Big Ideas, Big Storms and a Big Yellow Head - Halloween 2011

I had a lot of ideas for this year's Halloween costumes. I had one BIG idea for a family costume.  I've been working it out in my head for most of 2011. But I didn't have time to start working on it and it was a good thing, there were other big things on the way.  On August 27th, Hurricane Irene hit our town very hard. We were relatively lucky with minimal damage, but in it's aftermath there was a lot of clean up to do, the start of school was delayed and my husband was doing a lot of traveling for work - Halloween costumes were on the back burner. Besides, my six year old son was not entirely on board with my idea and it had to be a team effort, all of us or none of us. He does not always like to wear homemade costumes and that's okay, it's supposed to be fun for him. But he wanted to win a trophy in the town costume contest. His brother won 2nd place last year and he was distraught at not having a trophy like his big brother. I explained to him that if he wanted a chance to win, he had to work with me and let me make his costume. And I realized that I needed to to come up with an idea he could get excited about.
But life was a bit hectic at the moment anyway, and we decided that my ambitious idea would be to much to take on this year. Back to the drawing board. Angry birds was one idea that the kids liked, but it was popular in the stores, so I wasn't excited about it. Then one day the boys were in the front yard with one of their favorite comic books, Calvin and Hobbes. They were acting out the scenes frame by frame.
"Hey guys, do you want to be Calvin and Hobbes for Halloween?"  "Yeah!" It was an idea we were all excited about. They immediately decided who would be Calvin and who would be Hobbes. Now it was up to me to figure out how to make it a reality. I had some ideas for Hobbes, but for Calvin I wasn't sure. My son is a cute little boy with a mischievous side, not unlike the character himself. I could have just spiked his hair and called it done, but what fun would that be? We thought about trying papier mache, but cardboard is our favorite medium, we would make it happen.

Calvin and Hobbes

Two days before the big day a freak snowstorm hit our state and almost killed Halloween.  It did kill it for some towns that were forced to cancel or delay planned activities, including Trick or Treating.  Our town parade and costume contest were cancelled (so we will never know if we could have won that trophy). School was also cancelled for 2 days, but Trick or Treating was on and Calvin and Hobbes were off on a quest for candy and adventure. They looked great and I had no problem finding that big yellow head in the crowd.
Now that Halloween is over, I've got to get to work on next year's costumes, I've got some BIG ideas and a whole year to get the family excited about them!