Halloween 2014 (DIY style)

This Halloween is different than many of the others that have passed. For the first Halloween that I can remember, I was unemployed and had a lot of time on my hands. It’s my (and my wife’s) favorite holiday and we just love everything that’s associated with it, especially the costumes. Well, this year I decided to try and outdo my daughter’s Alien ‘Chest Burster’ Costume from 2013. For 2014, my goal was to make her into a zombie and here are the results…

First, I went to the thrift store and bought a cheap outfit that I knew was going to be completely destroyed (right alongside Lilah’s trust and faith in her father).

Then I found a skeleton at Target that was just the right size. Lilah actually carried the thing around the house and talked to it like it was one of her dolls.

I got to work on the pants and shirt with scissors, cutting holes in the knee and elbow areas. I hacked the plastic skeleton up, taking bones I wanted to incorporate into the costume. Really, all I ended up using were the leg and arm bones, along with half of its rib cage.

I cut small holes in the shirt so I could feed the individual ribs into them. Around the end of each rib, I cut a notch, just big enough for a piece of string. Once I got the ribs through the holes, I turned the shirt inside-out, then tied a long piece of string down the line of ribs and around each one. I made sure the string sat in the notches so it wouldn’t slip off and the rib cage wouldn’t just fall out. The string is what held the rib cage to the shirt (mostly).

The next step in the process was to take the plastic arm and leg bones and attach them to the outfit. I did this again by cutting notches in each bone and making small holes in the material to feed string through. I actually thought my wife’s elastic hair ties would work best, as they would give a little when my daughter moved her arm or leg, so I cut a few up and used those.

I ended up fastening the breast bone to the shirt with fabric adhesive, which worked quicker and a lot better than I thought it would. Then I cut a hole in the shirt behind the rib cage, to look like the shirt was torn open, exposing her ribs. Next up, it was time to make it bloody!

I had to make sure the hair-tie fasteners were covered with blood (red paint) in order to disguise them.

At each step of the way, I was always adding stuff like rips, wounds, and blood. Always more blood.

Finally I finished.

And here is the finished product, makeup and all…

I was pretty happy with her costume. A few days before Halloween, my wife and I took her to a ‘Halloween Carnival’ at a local park where the kids could trick or treat. A lot of the parents liked the costume and told us so. Some of the kids did, as well. There was a bunch to keep Lilah entertained at the carnival; a hay ride around the pond, games, candy, and also a costume contestwhere Lilah ended up taking third place.

Zombie Lilah was also the star of our family’s Happy Halloween Video Greeting Card for 2014.

This is a Halloween video I made to get in the spirit of my favorite holiday. I also wanted to show off my (almost two and a half year old) daughter’s Halloween costume, which I also made.

For the record, she liked the makeup and patiently waited the six or seven minutes it took for me to put on her. Throughout the process, I talked her through everything, and even paused a few times to take pictures on my phone to show her. She was fascinated.

I also taught her how to walk like a zombie beforehand, but I guess she got camera shy. She was so captivated by the makeup on the backs of her hands, she could not stop looking at them. This is what she is doing in the video, but it’s the best shot I got.

My wife and I took her to a ‘Halloween Carnival’ on the 29th, where she won third prize in a costume contest. Her prize: a cupcake. Most of the people there, especially the kids, loved her costume. There were a few parents however, that gave us looks…but I couldn’t care less.

My wife and I figure that this will probably be the last year we’ll be able to dress her as we like. Our hope is that she will grow to like Halloween as much as we both do and that she’ll be extremely creative with her future costume ideas. And if she’s not, that’s fine too. Right now, I just enjoy holding her hand along the way.

Be safe out there tonight!

“This is the way the world ends; not with a bang or a whimper, but with zombies breaking down the back door.” – Amanda Hocking, Hollowland

Halloween in February

I’ve been pretty busy lately and have not been finding much time to post. Lilah is nearly two years old now and I just transferred a bunch pictures from my camera onto my computer. This latest post is a glimpse of our trip up to Connecticut in late October of 2013. The first set is our trip up Talcott Mountain with my parents.

The second set includes our trip to Brown’s Harvest in Windsor, CT, where I grew up. Here LIlah got to pick out a pumpkin, walk in a small corn maze (not pictured) and take a ride in a wagon.

Next on the list of pictures was Halloween. For Lilah’s first Halloween, we dressed her as a duck and it was one of the cutest things ever. This year we wanted to do something completely different. My wife came up with the brilliant idea of not dressing her up at all, but just to have her walking around with an Alien bursting our of her tiny chest. Of course, I was on board with this 100%. With help from my mother and sister, the Alien body was constructed completely out of styrofoam. It was painted and decorated with some kind of nails or pins for the teeth and eyes.

Even Lilah was impressed with the finished product.

We had to keep her busy with food so she wouldn’t keep messing with it.

This was her first time trick or treating so she was a little apprehensive at first and stayed in her stroller.

But pretty soon she was out walking around and knocking on doors herself.

She wasn’t scared, as her uncles were there to protect her from the few ghosts and goblins wandering the streets in search of a sugar fix.

Though it was a short night of trick or treating since it was raining slightly, it will be a memorable one for me and my family. One day when Lilah is old enough, she will be able to look at all the pictures and laugh at them alongside us. And then there is always the alternative; the costume has scarred her for life and she will be able to use the pictures in emancipation proceedings. At least I can always say that it was all Mommy’s idea.