Halloween Carnival - Mario Brothers Potter Style

Well, you know me & Halloween.  I have to have EVERYONE in costumes & they all have to MATCH each other.  I know this won't last forever because the kids are getting older & are starting to want to choose for themselves, but so long as they are game for a family theme, I'm jumping on it because it's SO MUCH FUN.

This year since we were in the middle of a military move, I thought it might be smart to choose a theme we had done before so I wouldn't have to make so many costumes.  So we chose to do

  Super Mario Brothers, 

a theme we did about 5 years ago when we were stationed at Hill AFB & only had 2 kids.  I had already made the Princess Daisy costume for myself & had Trek's Mario costume done as well.  I also had a Toadette costume which is what Taya wanted to be.  I thought I was SO CLEVER to re-use costumes until I got to UT & figured out NONE of the costumes fit anymore.  Oh well, start from scratch I guess.

Trek was able to squeeze into his old costume, but it was a squeeze.  I had to pretty much gut mine & take it in.  I've apparently lost a lot of weight in 5 years which is odd to me because I feel big right now, but I was able to take in the entire dress (with the help of a dear friend) & got my dress to fit me better.   2 costumes down, 8 more to go.

Here is our entire ensemble before the big Halloween carnival in our Mario Brothers Glory. 

I made sure I included all of my very favorite Mario characters:

Toad is one of my favorite characters.
He's just SO HAPPY all the time.

Craiger made an ADORABLE Toad.

He kind of had a love/hate relationship with that
toad hat I made him though!

I love my BOYS.

You can't do Mario Brothers
& NOT have Luigi!

Bladen LOVED his Luigi costume,
 including that HUGE mustache.
*Disclaimer: I did NOT make this costume, 
I bought it at Walmart to save my own sanity.

Toadette is another favorite.
 I knew instantly who had to be Toadette.

Taya became the perfect Toadette as soon as that
hat went on her head.  SO ADORABLE.

And you can't have Mario without the infamous
Princess Peach.
Without her, there wouldn't be anyone to save &
 the game would be null & void.
"Help me, Mario!"

Cadence as Princess Peach
* I didn't make this one either.  I love WALMART.

One of my favorite characters is Lakitu,
a lesser known turtle that throws red spiny balls at
Mario & Luigi to block their path.  In the later games he is
known to have a fishing pole with
 all sorts of things at the end.

Of course, Lorien was DYING to be the lesser known character
 & her costume proved to be the most difficult.

But it turned out ADORABLE!

We needed some more bad guys in our
group so we added a Goomba.

Is my grandma the best sport or what?
 I whipped this easy costume up in 1 hour.

If you have Mario & Luigi, you're going to
 need a bad version too.  So we added Wario to the mix.

My dad was the cutest Wario ever.  (not mean at all)

I needed an easy & comfortable costume for my mom
since she's been so sick & in the hospital.
We opted to make her Shy Guy.

It was an easy & comfortable costume for her
so she could relax & be part of the group
without over extending herself.

And we had to have MARIO of course.

Trek is the perfect cutie pie Mario.  I LOVE my sweet hubby.

I've always loved Princess Daisy's spunk,
so she completed our little group.

Yes, that's me. . . wig & all.  It was FUN.

The Church carnival was a blast.  They had games & crafts for the kids, a mad scientist lab, soup & chili for dinner, & lots of entertainment.  We had a BLAST.

Oh, & Trek & I even came home with the best couple costume award.  SO FUN.

So there's the Potter Family Halloween Theme for 2012.  What do you think?