I try and dress up every year. I have carved pumpkins for as long as I can remember. But didn't start taking pictures till I had my own kids. So as a tradition, we get 2 or 3 pumpkins, and take pictures of the kids wearing their costumes, and sitting next to the pumpkins. With Faith it was so easy finding a good costume. Her first Halloween, she was 2 weeks old, and we had a cute little pink kitten outfit we dressed her in, as well as 2 Halloween sleepers. Her second Halloween she was bedtime bear. Bedtime bear is technically a boy bear, but I saw the costume and had to have it, as it brought back memories of the first bear my brother Chris gave me, who happened to be Bedtime bear, and have been partial to him, since than. For Faiths 3rd Halloween, she was a girl Pirate. She was just sooo cute in it. For her 4th Halloween, she was Barbie, Rapunzel, 5th was Sleeping Beauty, and 7th was Cinderella, and last Halloween she was a Butterfly Fairy Princess, which she claims was her favorite. Now with her brother Spencer, it was a tad harder. For on his first Halloween, we had been evacuated off the mountain, so we did not have the time or the money to buy him one. It was the same year Faith dressed as Cinderella. The only reason she had gotten a costume, is because we had bought it for her, before the fires had started. So she lucked out. Anyhow. I didn't have a real costume for Spencer so I improvised. A couple of weeks before the fires I had picked out a cute onesie with an army bear on it. I thought it was to cute to pass up, and it made me think of my brother-in-law who was serving in Iraq, So that Halloween He was a Army brat.

Last Halloween, Faith saw some Fairy wings at a boutique store, and mentioned that she would like to be a fairy this time. So I logged that in my mind, and as Halloween neared I kept an eye out for Fairy costumes for her, and superman, or Batman cars for Spencer. We did not see any Fairy costumes we really, liked, so I bought a set of wings, a pink leotard, a ballet skirt, pink tights, stencils and some fabric paint, and some Fairy make-up, and painted butterflies on to the leotard. I think it costed about $30 for the whole outfit. For Spencer, I could not find any Superman or Batman costumes in his size, and didn't like any of the costumes the did have in his size. I had also thought about using the Bedtime bear costume, Faith had used, but it didn't fit him either. So I used a Rock Star shirt he already had, a pair of black pants he already had, and just added some colored hair gel, and Voila, we had our own little Rock Star. He was pretty cute. For me, I used a blue velvet dress I had already and bought some purple fairy wings. it turned out ok. But I recommend that you go small, if you plan to be in crowded spaces, cause the wings I chose, were way to big, and were such a nuisance.

So if you are ever strapped for cash, or just don't like what is out there, check out your closet, or make your own version, of what you want.