Our Family Halloween Costumes 2020

Usually when it comes to Halloween, I have ideas in my head and am excited all year to pull them together and then by the time October comes around I am overwhelmed and busy and don’t have a chance to execute accordingly to make things happen. Well, not this year! This year I was so excited to plan everything out and find all the pieces for them because we were FINALLY doing family costumes! Brooks was 4 months old last year and I was still adjusting to being a new mom and I didn’t decide on anything for certain, for him or for the three of us, but luckily my mom had gone to Kings Dominion a few months prior and bought him a Charlie Brown onesie which worked out perfect! This year, I made it happen.

I like to do DIY costumes rather than purchasing a set of things that are sold together. I think it gives the costume more of a twist based on your personal style and allows for your personality to show through. The uniqueness just makes it more fun! As we have more kids I might change my mind, but I would like DIY costumes to always be the goal as long as the kids will let me. Of course if they insisted on being a super hero or character that needs a specific costume, that is something I would totally support, therefore, store bought it would have to be!

This year, Halloween 2020, I had two family costume ideas which would be decided on based off of what I was able to find in order to complete them. Thrifing is my all-time favorite activity ever so I hit the thrift stores to start looking for accessories and when I cam across Gary’s burgundy and orange striped sweater, it solidified the theme we were going with! WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE!

We went to a friend’s house down in Saint Mary’s County, Maryland to trick-or-treat because their neighborhood is huge with tons of kids. We wanted to spend the boy’s first Halloween, where they were big enough to ssemi-participate, with Gary’s sister and her family and she suggested going down there with her group of friends who also have kids all around the same age as Brooks and Cal (my nephew). I ended up actually forgetting Brooks’ crown when we left for the Halloween festivities, but luckily I snapped a few photos at my mom’s house earlier that day.

Gary’s sweater, my sweater, and my fur vest were all thrifted, but my sweater is from Lands End and must be discontiuned because I was unable to find it when I searched on their website. I would definitely suggest thriting as many items as you can when making your own costumes because it’s so cost efficient and you can find really unique pieces! I’m also not into super constume-y costumes so for Gary and I, I like them to be more simple and thrifting was a fun way to accomplish that. I will link everything I can down below so you can find them easy for next year or parties!

Viking Hat
Owlivia Onesie
Paw Slippers
Crown and Tail

A Spook-tastic Basket

With Halloween looking very different this year across the country due to COVID-19, I wanted to find a way to still make Halloween fun and exciting for Brooks. I came across this idea of making a Halloween basket for your kids to keep them in the holiday spirit as well as give them a way to interact with it.

In this blog post I am going to give you ideas of what you can include in your baskets that will lift your kid’s spirits and stilll keep them excited for halloween even if you choose not to go trick-or-treating this year. Where we live, it looks as if people will still be handing out candy and taking their kids out to march the block so we haven’t quite decided what our plans will be, but I feel like after doing this, this year I might continue to do it in the following years and especially for all our future kids that aren’t yet old enough to trick-or-treat.

You can choose to go all out and splurge for your kids or take a more affordable route, it’s up to you, but there is no reason you can’t complete a Halloween basket on a budget! I got everything for Brooks’ for $30! Everything I bought will be linked at the end for you to find if you see something you must have! My way of choosing what to include consisted of something to play with (a toy), something to stimulate the mind (a book), something we needed (a cup), something to eat (candy of course!), and something to wear (boo-jamas), that way it was a well rounded gift for him.

First up is a basket! Once you buy a basket to use, your kids can use it to trick-or-treat with AND you can reuse it to make the Spook-tastic baskets each year! The basket I got for Brooks was $1 at Target and it a good size for young kids! It’s clear and also glows in the dark, which they love. While continuing to browse the Halloween aisle, I saw a cute jack-o-lantern sippy cup for $4, which you can never have too many sippy cups, so in the cart it went! For whatever reason, our sippy cups go missing more than anything else so we desperatly needed a new one! It worked out great and is very festive. I grabbed a few sweets in the candy section for under $5 that I thought he would like to try. Cookies are always a favorite and candy corn is MY favorite, so he gets both. You can choose whichever candy you and your kids prefer! Brooks is one so I tried to get things he could have that weren’t too sticky or hard to prevent choking and breaking those brand new teeth LOL.

He also grabbed this dumb jelly LED spider off the shelf for $3 and started chewing on it before I could catch him, so we bought that as well. I couldn’t find the link for it online and it wouldn’t have been my first toy choice, I was going for these $8 themed finger puppets which he loves to play with in the bath, but for whatever reason he’s obsessed with it so if it makes him happy, I am too! (Someone get the finger puppets, they’re cute!) I love Charlie Brown so naturally I had to order the Great Pumpkin book! Last Halloween I dressed him in a really cute Charlie Brown onesie that my mom had gotten him from King’s Dominion and took pictures of him with pumpkins, so I thought this year he needed the story! Some other books I considered were Pumpkin Pie, It’s Pumpkin Day Mouse, and Goodnight Goon. Lastly, I ordered him some spooky pajamas from Burt’s Bees because they always have the BEST holiday jammies for babies! They fit so comfy and the patterns are fun, I just couldn’t resist!

Halloween Basket – Comes in multiple colors
Pumpkin Cup – There is also a ghost!
Ghost Cookie
Mini Brach’s Candy Corn
Burt’s Bees Pajamas – Lots of Halloween and other holiday options!
Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin Board Book

Happy Halloween!
x Abigail