halloween: 2013 (wicked)

I love Halloween.  I know lots of Christians have strong beliefs about not participating, and okay, whatever for you.  But I'm gonna.  We never do anything scary or evil, but playing dress up, meeting or chatting with the neighbors, and getting free candy all sound like a pretty great evening to me!!! I could write an entire post on that whole idea, but I think other people have already done it, and said it better than I could, so I'll just carry on with the costumes. :)

luckily, my kids are at the age right now where most of my ideas still seem pretty cool.  (I realize my time for this phase of life is limited.)  so, when we decided last year to have a family theme every year for Halloween, they were all for it.  The problem is that our budget for Halloween is teeny tiny.  so we have to be creative.

This year, we just had to do the Wicked theme again because Lillian has been DYING to be Glinda since the day after Halloween when she was 5, which was when SHE was Elphaba.  remember this?? 

Lillian as Elphaba, 2009 (the unedited (barely green) picture bc I can't find my pics from that year...hm...)

So finally this year I agreed to it, and our theme was set.  

My original plan was for Elphaba, Glinda, Dr. Dillamond, a flying monkey, and an Emerald City resident.  BUT...as luck would have it, I couldn't find ANYTHING that would work for Dr. Dillamond besides like a $70 mask I found online.  not gonna work.  and I also couldn't find anything for Josiah to be a flying monkey, especially because, well, the monkeys in Wicked don't really look a whole lot like monkeys, so we went with plan B. 

Here we have this year's Elphaba: 

For Brielle's costume, we already had that blue jumper thing, but for some reason I could NOT find the blue turtleneck from Lillian's year, but thankfully Goodwill had one for me!  we had also gotten this purple jacket as a hand me down, and I threw it in the costume box just in case we'd need it for Elphaba some year, and I'm so glad I did!  of course we already had the knitted hat, but needed a new wig since Lillian's got destroyed long ago.  and after Lillian got her fake glasses, Brielle REALLY wanted some, so we got here these so they could be used sort of generically, and they worked for Elphaba, even though they look nothing like Elphaba's glasses. :)  so, wig, turtleneck, and glasses.  that's it!  oh, and green facepaint, even though you can't tell (again...the same thing happened in the pictures of Lillian!  oh well..).  

The deal for Miss Glinda this year was that she'd have to wear our Cinderella dress instead of buying a new one, since it was practically perfect for Glinda, even though it has Cinderella carraiges on the bottom, which REALLY bugged her, but at least I clipped off the Cinderella jewel thing on the bust.  so the only purchase for this costume was the foam crown from Hobby Lobby for like $1.50 or something!  Thanks Hazel for letting us borrow your wand! 

These Emerald City folks were the hardest.  I searched like 3 different Goodwill stores and finally found that perfect green dress for me, even if it was a little big.  hello?!?!  green ruffly dress?  at Goodwill?  perfect.  and I also got the boa from Hobby Lobby at 40% off, and the little mask for Josiah too.  I made his bowtie, and even though you can't see it, we bought green spray for his hair.  in real life it was green!   For my hat, I used these big ball party decorations I bought a few years ago for Lillian's birthday party.  They collapse to store flat, and when I saw them that day in the basement I decided to make myself a hat out of them!  So I folded the big one inside itself and put my bun thing through the hole, and then grabbed a smaller one and flipped it the opposite way and stuck my bun through that one!  easy peasy, and it really made the whole outfit come together!  oh, and the scarf is pinkadink material I already had!  woot!  

Lillian told him that in the Emerald City scene, they're always dancing.  so here's Josiah...dancing. :)

here's the 4 of us waiting for our wizard to get home!!!

he arrived!! :)

Steve's costume was easy because we have dutch costumes in this house!  So he got his fancy jacket and top hat from his costume, added a white shirt he already had, used my scarf for his big thick tie, and a pin striped vest from one of his suits from back in his hotel days when he wore suits every day.  we bought him the mustache sticker and the fancy cane, with grand ideas of singing "wonderful, they call me wonderful" all the day long.  which we did.   

and, because the patriarch of the fam is an actor, we needed a "dramatic" photo.  You can tell the Brielle and I are obviously the most comfortable with that decision. ;)  whatever.  if I get to dress you all, I'll "pose" for a photo or two.  

and for those of you who aren't familiar with WICKED (you poor, poor things!) then maybe this little visual will be of help. :)  Here's the characters from the musical, and our attempt at looking like them without spending more than a few bucks here and there. :)

so, there ya have it.  Happy Halloween from the Hydeens! :)