Are you a good witch, or a bad witch?

If I remember how the story goes, when I was four-almost-five, I decided I was going to be Tinkerbell for Halloween. So I insisted that David be Peter Pan, Shaunda was Wendy, Eric was Mr. Smee, and little baby Chris had to be Captain Hook. Sorry Alan, you're not in this story. You were still a twinkle in Dad's eye. But if I had known about you, I would have declared that twinkle to be pixie dust, to fit the theme of course.

Elise has apparently inherited this from me: deciding everyone else's Halloween costumes for them, and sticking to a theme. She got her inspiration from a pair of hand-me-down ruby slippers, currently Lydia's size.





Elise chose everyone's costume except for Mike's. That was totally my idea and I'm pretty proud of it. It had to fit the theme, but not be hot or uncomfortable. So, no tin man, straw-filled scarecrow, or flying monkey. He thought it would be funny to be a wizard like Gandalf or Merlin, and then just say he was the wizard... of Oz. If we had already had a long wizard robe, I would have considered it, but we didn't. The night before Eric and Mare's party I came up with this Yellow Brick Road Concept. I ran to Walmart planning to buy a yellow t-shirt, but no such thing existed in his size. So I bought some yellow fabric and a scrubs pattern, some duct tape, and some black spray paint. After cutting out the pattern pieces, I masked off the "bricks" with rectangles of duct tape, and then spray painted the "mortar" in between. I don't recommend trying to execute an idea like this the night before a costume party. Unless your costume could benefit from you being in a "bad witch" type of mood.