Ain't No Mom Jeans

What We're Reading This Week: A Few Halloween Costume Resources For Non-Crafty Moms

  We are attending a wedding this weekend in beautiful Cambria, Califonia.  And the rehearsal dinner.  The catch?  The rehearsal dinner must be in costume.  We are also flying to this wedding, so the costumes must be easy to pack.  After much deliberation, we settled on a Harry Potter theme.  Mike is Harry, I'm going as Hermione, and the little man is Harry's owl.  I bought Gryffindor ties, and we're just wearing white shirts, gray sweaters, ties and black pant (skirt for me).  And yes - we will wear these outfits to the opening of the next Harry Potter movie!! Too bad the little man is too young to be embarrassed by his parents.

Crafty I am not, so I searched for a store-bought owl costume.  The only one I could find is pictured above.  I apologize in advance if you have purchased this costume for your child....but seriously.  It is quite possibly the stupidest costume I've seen.  It's as though an owl is perching on your child's head.  An owl with huge eyes and no body.  As if toddlers aren't top heavy enough. 

Cute Animal Costumes that Won't Overheat Your Baby and Can Be Worn Year Round

Babies don't make very good trick-or-treaters.  They fall asleep just as you'd want to start out, they don't walk by themselves, and unless it's freezing, they have NO interest in wearing the cute hood/footies/mittens that come with their costume...but on the upside, they will most likely be ready to do the circuit at 2AM, should you really hate your neighbors. 

Nonetheless, last year I bought no less than 3 costumes (3!!!) for my little man.  Two of them were Ebay mix-ups (a lion and a chicken  - it's a long story)...but I still went ahead bought the third costume due to the sheer perfectness of concept. 

The lion and chicken costumes were the usual fleecy, hooded, hot style of Halloween costumes.  And they did come in handy for some adorable fall photo shoots on a chilly day (see pic). However, if it hadn't been roughly 40 degrees outside, zipping my son into this costume would've resulted in a stiff leg kicking, back-bending, arm waving screaming fit.  You know - my favorite.    

Most of our actual Halloween activities with baby include a photo shoot and indoor parties or playdates.  So the hot fleeces, for us, are not practical.  Enter my new favorite Halloween costume for babies:  Noo Australia.  Noo makes soft little pants, shirts, hats and booties out of 100% cotton that look like animals.  Even better, they are lightweight, comfy to wear, and are really just outfits - so Raines wore his Bee suit long after Halloween was over (it makes great pajamas, too).  Check 'em out:

A Costume for the True Procrastinating Mom

My friend called the other day. Halloween was less than a week away, and she didn’t plan on getting a costume.  Until she found out the other Moms in her playgroup would be dressing up.  She wanted to know if wearing black and orange socks would be OK.  With an Old Navy Halloween themed tshirt.  No.  No, No, No.  Halloween themed Tshirts are one step away from the dreaded Christmas sweater.  My friend didn’t want to be in costume but wanted to look festive and be able to blend in with the other moms.  Here are a couple of ideas:

Cool Mom Halloween Costumes

Let me go out on a limb and say that most of us are going to leave the “naughty nurse” costumes in the back of the closet this year.  Which is really too bad for those of us who are breastfeeding...we certainly have the boobs to pull it off, if not the stomach, butt, or desire.  Ah, well.  Such is life.  However, for those of us cool moms who still want to get into Halloween festivities without resorting to wearing plastic Halloween-themed earrings (NO! NO!)...here’s two ideas based on items that are already in your closet.

Draculean Diva

Ok, so it’s no naughty nurse, but you can look...well, a little elegant and still be festive for Halloween.  Dress your little one up as an adorable bat, and you can go as a feminine version of Dracula.  Sweep your hair into a french twist, powder your face with too-light face powder, add some black eyeliner and red lips.  For the costume, simply pull on a black pencil skirt, black tights, black boots and a white button down shirt.  Add a cape.  Plastic fangs are optional.