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.
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