Toddler's kissing booth Halloween costume melts hearts everywhere
Courtney and Hyrum Gray, of Austin, Texas, own and operate a company selling kids’ decor and play items, so you’d better believe the pressure is on when it comes to bringing imagination to life around Halloween time. This year, Hyrum totally nailed it with the costume for Madden, now two and a half, the youngest of their three children. He turned the walker his son uses into an old-fashioned kissing booth.
“Last year, he had barely gotten his walker, and we were trying to think of ways to include it into his costume, so he was an old man, and my wife was an old woman,” Hyrum tells Yahoo Lifestyle. “This year, we wanted to do something again to integrate his walker. He’s just a special little boy, and everybody loves and adores him, so it just popped into our head to do a kissing booth.”
Madden was the hit of the party #boxtumes #specialneeds
A post shared by Madden Hyrum (@maddenhyrum) on Oct 25, 2017 at 7:02pm PDT
Madden has a developmental disability that leaves him unable to speak, but he’s wearing a look of pure joy in the Instagram stories his parents uploaded showing him getting into the booth for the first time.
Judging by the Grays’ previous Halloween costumes, creativity is a family affair. It’s also good for their business, Tnee’s Tpees, which makes fabric play tents, faux fur rugs, and other Instagram-worthy accessories for kids.
A post shared by Tnee's Tpees ? (@tnees_tpees) on Oct 19, 2017 at 1:32pm PDT
“Our business is based off of social media, so we’re always looking for the next little idea to take a good picture and get good engagement and excite our followers,” Hyrum says. They made their kids’ costumes early this year to attend their church’s “trunk or treat” party, which took place in the parking lot, an ideal place for Madden to use his walker.
“Everybody came up and … asked, ‘Can I give him a kiss?'” Hyrum said. “Lucky [for them] he was handing them out for free. We could have made tons of money!”
Other parents have made creative use of their children’s walkers and wheelchairs to make elaborate and clever Halloween costumes for their kids.
One little boy’s parents turned his wheelchair into an amazing dragon he could ride, and the boy himself became Harry Potter.
A post shared by Sam vs. VWM (@samvsvwm) on Oct 23, 2017 at 2:10pm PDT
Another little boy became Han Solo, his walker turning into the Millennium Falcon.
Another family, the Weimers, got so into making their kids’ wheelchair costumes, they decided to turn their hobby into the nonprofit, Magic Wheelchair. Their recent Justice League creations debuted at San Diego Comic-Con, giving all other would-be heroes a run for their money.
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