I was just starting to wonder what they'd be this year. ...Fun!!

I am sure that will keep you busy! When I was a kid, two friends of mine used two long and narrow cardboard boxes to be a pair of those pull-apart popsicles. It was really cute!

I made a pumpkin costume for my Eldest when he was 4 ... it was one of the all-time great costumes. They aren't too difficult to sew. It'll be fun.

You're a good mommy, Alison. A very, very good mommy.

As crafty as I am I still take my kids to the store and let them pick out a costume. Bad mama....

i rarely buy costumes for the kids. i may buy stuff to supliment (liam was a barrel of toxic waste 2 years ago, so i bought white sweats and dyed them shrek green) but i create the costumes. the boys were a ring wraith and aragon last year. in fact, my husband was gandalf! at 6'8" that was one HUGE honking robe!

Love the title - Halloween Crap. Made me grin.

i broke down this year and bought Jess' costume. Nate asked if I was ok, and why I would break the handmade streak now. I think I grumbled something I cannot repeat here.

Can't wait to see the boys in their costumes. I'm guessing they will be cute. Right?

My favorite Halloween costume for my boys was the one for #2 son when he was about 13. He wanted a Ringwraith robe, but when I read, maybe in the trivia section of Imdb, that each robe required 35 yards of fabric, I told him that his would be, er, scaled down. The robe turned out fine but boring; the real stars were the deer skull necklace he made from a skeleton he had found in the woods and the long bones from the skeleton dangling from the end of his staff so they would rattle when he moved it. Very impressive. He's going to be an artist, unsurprisingly.

I used to make all my kids' costumes, but at some point I ended up with more kids than hands, so I no longer feel guilty if the costume is bought. I make them sometimes, but not always.

I'm sure they'll be adorable pumpkins!

My oldest son wants to be a lego this year. My DH has volunteered for the task of turning a cardboard box into something vaguely lego-ish. How he's going to manage to sit in school in that contraption is beyond me. Last year he was Harry Potter -- much easier costume to create, if you ask me.

Good luck with the pumpkin costumes!

Pumpkins, hmmmm. My mind is already mulling this over. Will they wear orange sweatpants or tights? (My dh would never let me put tights on Harrison, no matter how well they went with a costume....)

I broke down and ordered a genie costume for Iris. Now we're hunting down an astronaut or military uniform for Harry, so he can be Major Healy!

Love all these Halloween costume stories!

Joan, I was totally thinking Legos for the boys but nixed the idea for the same reason - how could they ever walk around or sit down in school?!

Oh my, Amy Lu, Genie and Major Healy, that's way cool!

Unless I can either knit it or buy something and modify it (sew on sequins or fins or whatever), I buy the costumes. I am Sewing Impaired. Anyone who can sew a pumpkin costume, especially while having her innards redecorated, has my total respect, not to say awe.

Hey, I was a pumpkin in kindergarten. :) Good choice, boys! I can't wait to see what you come up with.

Ok, don't laugh, but I made my tough German hunting dog a pumpkin costume for Halloween.

It's really an orange fleece jacket for her to wear during hunting season so that she doesn't get mistaken for something else + a pumpkin bonnet to wear for the trick-or-treaters.

Maybe my design will help you. The bonnet was hard to figure out but easy to make. First an orange fleece circle, gathered around the outer edge and squashed down flat so that it resembled the top of a pumpkin. Then 4 stem pieces cut out of green felt, whipped together, then whipped to the top of the pumpkin. Last, tacked to the bottom of the pumpkin some green ties long enough to tie under her neck (pumpkin vine tendrils).

Hey, Zoe's going to be a pumpkin too!

But I gotta say I got the costume at Marshall's for $12.... what can I say, I'm kinda lazy that way.

Didnt want to try and knit this pumpkin costume : http://www.berroco.com/exclusives/brook_pun/brooklyn.html ;^)

My daughter wants to be a pumpkin. Can you tell me what pattern, if any, you will be using?

Just in case you need inspiration for your pumpkin costumes, extremepumpkins.com/index.html has some WILD carved pumpkins! :-)

I think you should freezer stencil a little pumpkin on a shirt over your tummy for the wee one on the way.

After shopping for pre-made costumes with my four-year-old and finding things that were either too scratchy or that were pretty much the same as something she already had in the dress-up box, I have convinced her that we are going to create a costume from said dress-up box. It's had the side benefit of her trying on every combination she can think of for hours a day ;>

That totally counts! Besides, you're kinda busy this Halloween :-)

OMG - My daughter jsut brought up Thing 1 and Thing 2 at dinner last night and asked what the boys were going to be this year. I am so very glad that I can report the news at dinner tonight.

Oh Mary, thank goodness you didn't show me that two days ago - I might have been tempted to give it a try!!

Freecia, I am sooo doing that! Thanks for the idea! :)

I was a pumpkin when I was a kid- my mom made me a beautiful pumpkin costume when I was a kid- for first grade- she made the pumpkin with green piping to accentuate the pumpkin "curves"- and then she made a face out of black felt. I wore green leggings and a leafy collar- and I was stuffed with newspaper. In fact I was stuffed so throughly that my when I tried to get onto the bus I was so wide, that I got stuck between the seats going down the aisle.

When I was a senior in high school and had stopped trying to be "cool" (because it was clear I was always going to be the nerdy girl) I wore the pumpkin costume for the Halloween contest. (It fit me as a shirt- no longer as a full-bodied costume, and I wore green cords with it.) I teased my hair and stuck felt "leaves" in it and showed up to school. And guess what- I won an award for having one of the best costumes... so long live the pumpkin costume!

Ah yes, making halloween costumes ... this will be my first year of doing that. I started cutting out pieces last night for the oldest.
Good luck with the pumpkins! Can't wait to see the finished product!

My daughter wants to be a Pirate! I have so many ideas...

We have a rule that costumes cannot be decided until 24 hours before trick or treating and must be designed and primarily exectued by the child. (Amazingly, we've had some pretty impressive costumes around here.) Somehow I came up with that one just watching my mother go crazy with us!)

awww, so cute. my mom always made our costumes and they were always way better than ill-fitting, cheap plastic costumes from stores.

Those Thing 1 and Thing 2 Costumes were AMAZING!!! You rock and I'm sure these costumes will be just as amazing.

Oh, good for you! Can't wait to see the pumpkins. I adore my kids but I feel secure knowing that I already have their princess and dragon costumes tucked away in the closet. (They were purchased at a drug store on sale, no less! lol)

Well, They are Orginal, i'll give them that. =)
Perhaps you can find inspiration in that knit pumpkin Berroco had on thier free patterns.
http://www.berroco.com/exclusives/brook_pun/punkin.html
btw, check out the HP scarf:
http://www.berroco.com/exclusives/harry/harry_scarf.html

That's so cute...
My best haloween costme as a little kid was an airplane... we'd gone to see the Thunderbirds airshow, so I decided I wanted to be a Thunderbird. Lots of cardboard and paper...