For the first time in my 10 ½ years of parenting I actually made a homemade costume for Halloween. It kind of happened by default. At my kids’ dentist appointment at the beginning of October, the receptionist for some reason started talking about an aquarium costume she’d seen that she thought was cool. It was made out of a box. The idea and vision stuck in my head.

As Halloween approached, Sonny expressed no interest in a Halloween costume. He even said he might not go trick-or-treating, that he was getting too old. He said he would maybe just stay home and help his grandmother pass out candy at our house.

Halloween is big at my kids’ school. He needed a costume. In the morning, they have a Halloween parade with all kids in their costumes. There are always several amazingly creative homemade costumes. Awards are given out by the student council in a variety of categories. My kids have never been close to winning any kind of award. Their costumes have always been store bought and shown little creativity. I’ve always admired the many creative, homemade costumes and thought, “Wouldn’t it be fun to actually make a costume one year?”

This year I did it. I googled this aquarium box costume idea and got some ideas of how to start. It turned out I had practically all the necessary supplies already. We recently moved so we had a ton of boxes from which to choose. From being a teacher and a person who has a hard time throwing away potentially-useful-in-the-future toys, I also already had a good collection of plastic, aquarium-themed toys. I had a glue gun and even spare glue sticks, black spray paint, and funky blue cellophane. All I needed to buy was some aquarium greenery. “I can do this,” I thought to myself.

We didn’t win an award at school for the aquarium, but both he and I were proud of our creation. We saw no other aquariums which was fun, and we got some praise. That was enough for us.

Coincidentally, Doobie and a friend did win an award this year. They were given an award for Best Pair dressed in matching morph suits.

Sonny did eventually agree to go trick-or-treating with us. For the evening, I added an extra touch to the aquarium which made a huge difference since it was dark and it would have been hard to see the aquarium scene. I attached glow sticks around the edges of the box opening. It looked like a lit aquarium scene. It attracted a lot of attention along our route. It was pretty cool, if I may so say myself. My tween was happy with his Halloween.