The Force is Strong With Us

Several months ago Josh planned out what he would be for the next several Halloweens. Star Wars characters for 4 years, and then when he's 8, a bush. It will be awesome because it will surprise people that the bush is moving. He absolutely remembers this schedule, so first up on the list, a Jedi Knight, had to be fulfilled this year. I looked into sewing costumes quite long ago, but it never got past the looking phase. So being in an emergency, I got on Amazon, filled my shopping cart with expensive yet cheap looking costumes, and . . . Gary said he was sure we could make them. But we had so much going on this week, Gary . . . No matter, it looked easy to him. So, we bought fabric, waited until the perfect time (the night before trick-or-treating), hauled out the sewing maching, and did it. And it was fun! Gary did the measuring and cutting (no pattern, just scaled down from some instructions online. Oh, yeah, scaled down because sadly/awesomely almost all Star Wars costuming described on the internet is for adults), and I did the sewing. It took us way too long, but we learned a ton, and got the last stitch sewn 10 minutes before we headed out the door. Mistakes abound, but our kids loved it, so we felt pretty accomplished.

Josh ended up choosing Obi Wan Kenobi specifically, and Noah insisted on being Darth Maul. I wanted my precious young son to be a good guy, so I suggested every awesome character I could think of . . . but it was always met with, "No, I'm going to be Darth Maul." We wondered if he even knew who Darth Maul is, but the second I found a picture of him, Noah said, "Yeah, that's Darth Maul, that's who I'm going to be for Halloween!" So, Darth Maul it was. Gary did the face makeup, and Noah loved it. As for Andrew, we decided to alter things a bit. Gary's vision was Luke Skywalker. When I went to put it on him his belly was too big, so we had to squeeze it together with a safety pin. I don't know why, but I think his too-big belly is so funny.

Before we got out the costumes to dress the kids, Gary put on Star Wars to pump them up, and boy did it ever! You should have seen the proud look on Josh's face as he donned his Jedi robe.  So, candy gathering we did go, and it was a great night. The rain dried up just right before we went out, so we got to watch our little kiddies excitedly going from house to house. These pictures are in the opposite order of how they happened, but switching them around . . . nah. (Come on, Blogger, you can make it easier . . .)



Let us begin at the end . . . young Skywalker enjoying candy, toddling around with whatever he could get his hands on.

Here we see the master of costuming pushing the Jedi carriage. The other spot was being kept warm for Darth Maul, who ended up riding after a while, too.



The epic battle . . . (darn teenagers, I can't even use the word epic anymore!)

I made them stop at this door for a photo together, but their general lack of focus indicates what was really important to them at that moment.

We were on our way to trick-or-treat at the first house when we realized Darth Maul was without shoes. Would have known it earlier if we'd actually looked at the pictures we were taking.

Aaah, I just have to kiss him all the time!

When we got home we had some hearty chili ready that Gary had made, and it was delicious. There's something magical about the family all together, the kids having fun, the crisp night air, the jack-o-lanterns, the leaves, the friends passing by, warm chili . . .The whole night makes me smile. And if you were here to see me do it, you'd see I have Kit Kat in my teeth. Mmmmmm . . .

P.S. Gary and I joked about opening up a Jedi robe shop on etsy. Our motto will be, "Your kids will love it so much, you won't even notice how crooked it is!"