Halloween came early at our house this year.

I've noticed something about myself. Holidays can get me in a panick. And one of my responses to  stress is completely blocking out the issue. Which in the case of holidays, back fires pretty badly. Since I need to get it together and do them for the kids, but I would block it out until crunch time, and then the stress was even higher.

This year I'm going a different route. Early planning and early arranging.
And guys...this is a game changer. Holiday stress is  at an all time low. Because there is no ticking clock yelling at me, everything  feels chill.


At the beginning of the week I told the kids that by the weekend they need to decide what they want to be for Halloween. And then we would go shopping for it.
I had it in my head that I would be sewing their costumes again. But Yesterday, I decided to check Goodwill before we hit the fabric store. I really had very little faith we'd find what we needed there, but actually we scored big time.

Guys, now is a PERFECT time to get costumes st Goodwill! The racks are stuffed full of options.(Kids and adult sizes.)

We went into the store looking for a witch costume for Jasmine. A Queen Doom (the evil queen from the non-hit kids movie "Princess Twins of Legendale") for Ruby. And a general idea that Bronny might like to be a dinosaur or something.

I was most concerned with getting Queen Doom right. I had no idea how to sew her stuff. Here the best screen capture I could get from the film.

Shockingly we found something perfect at Goodwill. It's way too long, but an easy hem will do it. Maybe a bit of sleeve magic too.

Jasmine tried on lots of witch things and chose the middle outfit. She decided that her witch should have  fairy wings...not sure how the cape will work with that, but whatever. She's thrilled.

And we even found Bronny a dinosaur outfit! (The wings are there for Ruby. Just for dress up in general.) So far he enjoys holding the costume and saying "Rrrraaaarrrr." But won't put it on yet. But we have 51 days to get used to it!

Oh yeah I forgot Jasmine's adorable witch hat headband we found. It's SO cute on her!

We came home and washed it all (besides the hat (which was actually brand new)) on delicate and air dried, and they came out great!

So yeah. I got all that and the Halloween buckets (not pictured) for $29.

I feel very thrilled with both the price (the first costume I googled for a "Doom" like idea was $30) and the convenience--  I'm  pretty pumped about not having to construct the outfits myself! 

Plus it was fun to let the girls try on all the fun options and come to their own decisions.

Plus, I don't always think this way, but I think it's good to consider, the actual benefits of all the Halloween costumes that won't go into a landfill when kids reuse them.

Save money, help the planet, have fun. Good stuff.

I also cannot convey how nice it is to know everything is done and ready WAY ahead of time. Holiday Stress free for 51 days is currently on my calendar. I could get used to this.

I figured I'd let you all in on this level of magic, in case you want to take advantage yourself.