The force is with me

I am quite impressed with myself at the moment.

I completed the boys' Halloween costume hunt a full month before Halloween! This is highly unusual for me, as I'm usually scrambling at the last minute. After all, I'm the mom who gets holiday cards out super late - as in January/February ("They're Lunar New Year cards!"). Last year, I didn't have to worry about Halloween costumes since Auntie Linda provided Nico's Iron Man costume and Nolan wore Nico's hand-me-down giraffe outfit.

This year's hunt for Halloween costumes started a few weeks ago. I had set up a recurring annual reminder on my Google calendar to "begin researching Halloween costumes" on September 1. So when my reminder triggered, I asked Nico what he wanted to be this year. Our conversation went like this:

Me: Why don't you and Nolan go as Transformers? You could dress as Optimus Prime and Nolan could be Megatron!
Nico: But Optimus Prime and Megatron are enemies.
Me: I know, but they're brothers.
Nico: But they're enemies.
Me: I know. That's what makes it funny.
Nico: Why is that funny? Nolan's not my enemy. I'm going to be Darth Vader.
Me: Then maybe Nolan should be Luke Skywalker?
Nico: What? That makes no sense! Nolan's not my son. I'm not his dad.

We flirted with a number of other dual costume ideas - Batman/Robin, Darth Vader/stormtrooper, black-costumed Spiderman/red-costumed Spiderman - but ultimately settled on Nico going as Darth Vader and Nolan going as an Ewok. If I go trick-or-treating with the boys, I'll be Chewbacca, of course.

I then did a bit of research and found out that a full Darth Vader costume cost around $70. No freaking way. That's not even including the light saber! Of course, there are less expensive versions starting at around $20, but knowing Nico, they would be unacceptable.

So I posted my Facebook status as:
[Lisa is] is trying to find a reasonably priced size 6-8 kids' Darth Vader costume and size 18-24 month Ewok costume. My life is incredibly exciting.

Next thing you know, I had 11 comments, ranging from "Holy cow, you're already thinking Halloween" to "A *real* dedicated Mom would sew the costumes from scratch. I'm just sayin'...."

I had procured a fantastic Halloween costume through eBay years ago, so I decided to try that route. In the next few days, I lost seven auctions. But then I won two. Voila, we now have a gently used children's Darth Vader Halloween costume, replete with full bodysuit and shoe covers, belt, helmet-mask and light saber. We also have a new toddler Ewok costume.

I can only hope to be this organized for the winter holiday season.