DIY Halloween adventure with my teenager daughter

Halloween has never been a day during the year that I look forward too. I don’t like the stress of zipping around town trying to catch all the trunk-or-treat locations and the busy neighborhoods with all the other ghouls and goblins. I’m just not a fan of the early darkness with all the children in the streets, the knife-wielding adults that are too old to be walking around with a candy bag, or the kids bloody and scary horror-themed masks. I’m not as bad as Ebenezer Scrooge was when it came to Christmas, but I’ve always been fairly ho-hum when it comes to Halloween, until this year.

Now, I want to get this straight, I’m no mom-blogger that has all these fancy Pinterest-like posts to share how to make the most incredible do-it-yourself Halloween costume. In fact, I don’t have a Pinterest account or know how to make this DIY post look all official with “ingredients” and numbered steps. I’m a dad that loves hanging out with his kids and found myself having a great time with my teenage daughter, Hannah, making her “Holy Cow” Halloween costume.

Holy Cow

Last Friday night, while the younger kiddos were at a birthday party, Hannah and I had less than two hours to hustle from store to store finding the items she needed to put together her costume.

First, we had to get some food. Hannah and I have this propensity to get a little hangry when we need food in our bellies. She wanted orange chicken from one of our favorite Chinese restaurants. I had mixed veggies and fried rice. It was so yummy.

After dinner, we went to the Goodwill store to find some things or see what they had that may work for the costume. We walked out with a large white tee-shirt and a black tee-shirt to cut up for the cow spots. Finding nothing else that caught our eye it was time to move on. We spent $3.60 on the tee-shirts at Goodwill.

With the tee-shirts in hand, we still needed a halo and angel wings. We made a quick dash to K-mart and came up short, finding nothing that would work. We did find some wings that could have worked, but they were $20, were black and red, and didn’t feel very angelic for a holy cow. Hannah thought we could spray paint them white but we decided it wasn’t worth it and moved on. It was 7 o’clock, we had to hurry so we could pick Christopher and Julia up at 8.

Our next stop was Michael’s. Still in need of a halo and angel wings, we explored every aisle trying to find those perfect components that would work. The Christmas decorations looked promising but too expensive and nothing suited what we were looking for. Luckily, we came across the foam boards, perfect for two angel wings. We left Michael’s with tacky glue for the cow spots, a gold metal head band to support the halo and pipe cleaners to complete the halo. We spent $8.40 at Michael’s. We realized we still needed a few items to make the wings more glittery and angelic. We headed over to Walmart.

The time was 7:30, meaning only 30 minutes to finish at Walmart and get across town to pick up the kiddos. Up against the clock, it kind of felt like Hannah and I were in the Amazing Race.

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At Walmart, we found exactly what we needed and at an incredible price. We bought 15 feet of gold tinsel to line the wings and two elastic head bands to hold the wings to Hannah’s shoulders. We spent $1.90, and made it out in time to pick up Christopher and Julia by 8 o’clock.

After spending $13.90 on the components in less than two hours of running around town, it was time to put it all together.

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Hannah did most of the work, but Julia and I helped cut out spots from the black tee-shirt and glue them to the white tee-shirt. Hannah did a great job carving out wings from the foam board. She and I glued the tinsel around the edges to make them heavenly and angelic. We joined the wings together with Gorilla tape and Hannah punched holes in the wings for the elastic head bands. Hannah shredded the pipe cleaners onto the wings to add a glittery effect.

The final thing needed was the halo. Hannah used the pipe cleaners, twisting, shaping and then attaching them to the metal head band for the perfect halo.

The complete DIY shirt with cow spots, wings and a halo, to go along with black tights that Hannah already had, and we had made the perfect Holy Cow. I’m so proud of Hannah for her creativity and the time we could spend together laughing, joking, and working together to figure out how to make a Holy Cow.

For $13.90 and a incredibly fun time with my teenage daughter, I believe I may be able to buy into this Halloween stuff. Next year, I’m going to plan early and see what other creative DIY Halloween ideas we can come up with and do together.

Happy Halloween.