Halloween 2012

This year we had both a traditional and an nontraditional costume. Abe selected a fireman as his costume many weeks ago and we were able to borrow a nice cozy fleece one from a friend whose son had rejected it outright last year, making us the lucky recipients of someone else's Halloween misfire. It was really cute, particularly because Abe has his own hat and water pack with a hose that wraps around.

Now I have to admit that he started throwing around the idea of being Batman right before Halloween and I shut it down. It's not that I'm against Batman, but I feel like there is this lack of actual creativity with costumes these days and rather than a child actually thinking and creating a vision of something, they just sorta listen for the reigning costume idea and say, yep that's what I'll do, too. Plus, those Halloween catalogs that inundate my house starting in late August crush any opportunity for something to form freely in their minds.

So when the kids hit upon an idea and it appears to be their original thought, I try to make them stick with it. Cuz I'm tough like that.

And this year we ended up with a fireman costume AND... Pippi Longstocking.

Oh I could bore you with pages of the frustration that the Pippi wig caused me. But let's just say that the no-show wig and boots ended up being salvaged by an overnight Amazon purchase of a far lesser quality, but decent adult Pippi wig. Yes, there are multiple Pippi wigs if you are willing to really do your research and seek out small shops. Again, I'm tough like that.

I made a VERY simple blue dress with red patches on it and though it won't last very long, it was just right for one afternoon. My decade-old sewing machine broke during the middle of this process but my neighbor let me use hers the day before Halloween (Oh I love my neighbors) so it was all good. In fact, it was actually kinda fun.

Without further delay, I present Anna and Abe! May the Pippi costume live on in the Roth Halloween Hall of Fame...

Editors note: Sorry, folks, I can't for the life of me figure out how to get those photos rotated.