Happy {belated} Halloween

I'm just now coming off my sugar coma, which explains the major delay in this Halloween post. But I couldn't resist sharing the Little Bean's costume that I made the day before trick-or-treating festivities. Let me first say that I had another costume planned, but since he is now old enough to have an opinion, I had to surprise him with his request.

Team Umizoomi is his favorite show and the only one he likes to watch. (Thankfully, we've been spared from Dora, Barney, or any other painfully annoying character.) For those without young toddlers, Team Umizoomi is a cartoon that teaches kids about math, shapes, and problem solving. Geo is one of the characters:

Unfortunately, the only "Geo" costume I could find online was sold on eBay at the beginning of October - when non-procrastinating moms start looking for costumes. And since this is not one of the more popular shows, or maybe because I waited until the day before Halloween, I couldn't find this costume at any local big box store. So with a little felt, glue, and some hand-sewing...

...we were "ready for action"!!! (<--a phrase from the show)

 

He was so excited that when he saw himself in the mirror, he softly patted me on the back and quietly said, "Thank you, mommy. It's perfect." That's really all I needed to hear to make the hours of work the night before worth it!

So for future reference for anyone with a young son wanting to be Geo next year, here are the basic instructions for this costume:

• Print this template, for the boots and helmet wave (ignore the rest of it, unless you also need the template for the shapes belt).
• Buy a blue plastic toy helmet. I think this was a racing helmet; I took the middle stripe off. You can also use a blue beanie or backwards baseball cap, if that's your only option.
• Glue (or double-sided tape) 2" of yellow felt along the bottom of the helmet.
• Add the light blue felt wave to the the helmet. (I made the wave extend to the back of the helmet too.)
• Paint a styrofoam ball red. Cut in half. Glue red card stock to the bottom (cut) half. This makes it adhere to the helmet better since the styrofoam won't bend with the helmet, leaving you with a misshapen surface to tape or glue.
• Paint 2 smaller styrofoam balls red, as well as a toothpick, and stick the smaller balls into the top half of the larger one.
• Make the shapes belt and attach to bottom of a bright blue short-sleeve t-shirt. (I couldn't find a plain blue shirt in a size 2T, so I used this old pull-over and rolled-up the sleeves.)
• For the roller skates, I printed the template, and cut the shape out of felt. The template for the yellow tip of the boot is incorrect, so I had to just measure that as I went along. Sew the top together, leaving the back open, so you can slip it over the front of your child's boot or shoe. I found that I could safety pin the back together, slip it on his foot (like a sock) and then it fell easily over his boot. Much easier than trying to pin or velcro it closed once he's fully dressed and ready to run out the door. (The bottom of this "roller skate" is open, so he's actually walking on the soles of his own shoes.)

I threw this together at the last minute, but he was happy and that's all that mattered to me! Hopefully, these instructions made a little sense for those of you trying to follow.

Hope everyone had a happy Halloween!

PS - Since we don't really let him have candy, we told him that all the candy he collected would be left overnight for the "Great Pumpkin" and in the morning, he would find a gift in exchange. We bought a couple of books as his Halloween treats and have spent the past week eating 3 pounds of chocolate. It's a win-win idea if you ask me!