Just checking in for a brief… debrief on Halloween.  It was all Mario Brothers up in here.

First, the 8 year old wanted to go as Luigi.  No problem, since I made the 5 year old a Mario costume when he was 3.  Except the pattern I had was for toddlers.  The 8 year old is over 4 1/2 feet tall, so I had to adapt the pattern for his height.  Thankfully, he is also super skinny so I actually kept the width of the overalls since Luigi is tall and thin.  It worked really well.  I made a hat out of felt with this tutorial, which is super simple.  His friend was going as Mario, so it all worked out lovely.

The moustache is made out of thin foam, and I think it creeped the 8 year old out enough that he wouldn’t move his mouth.  He was talking like he’d just had his wisdom teeth removed.

When the team paired up, they were unstoppable.

Now, the 5 year old had to make things super complicated.  He wanted to be Bowser Jr.  What, you don’t know who Bowser Jr is?  Clearly, you don’t play enough Super Mario Brothers.

Bowser Jr is a “Koopaling,” which means he is a child of the main villain, King of the Koopas, Bowser.  There are 8 Koopalings, and Bowser Jr is both the youngest and the favorite.  And the heir to the throne.  How do I know all this, you ask?  The interwebs, silly.

So, he looks like this:

No, I am not kidding you.

We managed to get a yellow footed sleeper in the 5 year old’s size and then we went to work on the shell.  The 5 year old, to his credit, did help me make it.  We had a fun little exchange during the process.  I was hot gluing things together, and he was watching intently when he suddenly asked:

“Mommy, what are you going to BE when you grow up?”

I paused for a moment to regroup.  ”Well, honey, I’m already grown up.”

He barely thought a second and replied, “NO, I mean like, when you’re like grandma and grandpa.”

I said, “Well, when I’m like grandma and grandpa, honey, I’ll probably be a grandma.”

Exasperated, he sighed and said, “NO, I MEAN, like, what’s your JOB?”

That’s when I started laughing, but he didn’t seem to think it was funny.  I explained to him that I used to have a job teaching, but now my job is writing and taking care of him, yadda yadda, here’s me trying to justify my existence to the 5 year old.  What was most hilarious to me was what I perceived as his thought process.  It seemed clear that as he was watching me hot glue, he was thinking, “Hmmm.  I’m not sure this hot gluing thing is a marketable skill.  I wonder where she’s going with this?”

He’s always got my back.

And I’ve got his, because I produced the following Koopa shell for it:

That’s him without his mask on, since preschool does not allow masks for Halloween.

When we were ready for trick or treating, though, we went all out: Bowser Jr put on his mask and Luigi sprayed his blond hair black.

We collected enough candy that each child’s bucket was essentially overflowing.  Pieces of candy were falling out as we walked down the street.  That’s when we knew it was time to be done.

I hope you had a fantastic Halloween and that you don’t get any stomachaches from all the candy.  I’ve already pilfered an Almond Joy, a Snickers and two mini Milky Ways.

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