They are done.  OH EM GEE!!!  DONE!

Halloween costumes are done!!  I was so excited.  I arranged them all on the floor while Nathan and Finn were out and Alice was asleep.  And then I got out the camera because I could. not. help. it.

Which is when the guys walked in, with me standing on a chair, hovering over our costumes with a camera dangling from my neck.

By some miracle, Nathan was easily persuaded to try them all on and shoot some pictures.  It helped that I promised if we took them now, we wouldn’t have to take a hundred of them right before trick or treating on Halloween.  And I was expecting Alice to have a mini-minion meltdown, but holy lord, she even kept her hat on the whole time.

The miracles just kept coming, ladies and gents.

If you’re new to this neck of the woods, we decided to be characters from Despicable Me (the second one).  Finn decided.  We all followed along.

The kids are Minions, and adorable…

Nathan and I looked like complete freaks, but I ‘spose that is what Halloween is all about.

For the kids’ costumes, I whipped out very simple pairs of overalls – just pants with a bib on the front (Finn’s were an old pair of jeans in a past life).  They each got a pair of $.87 gloves from Walmart and I made them each a coordinating hat (you can read all about the hats here) to got with their fleece sweatshirts.

Nathan’s Gru costume was the easiest and cheapest costume of the bunch.  I made the striped scarf from black and gray fleece.  We dug one of his old coats out of the basement, I tacked on the “G” logo as a pretend zipper pull and made a nose out of Fun Foam.  A not-fooling-anyone kinda nose.  One that is hilariously unsophisticated and not awe-inspiring at all.

We had two options – buy the “witch’s nose” kit from one of those Halloween pop-up stores or get the Gru mask.  The witch’s nose was all wrong and had an enormous wart on it.  We found the mask, but besides the fact that it felt like cheating and not half as much fun, when I tried it on, it sent Alice into a panic.  So no to that idea.  Fun foam it was.

And his skinny pants?  I have to hand it to him; he is totally rocking out a pair of his long underwear.

My costume, Lucy (Gru’s love interest), was the hardest one of them all.  It sucked up the most time and funds.  I found a pattern at Joann’s for a trench coat and made a few alterations to it – and used fleece to cut down on the cost.  Never in my life have I wanted to murder a piece of fabric more….  The collar was a disaster and I spent over an hour staring at the instructions trying to figure out what I was supposed to do next.  I spent the entire night dreaming about it.  I wish I was exaggerating.

I bought a pair of cheapie sunglasses at the dollar store and painted them with blue nail polish.  Want to know how to entertain yourself for an entire nap time?  Try painting pink polka dots on a scrap of white fabric one day to make a scarf – that was fun!  (Eye roll.)

And the wig?  Ahh.  A hot mess.

It is actually two $6.00 orange bob wigs from Walmart.  One wig is balled up and pinned to the top of my head for Lucy’s bun.  The one I wore got pinned up and under – and I’m lucky that she popps her collar – since the back is even worse than the front.

Either way, it is fine – since all we plan on doing is trick or treating at the zoo and around the neighborhood with all of our costumes on.

The only thing left to be decided is this… Nose, or no nose?  Nathan’s fake nose is terrible…. but it is kinda what makes Gru “Gru.”

Whaddya think…. should we keep it?