(Acacia & Alexis are Darla's children;
Brianna & Alyssa are Daina's children;
and Tatem is Devlyn's child.)

Devlyn as "Ballerina" -- 1980

Here's where Dev borrowed Darla's tutu.
If you look closely in the background you will see
Darla as a "Fifty's Girl" & Daina as a "Gypsy".

Devlyn as "Alien?" -- 1981

Daina as "Flapper" and Darla as "Baby" -- 1982

(Daina borrowed my costume my mother
made for me in high school.  Darla of course is in a large sleeper.)

Donnie even got into the spirit of Halloween, literally.
But don't blame me for his creation, it was all his doing.

Devlyn as "leopard" -- 1982

Devlyn as the "Clown" -- 1983

Darla was into the "Genie" thing.
This is 1st version -- 1985.

Devlyn as "Witch" -- 1985

Nancy in "Oriental" costume,
Darla in 2nd version of "Genie"
& Dev as "Minnie Mouse" -- 1987

Acacia as "Little Miss Muffet" -- 1994.
She won in her age group
@ a Ryan's Steakhouse contest

Brianna as "Leopard" -- 1994
(for a party, her costume below wasn't ready)

Brianna as the "Spider" -- 1994
@ a Kmart contest. She won a gift certificate.

Group pic of Acacia as "Little Miss Muffet"
& Brianna as the "Spider" -- 1994

Acacia as "Alice in Wonderland" -- 1995

Can not find pic of Alexis as "White Rabbit" -- 1995
Can not find pic of Darla as "Playing Card" -- 1995
(See Daina in it in 2001)

Brianna as "Dorothy" -- 1995

Can not find pic of Alyssa as "Flying monkey" -- 1995
(but if you'll imagine "furry wings" on
the monkey below, you'll have an idea.)

1996 came too soon and left me to improvise
with what we already had handy.
(As you can see, I believe in saving the costume
and letting another use it,
sometimes changing it a bit)

Acacia as "Witch" -- 1996

Brianna as "Little Red Riding Hood" -- 1996
(Added a red cape and black shoes to
"Dorothy"--she's now "Little Red")

Alyssa as "Minnie Mouse" -- 1996
New costume, smaller than one Dev wore above.
This was a fun one. With her dark hair, the
mouse-ear headband worked just fine.

Alexis takes a turn as the "Monkey" -- 1996

Group pic of Brianna as "Red Riding Hood";
Alyssa as "Minnie Mouse"; Acacia as "Witch"
& Alexis as "Monkey" -- 1996

Darla asked me to add a multi-color vest to
version #1 of the "Genie" costume and now we have version #3.
She wore it over a black satin top with gold trim.

Here's Alyssa as "Little Miss Muffet",
Brianna as dancing "Esmarelda",
Acacia as "Cruella DeVil" with Alexis as her
captive "Dalmation" -- 1997.

Alexis won a prize that year.

Another view of
Brianna, Acacia, & Alexis -- 1997
(Added "fur" to "Little Red's" cape for "Cruella's" look.)

Can not find pic of Darla as the "Grim Reaper" -- 1997.
This was really unusual because most everyone at the party
thought she was male since she is so tall.  Imagine their
surprise when she showed up in the Ladies Room.
(See new pic below to see what she looked like.)

Alyssa--"Fairy Princess"
& Brianna --"Harem Girl" -- 1998

Group pic 1998 of Alyssa & Brianna with
Tatem--"Monkey", Acacia--"Flapper"
& Alexis--"Princess"
(Shortened "Cruella's" dress, added fringe
and sequins to create the "Flapper",
plus added a headband w/feather.)

Darla was "Vampira" -- 1998

Here's the full-length view

Daina was an awesome "Witch" -- 1998.  

She created her latex mask
and borrowed Darla's "Grim Reaper" costume.
I still can't find that pic)

Ah, 1999 was a time to dig out the
"old" costumes and revitalize them.
Alexis became the "Black Widow Spider" (notice the hourglass and veil?)
Acacia went as something new -- "Cave Girl";
Brianna wanted to go as a "Harem Girl" once more;
Alyssa chose to revive the "Jolly Clown";
& Tatem had now grown big enough for "Minnie Mouse"

Alexis as "Black Widow Spider" -- 1999

She won in her age group at a Legion contest.
(Something about that spider costume that gets them)

Acacia as "Cave Girl" -- 1999

Here's Tatem as "Minnie Mouse" -- 1999
Sorta copied her mother years later, didn't she?

Group shot of 1999:

Here's Halloween 2000 with all new costumes!
Alexis as "Snow White"
and Acacia as "The Evil Queen" -- 2000

Tatem made a darling "Dopey" -- 2000

Brianna as "Bride of Frankenstein" loved that hair! -- 2000

Alyssa as a "Gypsy Fortune Teller" -- 2000
who won that year in her age group.

Darla as "Medieval Wench" -- 2000

She loved going to our local Scarborough Faire.
This lead to her decision to ask me to create
a costume for her.

Acacia is the new "Flower Child" of 2001

With bellbottoms and funky shoes back in style,
all she needed was the headband, blue eyeglasses,
a peace necklace, and my blue fringed vest.
Of course, flower, peace and love
patches are a given.

Brianna as a "Sorceress" -- 2001


For Brianna's costume, I bought a black hooded robe with long draping sleeves.
Gold moons and stars were sewn on, a gold "belt" from the Christmas
decorations section at Wal-Mart was added. The sorceress' staff
which lights up and has lightening sounds, I bought at Party Warehouse.
Daina and I found the broach for her headband, plus earrings and
necklace at garage sales. Brianna really enjoyed this costume.
She even won 1st place in her age group at a Wal-Mart contest.

Alyssa as "Queen Bee" -- 2001

Alyssa rejuvinated the bee costume (Dev had worn it before,
but no pic of it). With new wings and a crown added,
she became the "Queen Bee". This is a real simple costume.
I sewed yellow stripes around a very large (adult size) black sweatshirt.
It can be worn over black pants or tights as shown here.
Just add a crown and antennae.

Alexis as "Little Bo Peep" -- 2001

Alexis' costume was a little more complicated. She had grown big
enough to wear "Alice's" dress, but too big for "Little Miss Muffet's"
pantaloons. So a new apron, pantaloons and hat with eyelet trim were made.
Knowing that she was going as "LBP", I kept a look-out for a lamb which
I found at a garage sale. The staff was more difficult to find,
we had to make do with what we found.
With the common thinking that "LBP" is a blonde, Darla added a long wig.
Alexis won 1st place in her age division at Wal-Mart.

Tatem as "Ladybug" -- 2001

I guess I got into an insect mood. The original plan was for the
younger ones to be a bee, a ladybug and a butterfly. As you can see, plans changed.
Tatem's nearly 4 yrs. old and still cute as a bug, so it seemed so natural
for her to be a sweet little ladybug. I was going to make this costume
but was lucky to find the shell at Goodwill for a good price. Ordinary
black pants, a turtle-neck long-sleeved shirt, and red & black antennae completed her look.
She did manage to win 2nd place at Wal-Mart.

Scott as "Grim Reaper" -- 2001

(Here's what Darla's costume looked like in 1997.) I actually found the limb
that was used for the staff in a cemetery and lugged it home 35 miles,
just to use for this costume. Donnie has also worn the costume and caused quite a stir.

Scott with Darla the "Sultry Witch" -- 2001

Daina put on the "Ace of Spades Playing Card" -- 2001
(from Alice In Wonderland) to pass out candy.

Finally got all of 2002 pix sorted, labeled and uploaded.

Alyssa was a "Voodoo Priestess" -- 2002

She enjoyed dressing up as something a little more unusual.
We bought a skull on a stick and added feathers. I made her
a "Voodoo doll" so she could put a spell on her older sister, Brianna.

Alexis as "Victorian Vampire" -- 2002

Alexis couldn't decide if she wanted to "dress up" this year or not.
By the time she decided, it was too late to make a costume
so she selected this one from a store.

Here's Tatem as "Devil With A Blue Dress On" -- 2002
Another view
Even though Tatem had no idea what was behind this costume,
she enjoyed being a devil.
A black wig with devil horns hid her blonde hair.
A shiny blue dress was found at a thrift store.
We added a shiny red tail (can't see it) pinned
to her slip, a pitch fork, red tights
and "Dorthy's" red slippers--she was all set.

Alyssa decided to be a "Scarecrow" -- 2003

Found the hat at a thrift store and asked which one
of the kids wanted to wear it--Alyssa got first dibs.
All we needed then was a large shirt & jeans to add patches.
Raffia was added on her wrists and ankles.
Happen to find a black bird in our Halloween stash .

Alexis again as a "Vampire" -- 2003

Alex loved her costume from last year,
so she wore it again. That girl really loves Gothic.

Tatem as a "Butterfly" -- 2003

Another insect made it way into our Costume Closet.
Beautiful Monarch butterflies are appearing in our area
so we decided to add one more.

Acacia as "Purple Witch" --2004

Acacia borrowed my purple witch costume...looks way better on her.
You can't see in the pic but her cape is a purple spider web
that matches the hat & gloves. We also sprayed her hair purple
which looks violet in this pic. To be silly, she snatched Tatem's
purple broom. She's grown a lot since her "witch" days of 1996.

Brianna as "Devil" --2004

Brianna really had no idea what to be this year.
Since we already had the red robe, we added a "faceless" hood
to be a little different.

Alyssa as "Minnie Mouse" --2004

Alyssa changed her mind so many times it was difficult
to even come up with anything. I had found this large polka-dot
dress at a thrift store a few years back and immediately
thought of it would make a great Minnie Mouse dress.
Using the same ears and hair bow from previous years and
adding a darling Minnie purse, Alyssa was all set.

Alexis as "Punky Brewster" --2004
(Waiting for pic)

Tatem as "Glamorous Witch" --2004

Tatem was going to be a princess but when she saw
the witch costume with the sheer overskirt and feathers
at the neck and sleeves, she fell in love with it and felt
really glamorous. The purple broom also got her attention.
She said she needed her hair a different color but
Dev nixed that idea, Tatem was happy that I already had
a black wig for her to wear.

Here's Acacia, Alyssa & Tatem visiting Darla at the VFW.
At the time, Alexis was with her dad and not able to be in the
pic. It was her suggestion that Darla dress as a "dead" cheerleader.
Brianna was busy with friends and not in costume.

Tatem as "Alice in Wonderland" & Alyssa as "Queen on Hearts" --2005

Tatem is getting bigger...now she's ready for Alice. She wore
Acacia's dress and apron from 1995. Alyssa makes a perfect Queen of Hearts
(although it's not in her nature to scowl).
I made Alyssa's costume new for this year. It's made of red crushed poly
velvet and white satin. The crown and scepter were bought at a $1 store.

Nancy as "Playing Card"; Tatem as "Alice"; and Alyssa as "Queen of Hearts"

Just for fun, I put on the card costume to join the group.
How about that huge rose I "painted" to please the Queen?

Alexis as the "Giddy Witch" --2005

Here's a switch, Alexis is wearing Darla's costume of 2001
(no, I didn't make it). I call her the "Giddy Witch" because she wouldn't
stop giggling.

Darla and Greg as "Pirates" ---2005

Darla and Greg couldn't wait for their costumes, so they bought them.
Pretty good job anyway. Hmm, maybe the parrot should meet the crow of 2003?

Here's Alexis as "Jeannie" -- 2006
.
Alexis is wearing another of her mother's costumes (1987)
Well, things repeat themselves, don't they? She looks so cute!!

Tatem as the "Flapper" -- 2006
.
Finally, a new costume--LOL. Hey, it's getting harder to get these gals
to cooperate without being outlandish or expensive.
I found the dress at a resale shop and saved it for whoever could wear it.
Tatem fit the bill...so I made her a red sequin headband w/rose and feather and added a red feather boa.
She wanted to wear the red shoes (from "Dorothy") with red tights.
Just a little makeup and she was ready for the Charleston dance!

Tatem as a "Vampire" -- 2007

As the kids get older naturally they like the scarier type costume.
Tatem opted to wear Alexis' costume of 2003.
With a long, black wig and a long-stem black rose, she's all set.
(She must have special powers since she's able to be outside in the daylight--LOL).
Vampire Tatem is placing a black rose
on Count Dracula's "grave" (in Darla's front yard).

Darla as "Witch" and Tatem as "Vampire" -- 2007

Darla got back into the swing of things
by dolling herself up as a witch.

Alyssa as "Girl Ghoul" -- 2007
.
Alyssa really got into the spirit by wearing a ghoul costume.
She sat by the "grave" of Count Dracula and
scared all the older trick-or-treaters as they came by.

Be sure to visit our COSTUME CLOSET again to see what new costumes have been added.

December 26, 2007

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