If it weren't for those meddling kids...

It has become a tradition to find family-themed Halloween costumes (although I'm already in the planning process this year and it is getting more difficult). Our oldest son loves helping me scavange for pieces to our costumes hopefully without having to buy an actual costume from a party or Halloween specialty store. Other than Scooby, we were relatively successful last year.

I think a lot of people, much like me, think "I am not creative. I can't put that together." Uh, yeah you can. You get a picture of what you want to duplicate, think about the plain pieces you can find at inexpensive stores (Ross, Goodwill, eBay, your closet, around the house). It may take some extra time and planning, but it can be done.

For Shaggy, my son already owned brown shoes and brown pants, and we found an oversized green t-shirt at Goodwill for 50 cents! We did purchase the goatee, but big deal. It also came with a huge wig, that wasn't like the character at all, and my son's hair was already the right color.

I found Velma's red pleated skirt (actually a Reebok tennis skirt) at Goodwill for $8. The orange turtleneck on eBay for $24, but I can wear it as an actually sweater in my regular wardrobe, so the price was justified for me. The orange knee socks from Academy Sports, two pair for $6. The red maryjanes at Goodwill for $6.

For my husband, Fred, a pair of his own jeans and black Doc Martens, a white sweater (from eBay), a blue collared shirt from his closet, and an orange scarf (a bandana for 89 cents from the local craft/hobby store). I did get him what I *thought* was yellow hair spray, but it turns out it was flourescent to glow in the dark, which made it look green indoors. So, in that, I confused everyone. But outside, it the dark, it was pretty neat.

And little Scooby is just too cute (in my opinion) to not include, even if his dog tag is turned backward.

The gang at our church fall fest, with our senior pastor.