Dry run.

Today I gathered up all the bits and piece of the kids' Halloween costumes, and I had them try them on for the first time, and they are SO cute. No seriously, they are! Look at this:

But if I may *whispers brag* for a moment, let me tell you how their outfits came together: Crystal bought Izzy the chef’s costume last Christmas, and when wearing it one day, he decided he wanted to wear it for Halloween as well. But it had no bottoms, so I made him crazy chef’s pants to go with it. Candy corn print and all. And they actually fit him, but he likes to wear his pants below his belly (emulating his father's sense of style) so they look a little big.

Funny story about those pants. I bought the material for about $5, then cut them out free handed. That resulted in pants too snug around Izzy's round little butt. So I added a piece to each side. That resulted in gigantic pants. So I turned the extra material into pockets and I added snaps at the top to make them fit him. This was a LOT of work for me, because I am NO seamstress. But they still looked a little crappy, so I bought some more material, setting me back another $5.

We're out a week later at Gabriel Brothers, and what do I see? Black pants with candy corn on them. In Izzy's size. FOR ONE DOLLAR AND 99 CENTS. I showed them to Chris.

"You can not imagine the devastation this wroughts in my soul," I lamented. He thought it was hilarious. I started to buy them, because they were made WAY better than mine, but then I thought, NO FREAKING WAY. There's a lot of effort in those pants I made for my dear firstborn, and more than a little blood. He's going to wear those pants. I did fix them, however, by taking the pockets out and removing the extra material. Now they're just fine. No matter what.

Micki then found the moustache to go with his costume. Could that be any cuter?? I tried it on and he told me to say, "Uno dos," in a deep voice so I would sound like a man.

When I told my mother-n-law that Izzy was going to be wearing something he already had here, she said, “How about Sophie wearing the fairy costume we got her for her birthday?” I couldn't think of any good reason to refuse that request other than I wanted her to be something cooler than a fairy, but it was a good idea, so fairy she'll be.

But the Barbie medallion had to go. When Sophie insists on wearing advertising, fine, but until then, I'm keeping her ad-free. I cut if off the costume (much to my chagrin she now likes to carry it around with her) and sewed a flower on the dress instead, then I took the costume up so it would fit her.

Next, I braided strips of tulle and sewed it to a long-sleeve onesie to wear under her costume to keep her warm, and I sewed on a couple more big flowers. I braided her a tulle thing to wear around her head, and I weaved some flowers in it, and sewed on a few more. Then I took a $1 magic wand and added tulle, ribbons, and flowers.

I had to have been channeling me a little Martha Stewart because the ideas just kept flowing. Weave this here! Stitch that there! Then BOOM! The cutest fairy in the land is born:

Now all I have to do is make sure they'll actually wear the costumes on Halloween night. They love them now, but Halloween is, after all, a whole week away. *gulp*