Mischief Managed: Our Harry Potter Family Halloween Costumes

So, if you're a new reader of the blog, you might not know that we go to great lengths to plan out an entire family Halloween costume theme every year. You can read the story of how that all began and catch up on some of our previous years' costumes here. And every year, we do a big reveal here on the blog to let everyone know what theme we picked for this year.

Actually, the boys picked this year's theme last year. They couldn't decide between superheroes and Harry Potter for last year, so they came to the compromise to do superheroes last year and Harry Potter this year.

That actually worked out really well, since 2017 marked the 20th anniversary of the release of the first book in the series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

So without further ado, here are our costumes this year. We needed a Harry Potter. Aidyn fit the bill well for this character.

And we needed a Ron Weasley. Jaxon was about right for this role.

And you can't really have a Harry and a Ron without a Hermione. That ended up being me. As an aside, the boys had QUITE the conversation about who I should be this year. They were going back and forth between Hermione and Professor McGonagall. They ultimately ended up with Hermione thanks to Jaxon's reasoning that "Mama is a lot closer in age to Hermione than she is to Professor McGonagall who is at least 200!" Bless him! I will have to make sure he gets extra Halloween candy! :-)

And last but not least, the boys whittled down their choices for Ryan to Snape or Hagrid, ultimately landing on Hagrid. Of course, that would give us the opportunity to incorporate our dogs, Smitty and Chance, as "magical beasts" without wrangling them into costumes. (I'm sure they will be forever grateful for this.)

And here's the whole motley crew casting a spell for a Happy Halloween:

The Devil's in the Details

This year's costumes were fairly easy to put together. Most all of the pieces can be bought at costume stores, and some of the pieces we already owned.


Take a look at what you'll need and see if you might already have some of these items in your home:

• Student costumes (Harry, Ron, and Hermione): White button down shirt, black pants for boys, black pleated skirt for Hermione, knee socks for Hermione, Gryffindor robe, Gryffindor tie, glasses for Harry, orange hairspray for Ron, lightning bolt drawn on Harry's forehead with eyeliner
• Hagrid costume: brown pants, red shirt, brown vest or jacket, brown belt, brown overcoat, wig and beard, boots
• Props: wands (we got these at Universal Studios), pink umbrella for Hagrid, books for Hermione (any hardbound book will do), white owl stuffed animal for Harry (also from Universal), duct tape for Ron, Quidditch book for Harry, stuffed dragon for Hagrid, keys for Hagrid

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How to Make the Perfect Wine Spritzer

If wine is your thing, but you like to change it up sometimes OR if you prefer a sweeter and colder beverage, then maybe you should consider a wine spritzer. It's the easiest drink to prepare and will have you wondering why you never gave this a try before. 

The key to a wine spritzer is to start with super-chilled wine and then add either club soda, lemon lime soda, or ginger ale.  Any one of those will do- just whatever suits your taste, but be sure to super chill them too before adding them to the mix.   Finish off with a wedge of lime to garnish a white wine spritzer or a slice of orange or a handful of frozen berries to garnish a red wine spritzer. 

The ratio is 3/4 part wine to 1/4 part mixer. 

Note: Super chilled ingredients are the key here.  Your glass should frost up on you.  That's how you know you've done it right!  Using extra COLD liquids will prevent you from having to add ice to your wine.  That's a no-no for this wine lover. You can certainly also freeze your fruit if you have the time and use it like ice cubes as well. 

Cheers!

Last Minute Trunk or Treat Decoration Ideas

So, you've signed up to participate in your local Trunk or Treat. It's this weekend, and you've already bought all of the candy you plan to hand out. Boy, you're ahead of the game!

But, you really haven't given much thought to how you're going to decorate your trunk. What?

Give these ideas a look see for some inspiration. And even if you're all set for this year, you might want to pin some for next year.

These first three were at our local Fall Festival just last weekend. 

A classic It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown theme for this trunk. The ghosts out front were tomato cages draped in white plastic table cloths and had black construction paper eye holes. Don't forget to make one with extra eye holes for Charlie Brown - he had a little trouble with the scissors! And if you wanted to dress up with the theme, it would be easy to purchase a yellow shirt from a craft store and use a black marker to draw the signature zigzag stripe on it.

This cute little blue dune buggy was dressed up like Cookie Monster. The front was draped in blue fabric and the mouth and "cookies" were cardboard. The person handing out treats at this trunk was also dressed in a sandwich board style costume made out of cardboard that looked like a big cookie. This trunk was handing out little bags of Famous Amos and Keebler cookies.

This spooky trunk was draped in spiderwebs that you can purchase from the Dollar Store. Then they hung construction paper bats and finished with a cardboard coffin and a large skeleton. It would be easy to dress as a skeleton (t-shirt or makeup) for this trunk.

Here's a great idea for an '80s Dance Party Trunk. It's bright and colorful and uses only cardboard and items you can buy at the local party store. If you're interested in dressing in a 1980's costume, check out The Harris Sisters' tips and tricks to recreate a look from the 1980's.

Kelly Sarvabui poses with her 80's Dance Party Trunk

This elaborate pirate-themed trunk looks a lot more complicated to put together than it really is. First, place a chest, box, or crate in the trunk to hold all of your "treasure" - in this case they chose all candy with gold wrappers (Snickers, Hershey's Nuggets, and Rolos). Add a toy sword and a toy chain to decorate, and add a skeleton, pirate map, lantern, and pirate banner to finish. 

Aaarrgh, Mateys! Thar be gold in this pirate themed trunk!

This Harry Potter themed trunk looks pretty easy to make. The "brick" backdrop looks to be fabric stamped with sponges dipped in red paint to create a brick pattern. Of course the brick backdrop is labeled with a 9 3/4 sign, which you could make yourself. Here's a DIY tutorial for the floating candles. And the rest is just staging with some spell books, wands, an owl, and a bird cage. Don't forget to dress like your favorite Harry Potter character!

Michelle Lunt featured this impressive Harry Potter themed trunk on her blog

You'll need to get your hands on some large appliance boxes for this one! Those will make the best skyscrapers. And other than colorful paper and paints, the only other craft item you'll need to put this together is some cotton batting. And if you want to dress like a superhero, take a look at how Harris Sister Donna's family dressed up as members of the Justice League.

Wham! This Superhero Trunk will knock your socks off!

Hope these trunks give you some inspiration for your upcoming trunk or treats!