Halloween 2013: box costumes for Jude and Caroline

Long gone are the days when I can dictate what Jude will be for Halloween. For months, he has asked if he could be an astronaut. Together we looked at NASA jumpers online, and very early on he settled on the white one from Target.com (vs. the orange one from Pottery Barn, which is great because I thought that one read a little too "Orange is the New Black", if ya' know what I mean). When the costume arrived, he said, "Thank you, but where is my helmet? And boots? And rocket?" Ungrateful little... er... just kidding. He was right! What's an astronaut without a rocket and boots and a helmet? I had two days to scramble to complete his vision. Using a few household odds and ends, he told me I nailed it, and Jude was the talk of the office at Chris' work:

Caroline, on the other hand, is still at my mercy when it comes to her Halloween costumes. Give it up for no verbal opinions, just yet! Inspired by her birthday present (twinsies!), I decided dictated that she would be a Cabbage Patch Kid for Halloween. Unfortunately, during our three weeks of wig wearing dry runs, she would not keep that blasted yarn wig on her head (if she could talk, she might say, "Is this a Little Hip Squeaks headband? No? Okay, then. I'm not wearing it!"). Since she couldn't possibly be recognized as a Cabbage Patch Kid without the wig, I hastily decided Caroline should have a box costume, too. Thankfully my friend Jena stayed after city group on Tuesday and cut out a doll box to fit around her umbrella stroller:
This doll is a little too life like. Her diaper has to be changed like all the time and she will not stop eating...

I hope y'all had a Happy Halloween! I have no idea how I can top this with Kid #3 in tow in 2014. Any ideas?

If you're curious how I executed these costumes, here's some rough, off the cuff, instructions:

Please note: If I give your kid a drum set, it doesn't mean I hate you

You know you're giving bad gifts to kids when the parents donate them to the church shortly after their kid's birthday. Pre-parenthood, this happened to Chris and me... twice. We once bought a drum set for a one year old. We thought it was so cool that we bought the same drum set for a different one year old. Lo and behold, both of these drum sets ended up being given away. Oops.

Now that we've spawned (and spawned again), have we realized our mistake? No, friends, no we have not. We are slowly building up an arsenal of raucous things for Jude and his sister to bang on. My house in the afternoon sounds like what I imagine The Polypohic Spree would sound like if everyone in the band were... you know... uncoordinated toddlers.

Yet I still detest toys that take batteries or plastic toys with blinking lights, and I have no plans to ever let Jude tinker around on my phone or iPad (but ask me again after our trip to Florida! Ha!). However, I love watching Jude strum his ukelele and shake his maracas, or even use his maracas to bang on the ukelele. We recently got him a glockenspiel, and I swear could listen to him bang on that all day. I was able to record part of his first meeting with his little xylophone. He can't play "Don't Stop Believing" yet, but give him a couple months:

So do musical instruments make good gifts for toddlers? I suppose it depends on the parents, but in this household, a drum set would never be frowned upon... at least between the hours of 8am and 7pm.

Since I'm in full-on collage mode (see yesterday), here's some other instruments that are great for toddlers: