My mom was such a great costume maker growing up. From Raggedy Ann to an old lady costume complete with a cane, glasses with the chains attached, and knee-high stockings, she put her creative ability to use with my homemade costumes. I LOVED Halloween and the excitement leading up to the day I could actually put my costume on and parade down the street collecting as much candy as possible. I, on the other hand, have had to find my groove as a non-Pinterest mom.
I don’t remember when I stopped loving Halloween and all the excitement leading up to it — thinking of the perfect costume and accessories to put it all together. The last costume I really got excited about was my junior year of college when a friend and I decided to go to the thrift store. We started picking out random clothes, shoes, hats … which ended with us look like dirty old men. No one recognized us, even our roommates and boyfriends.
As ridiculous as we looked, we rocked that costume and completed it with a cigar hanging from our mouths and a men’s magazine that we carried around with us all night. We came in 2nd place in the costume contest that night. Mission accomplished. Brace yourselves for this gem of a picture …
FINDING THE PERFECT COSTUME
I never could quite top that costume, and have never been a fan of using Halloween as an excuse to wear as little clothing as possible or spending tons of money on a store-bought costume so I just stopped dressing up. I guess the old saying ‘go big or go home’ applied to my Halloween costume situation haha! I quit letting myself get creative with ideas of what to wear and resigned myself to hand out candy and check out all the amazing costume ideas that landed on my doorstep.
Since having kids, I have somewhat gotten back into the spirit, dressing our boys up every year, but in a store-bought costume. I always thought I would be that Pinterest mom who makes the costumes, but alas, that has not happened. And you know what? I am ok with it.
A FAMILY AFFAIR
It appears as though our 6-year-old has noticed my absence of a costume and has asked me to dress up with them this year. Both boys agreed I should dress up as a princess, and would like my husband to be a Ninja. I immediately started thinking about how I could pull off the best costumes for Scott and me, then took a step back and really thought about it. I don’t need any of our costumes to be Pinterest-worthy. I don’t need to have the ‘go big or go home’ mentality.
What I love most about not just holidays, but events and experiences in general, is living them through my boys’ eyes. Their innocence and love for life is contagious and remind me to just live in the moment, not compare.
So maybe, just maybe, this will be the year to redeem myself in the costume department. Even if it’s non_pinterest worthy and just an old dress from my closet with a crown, I know the boys will love that I am dressed up with them. And I’ll soak in any moment I can while they still want me to dress up and escort them through the streets to collect their Halloween loot.
