How to make a Bowser costume

 Cai wanted to be Bowser for Halloween this year. I looked up some ideas on google but mostly decided to do it myself. Fair warning right now you need lots of toilet paper tubes. :)

Supplies: (I think I listed them all)
thick cardboard -big enough to make a shell for your back
thin cardboard (think cereal box)
15 empty toilet paper tubes (or 9 paper towel rolls cut in half)
Yellow felt
Green hat (I used fleece)
White duck tape
Red feathers
pair of old socks (preferably white)
white, green and yellow pant
scotch tape
Elastic
Hot glue and glue gun
scissors
needle and thread- either yellow or white

 Take your big piece of cardboard and draw your shell shape- big oval that will fit your kid's (or your own) back. Cut out shape. At this time I also drew marks as to where my spikes would go. I placed 10 spikes on the shell. I suppose you could add more or less.

 Make you spikes. I took my toilet paper tubs and cut three triangles into the top. Then I used scotch tape to take them together to make the point. At the bottom I cut slits to allow me to glue the bottom to the shell.

 Hot glue all your spikes onto your shell.

 Cut the elastic to the size you'll need to go around your shoulders. I poked holes into my shell and threaded the elastic though the shell and tied the ends together to make one big loop. Then I hot glued this down to the shell under spikes. I felt this make the elastic more secure. I'm sure you could just hot glue it to the back if you want.

 At this point I used white spray paint to cover the whole shell. It did not coat the spikes very well. I ended up going back over all the spikes with white acrylic paint. The boys helped me with this part and the green paint as well.

 Use your green paint for the shell. I had to use two coats. Then I used yellow acrylic paint around the base of each spike. The yellow band is probably about 1/2 inch.

To finish I added white felt around the edges. You could just paint a white boarder around the edge and have similar results.

 For the horns on the hat I used thin cardboard (an old coca cola box), toilet paper tubs scotch tape and a pair of old socks.

 I cut out the shape of the horn on the cardboard. Taped this together at the narrow end. Then taped the tube in between to give it a 3D shape.

 I slipped a sock onto each horn to help give it shape and have something to wrap my tape around. I then used white duck tape to cover the horns completely.

 For my hat I cut holes into the side of my fleece hat. I liked the fleece because it didn't fray when I cut into it. I slipped my horn into place and hot glued down. You could add yellow band with pain at the end of the horns to make them looks like the spike on the shell. I didn't bother though.

Mark was my model :)

Taking my hot glue gun I glued down the feathers over the eyes for eyebrows and along the top and over the back. I looked at images on google to give me an idea of how Bowsers head looks. He has a sorta red mohawk going on. So I tried to recreate that. 

For his tail, I first made three more spikes just like I did for the shell. I then took my yellow felt and folded so that it created a triangle. Using some thread I hand stitched it together. I then made three cuts where I wanted my spikes to be and pushed them through the inside out. I hot glued them in place. Rather than attempting to figure out how to attach the tail to his pants, I hot glued the tail to the shell. Making the shell and tail all one piece. Hot Glue is my friend. Really!!!

Viola! You now have a shell, tail and hat for Bowser. Wear yellow top and bottoms. Add spike bracelets and you're done. I found black spiked slap bracelets at Dollar Tree. Other idea I saw in my searching online where the metal and leather ones. I couldn't find any when I was looking. To be really authentic you would need bracelets at the wrists, around your biceps and then a spiked choker around the neck. We only had the two so around the wrists/forearms worked for us. :)  I'm pretty proud of this costume. Hope you enjoy it as much as us!!!

Trick or Treat

Happy Halloween! Since about 2:15pm this afternoon our life has been nonstop. Aiden, Cai and I got dressed in our costumes (with lots of layers underneath to try and keep warm) and went to pick up Ian at school by 3. We stopped at Mark's office. Ian changed. I came up with a paper mustache since the felt one seemed to disappear. We then said goodbye to Dad and headed out to main street for trick or treating downtown.

Bowser, Waluigi, and Wario from Nintendo

 The boys had a great time. It was crowded and crazy. We did run into Ian's teacher and a few friends. I heard a few kids say "Hey that's Bowser." Feeling pretty good about that.

Check out his spikes!

 Poor Ian and Aiden got mistaken for Luigi. It frustrated Ian, but he was usually too shy to correct people. Aiden got lots of comments on his mustache. He does look mighty adorable.

growling faces

 In addition to lots of candy, the boys got cars at one store and a book at the bookstore. And I got a complement on my TARDIS dress by someone who recognized who I was. Made my day. I'm still smiling thinking of it.

The black spikes are a slap bracelet which Cai loved

After we decided we had had enough cold and wet, we headed back up to Dad's office to enjoy a couple of pieces of candy and check in.The hurricane is causing all sorts of work for Mark, so he was crazy busy. We quickly said goodbye again and headed to Aunt Rachel's.

The wind made keeping the had on hard

 Had a quick dinner (peanut butter or soynut butter tortillas with honey) and then headed out to trick or treat with the cousins. Josiah's cheetah costume is awesome. All the boys seem to be obsessed with Cheetah Power off of Wild Krats (PBS kids). It's mostly cute. Although there are afternoons here at home I"m ready to ban the words. In door races can only be handled for so long.

Four out of Five boys- the youngest didn't want to walk

 While it was cold this afternoon, the temp dropped after 5pm. It was freezing by the time we called it a night at about 6pm. I'm not sure how the boys handled it. But they had a great time. We adults couldn't walk fast enough and spent most of the evening tell them to wait up or just yelling STOP! Sigh.

For about two blocks they all held hands while walking/skipping down the sidewalk

 After warming up for a bit at Rach's, we went on to a Halloween party at her high school friends house.  Mark was able to join for the party and help me get boys to bed. Now he is back to work. :( All and all it was a good Halloween. Now if only I could warm up.

Underwear, Angry Birds, Creature Power and Mario?

My boys are growing up. And I'm noticing it in many ways. Aiden's is the most noticeable as he is in the middle of potty training. Like Ian, Aiden just decided it was time to use the potty.

 It started small. Him telling us on occasion that he needed to pee or poop. As I stated in my Boyne post, our trip back lasted much longer due to his telling us he needed to pee. Yesterday, after telling me he wanted to pee I asked if he wanted a diaper or underwear. He chose underwear. He wore a diaper for nap and one again after wetting his underwear while playing outside, and of course at night. But this morning when he woke up he again chose underwear.

More often than not he is wetting his underwear. But he trying to let me know when he needs to potty. And we always race to the potty to try. I figure it took Ian three solid days of being wet before I saw improvement and he was 3 months older than Aiden is currently. Cai took a solid week of no success before we even got him to use the potty once. And he was almost three. I think Aiden is doing well. And while there are moments I wish I could have planned this into my schedule, it is nice to see him making his own decisions on the matter.

 My toddler is quickly growing up.

The other boys are getting older as well. And I see this manifest itself mostly in their play. Both are more imaginative. Ian, especially, has gotten more aggressive. Which to be honest is very, very frustrating. Ian comes home with games about Mario and Bowser and I wonder does he even understand what it is he is playing? Sure Mark has let the boys play MarioCart and the original MarioBrothers on our mediaPC (a computer Mark creative for our TV), but he didn't start this game until months after said games were played. The joys of peer influence.

Of course, while some of his games are too aggressive for my taste and we have to sit down and talk about what is appropriate behavior and what's not, other games just make me smile. A favorite PBS kids show for Ian is Wild Kratts. Often for days after watching this show Ian and Cai will run around the house with "creature power." They have been hawks, shark, bears, and many other animals. No longer are my boys satisfied with pretending to be cats, dogs, dinosaurs or lions. No they are polar bears, great white sharks, and other animals I forget they even know about till I remember "oh yeah, they saw that on Wild Kratts."  The fact they even remember half of these animals illustrates how much they are growing up.  And while they can become aggressive in their play with these "creature powers" it more often than not make me smile to see them incorporating what they learned into their play.

 Yesterday a new game was added to their list: Angry Birds. Now Ian loves playing this on Mark's phone when he gets a chance. Mark doesn't allow them to play on his phone often, but when he does Ian tends to either play Angry Birds or some racing game. Cai likes Super Why game. Yesterday the boys set up balls on our couch. These balls were the pigs. And the boys then pretended to be the birds and would run and jump onto the couch and balls. I'm still not sure how I feel about this game. I do know that I'm grateful that they were not running and jumping on each other. And really they were kinda cute all running towards the couch together.

 My boys are growing up fast. And while I don't like everything this brings, it sure is fun to watch their transformations.