Dress up time!

I don't recall playing a lot of dress up during childhood, but I know one thing - dressing up my kids is RIDICULOUSLY fun. Ellie has had at least 2 costumes per Halloween. Her first Halloween, she ended up being a ballerina. Here she is with Ryan in his pea costume (that I bought him - heh heh heh).

The next year, I couldn't decide between the full-body chicken costume and the semi-lame princess. She took her portrait in the chicken, but ended up wearing the princess for Halloween. The picture of her in the chicken outfit is hysterical. Mostly because she was between 12-18 and 18-24 month sizes, and I ended up getting the smaller one, which was uncomfortably small. Didn't matter since I returned it after taking the pic. How's this for a scary pic - Peter dressed up as a Power Ranger for work. Scary, this one piece unitard thing. I think he enjoyed it more than his patients. Ellie was remarkably not scared of it. She wanted him to keep wearing it.

Then there was last year, aka the beginning of the matching. This is why I had multiple children! Much to my delight, Ellie's a big fan of matching as well, so she was all for the butterfly and caterpillar thing. We ("we" being Ellie and I) are actually thinking of making #3 wear the caterpillar next year, Ellie can again be a butterfly, and Matthew can be a cocoon. We'll have all the stages covered! I did get Matthew a full-bodied costume as well - this torturously hot fleece lion costume which was ADORABLE. He absolutely hated it. Can't say I blame him.

So this year I'm having somewhat of a struggle. I had gotten Matthew this Texas basketball uniform thing when he was a few months old. It was $9.99 at Marshalls, so I had to get it. Anyway, Ellie has her cheerleader costume she wore to Matthew's dol, so I thought they'd wear that and we'd be done with it. Of course, I'm all agitated that the burnt orange doesn't really match the pink and navy blue in Ellie's dress, so I'm debating between getting her a Texas cheerleader dress or getting Matthew a different costume. I found a little football player costume complete with helmet and shoulder pads for around $15. The Texas dress is $22 at Target. Obviously, price-wise, I should go for the football costume, but it's sized 2T-4T. My skinny little man will be swimming in it, but that'll make it just all the more hilarious, no?

My poor kids, suffering in my hands. You know, I have absolutely no problems with Halloween. Fortunately, we're having a Fall Festival at church this year, but I totally would let them go trick-or-treating in the neighborhood. Those were some of my fondest memories from childhood. Actually, come to think of it, I did have fun dressing up as a kid. Past Halloween costumes included a bottle of ketchup, a carrot, a Christmas tree... I don't think I was ever a witch or princess or anything. I know I always wore my ballet recital costume. I guess Ellie could then be an 80s stewardess.

I'm so excited! Hooray for excuses to put costumes on my children!