These are my monkeys and this is my circus, y’all!

In our house, we get REALLY excited about Halloween. The candy, the crafts, and especially the challenge of topping the previous year’s homemade family costumes.

This year we couldn’t resist our favorite movie: The Greatest Showman. We sing to it, we dance to it, so why not live it?!

So here we are: Dog Boy, Charles Straton, Anne Wheeler, P.T. Barnum, the Bearded Lady, and the circus lion!

Lucky for me, I had my son’s costume done ahead of time, as he wanted P.T. Barnum’s costume for his talent show to do magic in at the end of last school year. The youngest was convinced when she knew age would need pink hair, and my middle daughter was excited to ‘ride’ around on a horse yelling “phew,phew!” (And people think she’s quiet).

I start my quest to homemade, budget-friendly costume greatness the same way each year: at Goodwill! All but one of these pieces started out as an oversized, (in my husband’s case, undersized!) Goodwill treasure hunt find. And with a nip here, a tuck there, a little E600, and a lot of imagination: a costume is born.

My favorite part of the challenge this year was my Dog Boy mask. I knew I HATED wearing full masks, so I compromised with a masquerade mask (I could breath much easier!)

I mixed brown and white paint until it matched my concealer color and then E600’d cut up pieces of faux fur from Jo-Ann Fabrics. A little spirit gum and a few extra pieces to the chin and there you have it!

Hopefully I don’t eat too much “dog hair” with the Reese’s PB cups I sneak out of my kiddos’ bags tomorrow night! ;)

Happy Halloween Everyone!