Out of all of the holidays in the year, Halloween is my least favorite. Because of this, when we dress up for the fall festival or other fall-themed activities, we have two rules–1) Mom must approve family themed costumes, and 2) most of the costume must be created from items found at home (they’re allowed $5/each for add-on purchases). I’m the Halloween Scrooge, right? 

Despite the rules and lack of funding for these costumes, we have a great time putting together costumes the night before the event. That’ s right. We don’t make these in advance. It’s a last-minute race in which I always call my sister-in-law down the road and she comes over with her glue gun and we knock out eight costumes in a row. Boom.

Thank the Lord for sisters-in-laws.

People from across the U.S. (ok, across the street) tune in to see what our latest creations will be. If you’ve never seen them, you’re in for a treat. Here is a decade of family-themed costumes, with the first being the introduction and exception. (It took a while to scrape the Scrooge off and get in dress-up mode!)

1. The Fab Four – gimme a break. We only had two kids then and they didn’t know the difference between a princess and a Ninja Turtle. They did let me put bows in their hair and pose for pumpkin pictures though…
2. Pest Control: It’s a Buggy World – Wait, those aren’t pests! Those are adorable butterflies and a cute squishy caterpillar! We caught a lot of flack that year for misspelling Sevin Dust but I assure you, it’s right. See my name tag “Bug Catcher”? I’m still holding back…
3. A Culture Shock: Chinese Kids – my sister had just returned from a trip to China and brought back these adorable outfits and hats, so it was the perfect excuse not to create costumes.
4. Princesses, anyone? – I knew there’d be a year we had to embrace all things princess and this was it. These cute tulle princess costumes were leftovers I made for my daughter’s Snow White themed birthday party. They turned out adorable!
5. A Hodgepodge Family – whoops, we missed a theme this year. I guess it’s the year of the slackers. How many times can we get away with those tulle costumes, anyway? We added a couple adorable tractor drivers and a scarecrow!
6. Scarecrows – sometimes you just have to dress up a family of scarecrows instead of yourselves. Welcome to the family, twins! #wellspartyofeight #countthem
7. Parents – That was the year the kids thought it would be fun to dress up as parents. I love having a fan club.
8. Frozen – Let it go, let it go, I can’t hold it back anymore! Ok, I’m in it to win it, now. I’ve got my costume garb on finally, and Olaf is coming to town! Or wait –was that Santa? #imconfused #idressedup
9. Snow White – this was by far my favorite year because look who’s a princess now, baby! I don’t think it’s hard to tell which dwarf is Bashful.
10. Alice in Wonderland – another great year. I could just squeeze that adorable white rabbit, the Cheshire Cat, and Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. Shoot, they’re all cuties! I think it’s safe to say we improve in our costumes each year. What do you think?

A decade worth of costumes literally flashed past my eyes! C’mon, give me some feedback, what do you think of them?

Do you and your family dress up each year? What characters have you been?

Click here to see the Facebook poll for this year’s costume contest and see what we’ll be dressing up as!