Halloween Costumes

Halloween is coming. Michael plans to be a barrel of toxic waste. Or, more specifically, Calvin (of Calvin and Hobbes) dressed as a barrel of toxic waste. I am currently in the process of collecting the materials for the costume. I hope I have my camera working by Halloween. I would like to document this costume. Though perhaps I am being optimistic about my skills.


Spencer had a more difficult time settling on a costume. He originally wanted to be an archer. He is interested in bows and arrows. We went to the costume store and purchased a bow and arrow. It is a toy. It does not really work. In retrospect, I should have explained this to Spencer prior to purchase. Although he was dissatisfied with the bow and arrow, he was not discouraged. He decided to go with Plan B. I would make him a bow and arrow that really shoots, with notched arrows, hard points, not plastic. Although I am pleased that he has so much confidence in my craftiness, my response to "Can you make that?" is (unfortunately) ummm, no. I explained to Spencer that costumes do not need to be perfect. It is acceptable, even expected, for part or all of a costume to be non-functioning props. He was not convinced, but he agreed to keep the toy bow and arrow. I agreed to make the rest of his costume. We discussed how it should look. We agreed. Perfect. We were set. At least we were until Spencer watched The Lord of the Rings movie (commonly abbreviated LOTR, as I would come to find out later, on websites devoted to incredibly detailed descriptions of the characters' costumes). Now Spencer wanted to be Legolas the elf. But first, quick question from Spencer, "who are better archers, elves or native americans?" Hmmm. Not sure how to answer that one. But no matter. Spencer is excited about Legolas. He proceeded to tell me exactly what he needed for the costume. It seemed like more than I could handle. I tried to talk him down. It was a losing battle for me. He had seen Legolas in the movie. He knew what he wore. And he wanted to wear the same thing. Or a very close approximation. I gave up and went to the internet to search for a Legolas costume for kids. I found one and showed it to Spencer. No good. He pointed out (rightly) that Legolas never wore anything remotely resembling the costume in the movie. At that point, I suggested that Spencer look at other costumes on the internet to see if there was something (anything) that he might like. He agreed (thankfully). He wanted to be Frodo until I mentioned that he could not trick or treat in bare feet. He is a purist. It is bare feet or no Frodo costume. So he kept looking. He settled (finally) on Harry Potter. As a side note, Spencer told me that when he liked Star Wars it was just a phase he was going through. Now he likes Harry Potter. And the clear implication was that this was not a phase. Not a phase at all.