Happy Halloween everyone! This time last year I had just found out I was pregnant with Thing 2. It was so weird trotting from house to house with that little idea of a being sitting heavy in my arms. Time just keeps flying by and I’m trying my hardest to keep up!
This year we decided to make Thing 1’s costume. I don’t really know what was going on in my brain cells when I thought this. I think they forgot I was working full time, have an infant, and well, that’s enough. K has been on this space kick the past few months and is researching facts on the planets in his class, so the excited elementary teacher in me thought (in a loud, echoing, slightly giddy voice) What better to be for Halloween than The Solar System?!?!
Now, I consider myself a fairly crafty girl with the exception of sewing. If crafty had a grade I’d probably get a B+. I’m crafty, but I’m not that original. I’d love to take credit for the idea of this costume, but I totally stole it from Pintrest. We had thrown around ideas that included hoola hoops, gluing styrofoam on sweats, etc. But this one was by far my favorite, and my boy LOVED it.
We started it four weeks ago. I knew if my son was involved it was going to take as long as molasses takes to pour from the bottle, so we took it in stages, the first one being paper macheing styrofoam balls to add texture to them. I love introducing new hands-on projects to my son!
After getting them all done we let them set for a week and then went to painting. I promise you, K painted all of the planets all by himself; I just spray painted a base layer on all of them and held onto them while he painted. He even painted the continents on earth. I was so proud of him! I then spray painted his bike helmet yellow and connected the planets with plant wire. It was a pain in my behind, but the kind of pain you get after you workout…sore but totally worth it! K loved it and his kindergarten teacher is even going to let him wear it at school when he presents his research on the solar system to the class!
The night was a total success. Thing 2 slept through the whole thing, Thing 1 got lots of candy (of which he’s already separated into his ‘keep’ pile and his ‘I’m giving away to kids who couldn’t celebrate Halloween’ pile), and only two planets fell off instead of all of them, which I was fully expecting. I think I’ll stick with a sore feeling in my butt and continue this homemade costume tradition. It was a lot of fun and made some great memories that are truly priceless moments. I work and am not at home all day with my kids, so creating meaningful moments like this to spend with them is a must. Just think….this time next year that little tooter above will be walking around! So weird.
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A solar system costume is already cool enough on its own, but the fact that it's homemade blows me away. Go you for being crafty! Both your kids look so adorable all costumed-up. 😀
Thank you so much, Heather! It was a feat, that's for sure!!
Hi Ariel,
I love your idea of making solar system as a hat and really impressed to know that your son painted all of the planets.
Did you buy the Styrofoam solar system kit and then paper mached them?
Thanks,
Ashwini.
Thank you! No, we just ended up buying random sized styrofoam balls from the hobby store. Just paper mached them from there. 🙂