It's a Jolly Holiday!

A few weeks ago, we rented Mary Poppins from the library and watched it together as a family (holy long movie!) During the "jolly holiday" scene, JD got up and started dancing like Bert and Tenley and I giggled at his silly moves. It was such a fun moment!! That night I decided we HAD to be Mary Poppins and Bert for Halloween. Our kids would be such cute little penguins! Thus began the search for costumes... 

JD and I spent the next few weeks hitting up local thrift stores for different items we could piece together to make my vision come to life. BUT here's the reality of these costumes: 

• I picked difficult characters to re-create. I mean, you usually don't just see brightly-colored, striped suit coats laying around!!
• Making JD's coat was so hard. Painter's tape wouldn't stick to the fabric... so he painted the lines by using various strips of cardboard and eyeballing the widths. He started with spray paint. The white spray paint wasn't as dark as he wanted so he then tried to use acrylic paint. That was a nightmare! The paint soaked into the fabric and totally messed up the straight lines he's spent hours trying to perfect. Bah.
• I had the worst time with the red belt/sash/middle section of my dress. Stitches, unstitches. Swear words. Bottom skirt tucked into the seam. Lots of time with my seam ripper. Ugh.
• I tried to use as much as I had on hand before buying supplies. The white fabric I had was a canvas material & I used it for the kids' bellies and eyes. Problem: so. much. fraying. I was bothered by the unfinished look, but was too worn out to start again. 
• JD lost his cane. I couldn't find a flat-brimmed white hat. I was too cheap to pay for a fancy white umbrella. My shoes are a size too big for me. Ha. The list could go on. 

I love family themed costumes, but I'll admit- they're a bit of headache! Next year, we're going with something a little more simple so JD and I can both keep our sanity. ;) Overall though, I'm pleased with the end result from this year and can't get enough of those cute little penguins.