Saturday, October 30, 2010

A Favorite Halloween Memory

When we made the decision in 1998 to become missionaries to Africa we felt sure the process would go quickly. For this reason, in October 1999 we were sure that this would be our last Halloween ever! (Insert ominous music here)


Tom has always been very creative and given the fact that we had six children at our disposal he decided to do a Wizard of Oz theme. All the costumes were adapted or created by Tom from thrift store acquisitions. He did a fantastic job as you can see.


Tom made T.J's Tinman costume from scratch. The only problem with it was he forgot to create joints. Every time T.J lost his balance while out trick or treating, he fell headfirst and couldn't get back up again. I think this ranks as one of his worst memories.


I was particularly happy with the Scarecrow costume. It turned out so well just from scraps of old clothes.


Not everyone was thrilled with the costuming process. Troy (2 and a half at this time) was very unhappy and absolutely refused to wear the headdress for his Cowardly Lion costume. 


We paid a lot of attention to the little details such as hair braiding. I was determined to create the exact same hairstyle as the original Dorothy.


We didn't want to have a bad character so Jessica was Glenda the Good Witch.


Dorothy (Jennifer) with her TinMan (T.J) and Scarecrow (Timothy) and a Munchkin Ballerina (Jasmine).

While we went on to have two more Halloweens in the U.S before moving to Africa and we haven't let living in the African bush stop us from having a costume party every October, I'm so glad we have the memories of Halloween, 1999.

This post is written as an entry for a Camera contest on SITS (Secret is in the Sauce) a fantastic community with great blogging tips.

9 comments:

  1. I have always wanted to do the Wizard of Oz with my family but my boys would just not go for it!

    Happy Halloween!

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  2. I'm visiting from the sits girls site! Beautiful costumes. And I love your blog! I'll be back to read more about your adventures in Africa. Blessings!

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  3. P. S. I also bookmarked your missionary blog--can't wait to read through it!

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  4. Neat costumes! And I love that they are all handmade. Good luck with the SITS contest.

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  5. I love the costumes and I think we buy too many! This year, the costs were out of control and I think from now on, costumes will be hand-made! Bring back the fun in making a costume and not breaking the bank!!!

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  6. Oh, I love the theme! So cute!

    So, was that really the last Halloween ever?

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  7. So Cute...I am trying to get my hubby to do wizard of oz with me...I have the Dorothy costume...and I want him to be the scarecrow. The kids could even be a part...maybe next year!

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  8. I've always wanted to do this, but my family isn't interested. So cute!

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  9. The costumes came out great! Poor TJ... He will have to write a book "How Halloween and the Tin Man traumatized me..."

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