The first thing I did was go to Google images and search up tree costumes.
I found this image. I tried to go back to the site this page is posted on to credit the photo but it's buried in Pinterest. From what I can gather from Google images this teacher was doing a musical and came up with this tree costume.
So now I had my inspiration. I needed brown pants and some kind of hoodie I could attach leaves too. At this point I didn't know where the leaves were going to come from but worst case scenario I could make them from felt.
I lied, the first thing I did was tell Marnie that we needed to make a tree costume. Then I looked up tree costumes on Google images. Once I had a picture to show Marn, she invited me down to Michael's. Do you know what I found there? Fake fall leaf garlands for 60% off. Marnie is magical that way. With the leaves all ready to go, it was just a matter of constructing the base. Brown pants were in order.
It is very hard to find brown boys pants. I see brown boys pants everywhere but when I went looking for them, nada, zip, zilch. Until I found them buried under a stack of grey jogger pants at old Navy.There were some very red brown pants that no one wanted because red brown pants are...well...very brown and don't go with very many things. However, they look really good as the trunk of a tree.
A kid's Halloween costume has to follow three basic rules. I've learned this over the last 9 years of dressing kids up for Halloween: no masks, no accessories that have to be carried and you must be able to run.
masks can look really great but five minutes into trick or treating and you are carrying it. Even if the mask is a transformer and looks unbelievably cool with the rest of the costume. It will be off your child's face and in your hands shortly after the first doorbell ring.
If the costume requires you to carry a sword - you guessed it - you, not your pirate, will be carrying a sword. A way to solve this "carrying an accessory" challenge is to attach it to the child's costume; holsters work nicely and so do carabineers attached to belt loops, ninja swords can be taped to your back, and accessories that basically make the costume can be worn around necks (fake nooses, stethoscopes), wrists (dangling hand cuff), etc. Just don't have them carry it in their hand.
This costume met all those requirements. Now I just needed to find a hoody. Or so I thought.
Marnie and I were on an errand to drop of Salvation Army donations and she encouraged me to go in to their second hand store. There I found a gorgeous green cable knit sweater with flecks of orange, brown, red and yellow for $3; yep you heard me: three dollars! The perfect backdrop for fall leaves and it would keep you relatively warm which would eliminate the "you must wear a jacket" fight.
I'm convinced that Marnie's pure heart attracts this crazy secret energy of the universe that offers up just about anything you want. And I shamelessly take full advantage.
So at last I had everything I needed, brown pants for the trunk, green textured sweater for the limbs, leaves to make it look somewhat tree like and safety pins to attach the leaves to the sweater.
And there you go!
The best part of Halloween is trick or treating. The second best part is the next day. Because Nov 1st heralds the beginning of Christmas planning. I'll be honest, I start thinking about Christmas in July, but I can start talking about it when Halloween ends. Only to like minded people (read Marnie) though, otherwise I get into trouble. But it's coming folks, and I will be ready!
