My $2 Homemade Thomas the Train Costume

Teddy loves Thomas the Train. I love making costumes. Halloween was approaching. We had a bunch of recycling piling up. It all came together for a perfect storm.

My materials:

1 diaper box
1 box of milk cartons three-pack, cut in half
1 empty tub of Greek yogurt
1 empty tub of broccoli cheddar soup (same size as yogurt tub)
3 dessert-size paper plates
1 dinner-size paper plate
strips of cardboard
4 feet-ish of thick ribbon
1 can blue spray paint
1 can black spray paint
red acrylic paint
yellow acrylic paint
black sharpie
hot glue gun
scissors
picture of Thomas or Thomas toy to look at

The only things I had to buy were the blue spray paint and the ribbon because I wanted ribbon cuter than what I had, It totaled roughly $2, and that's rounding up.

The funnest part about the costume was that I made the funnel be the place where the candy goes. That way he didn't need to carry a bucket or bag for candy. Here's what I did. Maybe it will be helpful to someone out there who likes to throw cheap stuff together for costumes. :)

Started cutting a diaper box

Found this in the recycling

Cut a hole in a box flap and hot glued the container to it-- a spot
for candy!

Later I cut a trap door into this so the candy could be taken out easier.

So the top looked like this and I cut the hole at the bottom a little bigger
for his feet to walk.

Attached the other box-half with hot glue and spray painted it all blue

Spray painted the next container black for the funnel, and glued it around the hole

Cut slits and glued the ribbon down

Painted red lines and let Cal help attach spray-painted paper plates 

I had also spray painted these blue cardboard strips and then
glued them on top of the wheels

Painted my yellow "1" on the sides, drew a face on a trimmed dinner plate with
a sharpie, and BAM. Thomas.

Teddy approved

And so did his Wizard-Brothers

Making Our Dinosaur Costumes

Last Halloween Brian came up with beat-up hockey player costumes which were the boys' hockey pads and jerseys plus some fake blood and messed-up teeth and scars-- which the boys loved. We considered making ourselves into some sort of joint penalty box, but didn't quite make it. The years before that were the more time-consuming astronaut and ceiling fan costumes.

This year Cal and Clark both decided they wanted to be dinosaurs-- T-Rex dinosaurs, to be exact. I tried to dissuade them from that decision because I had no idea how I would make a dinosaur costume without a ton of time and no sewing machine or sewing machine skills. They wouldn't budge though. That's what they wanted.

So I looked up some ideas online and got a good idea for a head and made up the rest. They came out better than I thought they would. I hope this is helpful to anyone making dinosaur costumes!

I used the boys' plastic baseball helmets, but I didn't want to
ruin them, so I first covered them with foil.

Taped it underneath

Duct taped some cardboard on the front

And on the top and sides

Blew up balloons about the size of my fists and taped the tied spots down

Taped it all together so the surfaces could be covered in paper mache

Two dinosaur heads!

Here's where the boys start helping: ripping up newspaper for paper mache

Paper mache explosion! I don't measure anything, just add flour and water
until it's a goopy but spreadable paste.

Requires parental involvement :)

The messy hands are the best!

Done! They dried for a couple days.

We spray painted them green and I trimmed out holes for eyes.

I wedged in Styrofoam balls in the "eye sockets" and the boys' painted
the fronts of them yellow.

And added a black pupil in each.. ta-dah! Wide-eyed dino heads!

For claws: I hot glued brown "claws" that the boys cut out of brown foam
onto some old gloves we had. I eventually also put some foam
green and brown spots on them.

For teeth- poster board-- tape it in a few places underneath

I found a pair of women's camouflage tights and cut the legs out for
the tails. 

Unwound clothes hanger and put stuffing inside

I glued the ends almost-closed and let the hook part of the hanger
poke out a little bit so it can attach to the little dinosaur's pants.

For feet: I bought large gray women's fuzzy socks, put them around
the boys' shoes, and hot glued the same brown foam as claws.

I had to trim the toenails several times to make the dinosaurs happy.

Add one exuberant 5 year-old and a pair of $9 camo jammies
and you've got yourself a T-Rex!

...times 2!

Ready for candy!

Teddy's First Birthday- A Teddy Bear Party

I figured the first birthday...maybe the second... is really the only chance I'll have to do a teddy bear-themed birthday party for Teddy. I doubt as he gets much older he'll want to have a lot to do with teddy bear parties. So I went for it.

The party hats might have been my favorite part because I designed them myself. I used a regular party hat pattern, modified it a little and poked holes for ears, used foam instead of paper, made ears with notches, and stuck them in the holes.

Bear party hats

Stapled elastic to the sides

Inside the hat

Teddy the Party Bear

Cousin Clara Bear

Best Friend Bears

Cal and Clark wanted to help with the party,
so they colored a bunch of these teddy bears for a few weeks
before the party. I hid them at the party and the kids ran around
finding them. They were a big hit.

Bear paw cookies! brownie mix, upside-down Hershey dark chocolate
kisses, peanut halves

Yum, but more importantly, cute

I made a banner. I love banners.

I borrowed the chalkboard from a friend.

Bear face cake and Teddy Graham trail mix: The mix is
honey, chocolate, and cinnamon Teddy Grahams with mini marshmallows and raisins.
I separated the mix out into cupcake liners on a cupcake stand and used
the rest in the glass container for decoration.

Teddy's little cake. My mother-in-law
just happened to have a beehive cake
mold, so I used it and made a banana cake
with yellow "honey" cream cheese frosting.
I was hoping to make little bees for it,
but ran out of time.

The weather was nice so all the kids got to play
outside a lot and I even got to play with the
birthday bear a little.

Bear-friends

Teddy Bear eating berries

Teddy was not sure about sitting on a table
without a shirt in front of a room of people.

He did enjoy the frosting, though.

Brother bears surround little birthday bear, who has had
enough of this party.

It was a fun party, and not too much work. I stayed simple with food. We had round sandwich thins with chicken salad for the grown-ups, peanut butter and jelly for the kids, as well as cheese and ham sandwiches and crackers with cheese and salami. We also had a berries plate, apples, watermelon, (bears would eat those things, right?) and veggies. I made strawberry lemonade.

I can't believe our little Peapod who became Theodore John, who became Teddy, is one whole year old. We adore him and can't even imagine what it would be like without him now. We are blessed.