Last Sunday our town had Trick or Treating, after having being postponed a few days because of Hurricane Sandy. This is the second Halloween in a row that Trick or Treating has been postponed because of weather! Crazy!
I wanted to share Nicolas's and Jake's costumes because (I think) they are pretty unique, and of course because the boys looked so cute in them :)
So, I will start with Nicolas's costume first. I have to admit that when he told me wanted to be a "Gear Machine" for Halloween I was a little stumped at first. I asked, "What kind of gear machine?" And, he started describing a machine with fans and bevelled gears and pumps and governors that sounded pretty similar to the old water pumping station at the Waterworks Museum in Chestnut Hill. I knew that I had to lower his expectations a bit! We settled on a simple design of a set of gears that would eventually turn a fan.
I spray painted a piece of cardboard silver for the main body of the costume. The gears are made from wooden toy wheels that we painted blue and yellow (Nic's favorite colors). The teeth of the gears are made from black timing belts that I think are used for remote control airplanes (??), and they allow the gears to actually turn each other! Yay! I mounted the yellow fan, made of craft foam sheets, to one of the gears. All the gears are attached to the cardboard with nuts and bolts, and the shoulder straps are made of extra timing belts. The costume looked pretty industrial :) The pictures show Nic turning one of the gears to turn the fan. I think he really loved his costume, and Bob said that he got a lot of compliments when they were out trick or treating.
Jakey was a fish for Halloween, or let me say he was SUPPOSED to be a fish for Halloween. For some reason (unknown to me), he refused, very loudly, to wear his costume. Oh well. Nicolas was the same way at Jake's age. Something about costumes really freaks my kids out when they are two and a half. Luckily, I was able to snap a few pictures of Jake in the costume when he tried it on about a month before Halloween. I had to bribe him with three M&M's to get him to put it on that time, and he loved wearing it. I thought that because he had worn it already, there would be no problem on Halloween. And, believe me, I tried the bribe method again, but it didn't work this time!
Originally, I had planned to also make a hood for this fish costume out of the same shiny turquoise material. I wanted to put big googly fish eyes on it somehow. I never got around to it. (And I am actually glad that I didn't take the time to make the hood!!)
Nicolas was very considerate of his little brother while trick or treating, and he came home with some extra pieces of candy for Jake. So, Halloween was a success all around!
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| Surveying the spoils! |
