The spiders of Washington State have teamed up with the haunted forest behind my house to ensure a spooky good time for everyone who lives here. Giant spider webs stretch from every tree, column and fence post around our yard. In the morning, the dew clings to them, making them appear thick, white and stiff.Â
Sitting in the center of each web is a huge female spider who, according to a thoroughly freaked out woman in Target, will do anything AN-Y-THING to get inside my house or crawlspace and lay her bazillions of eggs at this season of the year. I used to get excited when one of the spiders disappeared from the yard. Now I find it moderately disturbing.
Dan and Laylee watched a male and female spider do a “special dance” last Saturday in the front yard until Dan sent her in to tell me that the daddy spider had gone away to “dance somewhere else.” Um, yeah. I’m sure his dissected corpse is doing tons of dancing IN HER STOMACHE JUICES. If she’d eat her own mate, what would she do to my grey matter as I’m sleeping and she crawls in my ear to hibernate?
Sudden change of topic:
What are you gonna be for Halloween? How about your kids? I blogged a few costume ideas last year at this time but here are more:
-The cast of Prison Break. Simple. Understated. Hope your kids don’t mind shaving their heads.
-Characters from Napoleon Dynamite. Got a thrift store? Got a costume.
-The different things the old lady swallowed. Dress your kids as a fly, a spider, a bird, a cat, a dog, a horse and a cow and then see if anyone can figure out what you’re supposed to be.
-Green.
-The Wiggles. Easiest costumes ever if you have a family of 4.
-The Seven C’s — I once heard of a group of seven all wearing matching outfits with the letter C written on their shirts. Silly, but fun.
–Freestyle rappers.
-Gum rappers. Wear the bandanas, hoodies and low-rise jeans and a necklace made of Bubblicious. (I think this will be me and Dan this year)
-Charlie Brown characters. Magoo plans to be Charlie Brown this year. You’ve got to capitalize on your strengths. With a noggin like that, he’s got it made.
-The Invisible Man. Stay home, eat ice cream, and when people ask you why you didn’t come to the party, tell them you were there but you went as the invisible man.
-Not a princess.
Now share yours. Creative, weird, practical? All suggestions are welcome.
Photo courtesy of Mary K. Baird, posted at morguefile.com
reasons: hard hats in children’s sizes, string cheese, visits from family
Oooo, do I get to be first??? Let’s see, Little has wanted to be a horse for like, ever, so I paid more than I ever have before for a costume for one child. Alas, I solved the problem created thusly by
bribingconningconvincing the older 2 that if they would just be soccer players (for which their costume is ready & waiting), I would give them ten bucks. So there you have it. And I don’t dress up because I don’t need to; I’m the perpetual soccer mom 😉I love your choices…quite creative. But what’s missing is a big fat spider smack in the middle of a big sticky web sucking the brains out of a big googly-eyed fly. That would be a cool costume.
What a gorgeous spiderweb photo!
My kids are WAY into unusual costumes. My favorite thus far: when my son was 6, he was totally obsessed with Hoover Dam (you can blame the Building Big documentary series on PBS for that one). So he insisted on building a Hoover Dam costume for Halloween. We used cardboard, duct tape, lots of grey paint and matchbox cars to drive across the top over his shoulders. We actually had to figure out the exact curvature of the Dam to get it to look right (who woulda thunk I’d have to use so much math to make a costume?). Anyway, it was adorable. And it gave us an excuse to swear all night about the dam costume.
Seems all my boys want is pirates this year–those are good suggestions I’ll have to try.
My boys always want to dress up in something similar, if not the same. One year was a Hundred Acre Wood Theme, the next they were Batman and Robin. Last year they were knights, and this year they both picked out the same skeleton costume. My little girl learned how to walk this year so she gets to go to Trunk or Treat with the boys. We just picked up a set of cute fairy wings, a wand and a tiara at Walmart and we’re just going to put her wings on over her coat. By the time Halloween comes, we should have gotten a little bit of snow so warm costumes are totally necessary!
My brother went one time as a barber pole- you know, those red and white whirly things that let you know a barber works here- he just painted red and while stripes on a white pair of pants and t-shirt and volia! Barber pole! He was 18 years old at the time! I guess you never grow out of Halloween!
I want to go as a bunch of bananas…because…. lol But my smarmy kids have their own darn ideas ::pout::
Oh! Oh! I want to be not a princess!!
My traditional costume is, um, whatever I happen to be wearing, and my multicolored feather wig and glow-in-the-dark skeleton earrings. I’m stylish.
One of my favorites was the year Tyler went as a lightning strike victim. We burnt holes in and old shirt, smugged his face with black paint of some kind and stuck his hair straight up. Very funny. Another year he went as raod kill minus all the blood. I sewed some ears on a stocking hat, sewed a tail to some sweat pants. Put some fur on some stretchy gloves and then…this is the best part…..we spray painted the tread of the tires of my van and quickly drove over his shirt. (Not while he was wearing it) It came out great, tire tracks right across his torso. That was a hilarious costume. Hubby has gone as a chick magnet, (attached Barbies to himself), a tornado (little farm animals and matchbox cars on strings attached to himself wearing black, when people asked what he was, he just spun around), the universe (again with the black clothes and then he printed out photos from the hubble telescope and taped them to himself)
Man, we are the royal family of ghetto costumes! I might have to write my own post about this……
I am all about Halloween and non traditional costumes….no fairies or pirates. I was Barbie in a box one year. Another year I was a one night stand. Chocolate mousse was an easy one….I made big brown antlers out of foam and wore a brown shirt with hersheys wrappers attached to it. My husband always goes for the sick and wrong costumes. He was Sunny Bono the year he died with a ski and tree limb attached to him. Payne Stewart the year he died in a plane crash with knickers and a propeller. Castro with a broken arm that year. This year, with 16 month old twins, I am going to be a zoo keeper and the boys will be a monkey and a lion. (They make the funniest ooh ooh ooh and grrrrrrrrrrrr noises and faces.) My husband has threatened to go as Steve Irwin. Not going to happen! A zoo goer in jeans and sweatshirt will do just fine. I have pictures of most if interested, email me.
We are going to be Sonny and Cher. I’ve got a long black wig and my mother’s clothes from the ’60s. Brian can walk into his closet and grab almost anything and come out looking like Sonny. Sad, I know. We’re working on that….
Bri and I are going to be “peace and quiet” – he’s going to be a hippie and I’m going to be a mime. One year I was a “cereal killer” with little gory pastic-knifed cereal boxes pinned to my sweater.
My oldest (14) is going to wear his shocking red mullet wig, my daughter wants a hodge podge of stuff from our Halloween box, my youngest son wants to be Spiderman and the other two haven’t expressed any preferences yet.
*plastic-knifed, sorry
I love your spiderweb picture, but that spider imagery is just a little too gross. 🙂
Last year The Boy and Dad went as Yoda and Obi-Wan. I found the cutest Yoda costume for The Boy and then almost killed myself trying to get Dad’s costume done in time but they looked great. This year they are going to be King Kong and the Empire State Building. Again I found a great gorilla costume for the little one but now have to figure out how to turn Dad into the Empire State… Since I was born on Halloween I am always a witch of sorts, this year it will be Malificent from Sleeping Beauty.
I spend months before Halloween convincing my daughter (now 4) that she wants to be something other than a Princess. It’s easy for her to get caught up in the hysteria, but she always loves being something different in the end–and I love it too! This year she’s going to be the “Jolly Holiday” Mary Poppins. In the past she’s been Madeline and Shirley Temple. The baby is going to be Raggedy Ann and the dh and I will probably recycle old costumes. He was the Crocodile Hunter last year (and the baby was a crocodile). He might wear that again in honor of Steve Irwin.
Our two-year-old chose all our costumes this year. (The baby is too young to have a vote and we’re old enough to let her get away with dictating ours.) We’re all going as Sesame Street characters– said 2 y.o. is going to be Bert, her baby sister will be Ernie, Abba gets to be Cookie Monster (a very appropriate choice!) and I will be Oscar the grouch (unfortunately, also an appropriate choice.) If I have the energy, I will paint a Sesame Street backdrop on an old sheet for Trunk-or-Treat.
Last year my husband and I went as a Christmas present and a Christmas tree. (My daughter chose her own last year, too, but did not dictate to us; she was a very cute duck.
The year before that we dressed as title/cover characters from books; Ems was Elizabeth from The Paper Bag Princess. (Abba was Shoeless Joe Jackson from Shoeless Joe.)
When my brother and I were 11 and 14, we dressed as Yin and Yang. That was fun.
Since I’m 8 months pregnant, a beach ball costume just seems appropriate for me. Hubby will be a lifeguard or surfer. The kids have their own ideas this year, so sadly we won’t have a family theme. Oh well.
Funny spider writing! We are kindred spirits when it comes to the spider stuff. I have brooms hanging on nails outside of my doors so I can grab one and beat down all the spiders that try to suck out my brain on the way to my car every morning.
My little girl (and current only child) has bright red hair so we are going as the Flintstones this year. I won’t mention that we were the Flintstones last year too. My husband is the perfect Fred, but I’ve yet to find a good Wilma costume. But I am determined to find something fabulous! I love all the costume suggestions. I just love Halloween and dressing up and all the fun stuff that goes with it. Plus my husband and I got engaged on Halloween!
my son asked to be a fisherman- super easy and I am so glad he picked this year. I am trying in VAIN to find a kimono pattern so I can make my little 21mo. old a japanese girl costume. (if anyone has suggestions please email me)
HLH, I’ve seen very kimono-like baby robes at several baby boutiques; all you’d need is a better obi. (Not that you actually want to tie an obi for a 21 month old, I’m thinking fake.) I bet if you just used a long robe pattern and left off the collar and made the sleeves loose, she’d pass just fine.
We have a huge, giant spiderweb just outside our bedroom window. I haven’t seen the spider that goes with it. Dh has told me I don’t want to. I console myself in thinking that surely such a large spider will stop any other creepy crawly things getting into our home through that window.
We do Halloween on the cheap and easy around here. J is going to be a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, purchased last week at Target. Viola–Halloween is done. I might go as a cold parent.
we’re always themed. last year the kids were a cow and a chicken and i was a farmer. this year they’ll be a bee and a ladybug, i’ll be a black widow (just wearing all black with red felt on the shirt… can’t find an extra set of legs to wear on my back), and husband is an exterminator. fun!
At my house, the traditional costume for the new baby was a flu bug. We had some baggy blue overalls which we stuffed with newspaper, etc, to make them all poofy, which were worn over a white turtleneck and tights. Then we put big red spots on the baby’s cheeks and small red dots all over their face and had them wear little foil deedlyboppers (if you don’t understand that highly technical term, it means a headband made of pipecleaner with two little aluminum foil balls on two sticks). Ridiculously easy and absolutely adorable.
By the way, I’m not going to be able to sleep tonight for fear of some spider eating my brain. Thanks a lot! 🙂
Breann has wanted to be some type of Princess the past two or three years, but this year she is going as something different! Halloween can be FUN! 🙂
Oh…btw…my husband is scared of spiders…I guess with good reason seeing as how you are talking about that spider!!! LOL