I started this post about a week ago. I got it all written and just needed to add the photos. To me, the hardest part of blogging is getting all of the photos edited, cropped, resized and uploaded. So, I decided to try something new in Photoshop and streamline that process. I was super proud of myself! Haha! And then I uploaded all of them to the post and clicked “preview” to admire all of my hard work. And it was a pretty big disappointment. Some of the photos were pixelated. Most had the watermark all wrong. It was just a mess. I definitely don’t claim to be the world’s most amazing photographer, but this was beyond bad. Sooo…..I had to wait until I had a minute to sit down a fix them. I think I have it all figured out now, so hopefully moving forward I will be much faster at publishing posts. I have almost 20 posts sitting in my drafts folder that are all written but are missing pictures!
This past year, I’ve been reading the Harry Potter series to my kids. I’ve tried several times over the years, but they just weren’t quite old enough I think. This year was the magic year. The kids were just old enough to listen but not “too old” to be read to by mom. It’s been years since I’ve read the books and I haven’t even seen all of the movies (gasp!). After every book, we have a family movie night and compare what we liked more about the book vs the movie and vice versa. It’s been way fun! Right now we’re on Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. This book feel like it’s taking us forever to get through, but school keeps us pretty busy so reading as a family has been less often.
And in reading the books, I have inadvertently created some Harry Potter superfans! And I love that they love the story from the books first. That’s how I came to love Harry Potter and it’s fun to see them following that. On a drive to school one morning, I asked what they were each thinking of being for Halloween. And they unanimously answered “Harry Potter!!!”
I am not one of the moms that tries to do family costumes. I love families that do. And I’ve tried it before but I haven’t had any luck getting my kids on board. So, I don’t push it. I let them decide. This family costume idea was all them! They were all about Harry Potter!
Obviously, the kids were Harry, Ron and Hermione.
I bought each of their robes from Target. They had the best sale this year on kid’s costumes – buy one get one free! The ties came from tiemart.com (that is not an affiliate link, I really think everyone should own a Griffindor tie!). Underneath, I had them each wear black pants and a white button-up shirt. I think it’s the only time ever that I’ve gotten the boys to dress in their Sunday best without complaining! Haha!
We had a tiny bit of frustration when Max understandably wanted to be Harry Potter, but he was an incredibly good sport and let Logan take the lead role. I mean, Logan does wear glasses, so what could we do. Dave helped him feel better by borrowing his school’s Hedwig which Max used instead as Pigwidgeon. And the red hair. How fun is it to have red hair for a day?!?
Bria was really worried that no one would recognize that she was Hermione. She didn’t think she looked like Hermione at all and was surprised every time someone recognized her costume. Ha! If only she knew…
And our Harry did a really great job staying in character. Even though he’s not as into the books as the older two, he really ran with the whole theme! It was so funny!
Oh…and their wands! That was my favorite part! The kids had an afternoon off of school, so we made them following this tutorial.
The only thing I did really differently is that instead of chopsticks like she used in the tutorial, I bought 3-foot long dowels and cut them in half. It made the wands longer, but I think that they ended up better in the end.
It took a really long time to make the wands. Like hours. But we had nothing going on all afternoon and it was a fun family activity. I forget how much fun we have when we slow down! While they were waiting between layers of hot glue to dry, Bria was making a list of every Harry Potter spell she could think of. And even though they took a forever long time to make, they have gotten many, many more hours of fun out of them. I think my favorite was when Max came up with his own Halloween spell “Trickortreatus”. He said that at every door. Haha!
I love, love , love a million times over how the wands turned out! It really did end up being my favorite part of their costumes!
Dave and I only dressed up for our church’s trunk or treat. Neither of us are the hugest fan of getting dressed in costumes. But when you’re the bishop, it’s a lot more fun for the kids to see you dressed up!
Dave went as Dumbledore. His absolutely perfect beard is actually a Duck Dynasty beard (you know the ones that you always see at Walmart?) that he put a hat over. It was hard not to keep laughing about it! I went as Moaning Myrtle. My kids begged me to be the fat lady in the portrait. I put my foot down on that one! Haha! We each wore graduation robes that we had on hand. And really, these were the easiest costumes to put together. It’s always so much work to do the kids costumes, it was nice to have ours use pretty much only stuff we had on hand.
Oh…and our family won best group costumes! It was a total surprise. Normally it seems like we’re the only family that doesn’t dress up in a theme and this year there were very few that did. My kids were so, so excited to win an award!
Now my kids want us to go as the Weasley Family next year. They are superfans, I tell ya! This is probably the last year that I’ll let Bria go trick or treating, so it was a little bit bitter sweet. I’m so glad that we did a family theme for it!
I hope your Halloween was as fun as ours!
MOM says
I love your family costumes…..what a fun Halloween you had this year. I like your trunk or treat photos too. The trunk or treat we have at our ward is always after it gets dark. and ….ha!…..those two huge round things in your car look like owls eyes. Happy Halloween.