your 12-year-old wears the BEST costumes! 😀
Thank you!
What a lovely trip down memory lane! I work at a couple of elementary schools doing speech therapy and we just had a whole month’s worth of fun Halloween themed activities. I was never that much into holdiays but now they serve as a great springboard for creative ideas in the classroom. Halloween is by far my favorite. It’s lots of fun to be spooked! Thanks again for sharing the photos!
All of these costumes are awesome! George Washington’s wig looks like you took a beanie and hacked it–would love to know how you did that. Your children seem to be as creative as their mother.
We actually bought it on Etsy. It’s hand knit!