About the first of September The Boy declared he wanted to be a dragon this year, after reading a Berenstein Bears Halloween book 3 dozen times. Sold. BeYoYo is too young to have an opinion, so obviously we decided he should be a knight. We found The Boy's dragon costume at a thrift store, and he was specific about wanting a dragon mask, so I set out to make one. I confirmed that he wanted to move forward with this commitment, and he said he did.
The last time I did paper maché was in Señor Shuler's Spanish class in high school, when I made a piñata for FLEW week and it collapsed into itself the night before it was due and my mom let me go to school late so I could try to fix it but it was beyond repair and I had to get up in front of the class and present a sad, dented in piñata bear and I got a C. Not that I'm still carrying that trauma around or anything. But I set out to redeem myself. We layered, we let dry, we layered, we let dry, we layered, we let dry. We painted and decorated. The Boy was all about it, and we worked toward getting it just the way he wanted.
Ta da! Dragon mask complete. And awesome, if I do say so myself. And he was proud of it, which of course, is also most important.
And then we went back to the thrift store, and he found the mask that ACTUALLY goes with his dragon costume, and he said "THAT! I want to wear THAT instead!" Sure, buddy. Okay. Fine. I could hear paper maché laughing and taunting me in my head.
Also I made his wings, and I made Beyoyo's knight costume even thought I can't sew even a little. The dragon wings are made using this tutorial, except where she sewed it I just said a little prayer. And also I didn't use a pattern, because that seemed kind of complicated and exact, and clearly I am not into those types of things. For Beyoyo's costume I bought sequin fabric and laid one of his shirts on top. I cut all around the shirt, then I folded it onto the shirt and used fabric tape to hold it all together. The tunic is made from fleece, and the knight's emblem is cut from something my mama found at goodwill, and also held on with fabric tape. Obviously. And maybe one arm is a little longer than the other. And the pants didn't make it to Halloween night.
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| I figured if his tunic didn't make it he could go as a disco star. |
On Halloween night, The Husband cooked his famous BBQ for our cul-de-sac crowd, and rigged up a trailer hayride complete with candy corn lights to pull behind his truck. The Boy was beside himself, and ran with the neighbors and their friends in circles. BeYoYo tried to keep up, but some neighbors returned him to me, saying "he keeps trying to be goalie!"
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| He lasted 47 seconds with his strawberry friend before signing "all done" |
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| The Boy's pumpkin was half filled before we even left, because he raided our neighbor's stash. |
We trick or treated. A dozen kids were on the trailer, and a half dozen parents walked behind. They ran from house to house, and we shouted after them to say thank you. At one house, they handed The Boy a sucker and he handed it back, saying "I don't wike that." Maybe we're still working on the halloween etiquette. I sat with BeYoYo on the hay ride, and he would sign all done, so I would get off and let him walk. Then the kids would run to a house, and he would try to follow. Crunch crunch crunch in the leaves. By the time he got to the sidewalk, all the kids would be back on the hayride, and I would take him back too. He'd climb back on to be with them, and we'd start off. Then he'd sign all done. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. He walked about a hundred miles before we were done.
Between every house The Boy would ask me to open some of his candy for him. I asked him if he ever ate dinner, and he replied that he had had candy for dinner. Happy Halloween, indeed. The mask we made didn't make it, the pants I made didn't make it, but both kids were happy and laughed with delight.
And if you're wondering, the paper maché mask was not a total loss:
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