Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Colossians 3:15.

I am wanting to memorize this verse as a family this month. I love how the first part is so in depth, it’s talking about ruling, which makes me think of domination and power and strength, but it’s done in peace which seems so contradictory to the world’s view of ruling or power and strength. Then we get into the members of the body of Christ all getting along and that’s a whole other topic! It’s kind of weighty and complex, but then there is this little snippet at the end of the verse which adds “and be thankful”. Almost every version I looked up had it as a second sentence or at least had a semicolon. So we have two separate statements happening here. I picture this verse like me lecturing my kids, going on and on and then taking a breath and adding “and be thankful”. It’s that simple.

 

While I know it’s cliche to do a thankfulness series in November, I’m doing it anyway. For the next 30 days I will share something that I am thankful for.

 

Since October is a big month for costumes I thought I would use this as an excuse to post my kids’ costumes and share how I was able to have all four kids dressed up for less than two dollars!

 

So for my first thankfulness inspired entry, I am thankful for affordable costumes!

 

Z’s costume was a nerd/smarty pants.

 

This picture was for a school party. When we went out last night he had tape on the glasses and dressy shoes. We owned all of these items except the smarties which I got at the dollar store.

Next up, SJ was a box of donuts. This costume was a hand-me-down from a friend. The chef hat came with an apron she got several years ago for Christmas.

What is especially fun about this costume is that some of the donuts are velcro. So it’s like a toy that can be used with other play food or you can wear it. That makes it all the more frugal when it’s multifunctional.

Ezie costume was borrowed from a friend. I could have had him wear something that was Zion’s from years past but he has done that a lot so I wanted to give him a chance to be his own thing.

These LEGO costumes are so popular for boys right now and I can see why. They make you look just like a real human LEGO!

 

Finally, we have the little bumble bee. I found this costume a week ago for 90% off at Once Upon a Child so it was 80 cents. It was a little frayed and didn’t come with antenea or leggings, but did I mention it was less than a dollar?

 

Elle was with me when I bought it and she’s the one that picked it out. I stuck a yellow flower hair tie in her hair and voila!

 

The truth is I don’t like Halloween. Our neighbors go all out with creepy decorations and this year they actually had a skeleton sitting on a bench cradling the skeleton of what looked like would be a toddler or a small child wrapped in a bloody blanket. I wanted to throw up every time I drove past it which was multiple times a day.

I like the idea of celebrating Reformation Day and talking to the kids about who Martin Luther is and what the Reformation is all about. This is also a great opportunity to talk about fear, darkness, and death. Not the topics I am most excited about but when you shine the truth and light of God’s word on it it’s pretty exciting to see how we’ve been redeemed.

Bottom line, I love costumes. I think they are cute and fun and really healthy for the kids to use their imaginations and dream. We play with costumes year round and half of our birthday parties include dressing up! Speaking of which, Elle’s birthday party is in two weeks and we’ll be doing princess costumes.

I’ve written about costumes before and how I have a really nice stash which we accumulated at a low cost. All of those ideas are in the post “10 Ways to Save Money on Your Costume Stash.” I’ve got a lot more cute photos over there. You’ll see how much I love costumes and that’s why day one of thankfulness is “Costumes on the Cheap”.