Halloween Happened

As I have gotten deeper into parenthood, I have discovered the wisdom of Bill Watterston--many of his Calvin and Hobbes comics had to do with what parents will say to kids to keep their own brains occupied.

The Bunny decided a couple of weeks ago to be an old fashioned news boy. She had the news cap--denim, with blingy rhinestones on it. All she needed were suspenders and a jeans jacket. Mr. Sweetie helped her with her costume, and even managed to find a way to tuck her pants legs into her socks to look like old fashioned breeches. But she didn't like that at all. And it is her costume, so she gets to decide what it should look like. So, as Mr. Sweetie put it--she had a hat, suspenders, and ATTITUDE!

Pony didn't definitely decided until about five days ago, and then she decided to be "a desert island." Not one you go out to buy, by any means. So, after tossing around ideas, we came up with a plan. Mr. Sweetie bought some lightweight wood--like pegboard, but without the holes. He measured Pony's head and cut a circle out, and then shaped it into an island-y shape. We used spray adhesive and sand to make the "island", and polyurethane to keep the sand from all falling off.

Then came the fun part--what goes on the island? I found some plastic palm trees which were just the right size, and bought Crayola Model Magic, in white, to fashion the rest of the island. Model Magic is very expensive, but it air dries to near weightlessness. So--what do you put on an island? Well, you put a castaway who has spelled out "HELP" on the beach in sticks. Speaking of castaways, aren't there some famous castaways? With a famous shipwreck? So I built a tiny model of the S.S. Minnow, as well as Ginger and Mary Ann for the island.

Hmm...castaways...castaways...Castaway...Tom Hanks? AND the volleyball he named Wilson! Also, and island needs pirates, and SOS spelled out in rocks, and a mermaid, and sea creatures and messages in bottles. We glued blue metallic fringe around the edge of the island for ocean.

But what about the Pony's head? Tiki goddess, of course! We got a picture from a party store site and made her up to be the looming supernatural presence over the island. Which meant that she had to have some worshippers, bowing and offering fruits to their god.

She entered the school costume contest, and with a friend who dressed as a tourist, won the "Best Group Costume" category. Which is great, but the Truth is--the value of that costume to me was all about amusing myself.