Happy Halloween!

What would Halloween be without a costume post?! Sorry for those of you stopping by to read about decorating, although I guess it can be considered decorating in a sense...I decorated my kids!

Confession...I'm not the biggest fan of Halloween. I find it a little stressful coming up with costumes and like I've mentioned before, I'm CHEAP! I don't like spending money on something my kids will only wear once, twice at the most.

So this is how a CHEAP mom does costumes:

Candy Corn and Zombie Costumes

Hopefully, it's obvious that my daughter is a candy corn. She came up with her costume all by herself. Want to know the truth behind this picture? Her smile is completely forced and fake! Prior to the picture, she announced she wasn't going to wear the hat. Was I ever so happy that I had just gone to several stores looking for hats, couldn't find any, so finally got creative and made her one?! All of that for, "I'm not wearing it!" Well, she got the "you're wearing it for the picture no matter what" speech, put it on and forced the smile! Can't say that I blame her, I chicken out when it comes to costumes too. She comes by it honestly.

The bloody little fella next to the candy corn is a zombie. One day last week, we went to check out zombie costumes at Target and I quickly realized zombies are expensive! Something to the tune of $25 for a very poorly constructed piece of junk. So on to plan B.

Plan B was genius because it made me the coolest mom around! For a total of $3, my son came away totally happy and ended up with a hands on experience.

Let's take a closer look at this nastiness.

I handed him a $2 white t-shirt and told him to go outside and get it as dirty as possible. After the shock wore off, he quickly seized the opportunity, afraid I might change my mind. Off he went to make some mud and drag the shirt through it. Exactly what every little boy loves to do...play in the mud! Next, I handed him a pair of scissors and said, "Now, cut it up and rip it." That got me a "Oh my goodness! This is the best costume ever!" It wouldn't be complete without covering his hands in red paint to smear all over the place. And last, but not least, let's glue on that fake liver found for $1 at the Dollar Store. Totally gross and disgusting...exactly what he was going for this year.

I say our $3 hands-on creation is far better than a $25 Target costume. What other child will be wearing their own work of art as their costume? Ha!

Any other cheap-os out there like me, or am I scaring my kids for life since I won't spring for the "nice" costumes?

Now that you've seen what I can do with mud, paint and livers, don't you want me to decorate your house?! Contact me so the fun can begin!