Yahoo Parenting

Kids' 31 Halloween Looks in 31 Days, by Mom, Are Amazing

Beth GreenfieldSenior Editor

Updated Fri, October 31, 2014 at 11:24 AM UTC

Effie Trinket — Transforming Darla into the “Hunger Games” District 12 escort was not as hard as it may look, explains Kontoes. “I just used a few things,” she says, noting that they included her own vintage dress held in place with some rubber bands, scrunched-up plastic bags to puff up the sleeves, a fake flower from Michaels (and some real ones snatched out of a vase), and makeup.
Jackie Kontoes

The Neverland Crew — Tinkerbell, Mr. Smee, and Captain Hook represented a post from earlier this week. “We’ve seen the kids become more creative because of this [project],” Kontoes says. “My daughter has become great at finding unconventional items for playing dress-up.” And the twins have picked up sewing-machine basics from mom.
Jackie Kontoes

'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' — Augustus Gloop, Veruca Salt and Mike Teevee got a vintage filter recently. “We show them the old movie or TV episode before getting dressed,” Kontoes says. “They get the humor.”
Jackie Kontoes

'Raiders of the Lost Ark' — Dexter and Johnny were Indiana Jones and Sallah, characters in the 1981 flick. Next month, Kontoes aims to dress the kids up on Saturdays as folks from vintage “Saturday Night Live” skits, and as sitcom characters on Sundays, making more good use of Johnny’s 2-year-old physique. “He pulls of a good Chris Farley with his baby belly,” she notes.
Jackie Kontoes

Laurel and Hardy — “I want to do a slide show on Instagram of all the outtakes,” Kontoes says. “Johnny will have 15 hilarious pictures in a row.”
Jackie Kontoes

Lady Gaga — “I got a yard of red lace and sewed it into a quick dress shape, then spray painted some cardboard. That one was fast. The babysitter was here looking at me, like, what are you doing?” Kontoes recalls. She added a hair extension and voilà, Gaga.
Jackie Kontoes

Wizard of Oz — Glinda the Good Witch and her Lollipop Guild made a perfect group costume.
Jackie Kontoes

'The Black Swan' — This, Kontoes says, has been one of her favorites so far. “I was so amazed at her, she was so serious,” she says of Darla. “She takes ballet and did some great poses, and is very detail-oriented, telling me, ‘No, the black needs to go higher on the eye.’ I was like, oh, okay!”
Jackie Kontoes

'Back to the Future' — The boys became characters in the 1985 classic pretty quickly. “I just teased and sprayed the hair and they wore their own clothes, kind of manipulated a little bit,” Kontoes says. On this day’s Instagram post, she notes, “I pick the best pic when kids are sleeping at night and then I put a cheesy filter on it. I don’t know anything about photography. We just fake it.”
Jackie Kontoes

Wayne and Garth — Making good use of hairspray, Kontoes doubled up and did two looks in a day, going from “Back to the Future” to this Wayne-and-Garth look from “Wayne’s World” in a back-to-back throwback session. Party on.
Jackie Kontoes

Sloth from 'The Goonies' — This was among the simplest to piece together, Kontoes notes: She simply cut off the sleeves of Johnny’s PJs, ratted his hair, stuck some cotton balls behind his ears to make them stick out, and jammed a Baby Ruth in his waistband. The face was all his.
Jackie Kontoes

'The Little Rascals' — Spanky, Alfalfa, and Darla echoed Kontoes’s love of all things vintage. “We even theme dress when we travel,” she says, adding that when they drove around the country last June, they wore “shimmery clothes” to Graceland and Mount Rushmore T-shirts to the South Dakota landmark. “We like to go to Dapper Day at Disneyland, too,” she says, referring to the theme park’s major dress-up event. “We do it pure vintage.”
Jackie Kontoes

Effie Trinket

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Transforming Darla into the “Hunger Games” District 12 escort was not as hard as it may look, explains Kontoes. “I just used a few things,” she says, noting that they included her own vintage dress held in place with some rubber bands, scrunched-up plastic bags to puff up the sleeves, a fake flower from Michaels (and some real ones snatched out of a vase), and makeup.

Jackie Kontoes

If seeing photos of kids in brilliantly clever, homemade Halloween costumes fills you with fears of parental inadequacy, then look away now! (And maybe get some therapy while you’re at it…) But the whimsical creations of Jackie Kontoes, Boston mother of three, are meant only to amuse and inspire, and most were thrown together with just a few items, in an average of 30 minutes a day. The enterprising stay-at-home mom and former fashion student has managed to turn out spot-on pop culture–inspired getups for her kids, 2-year-old Johnny and 5-year-old twins Dexter and Darla, every single day this month, posting the amazing photo evidence to her Instagram page along the way.

“All through the year, I would think of something funny and then jot it down, so I have a long list of ideas,” Kontoes tells Yahoo Parenting. She adds that many of the characters she and her husband Chris, an oceanographer, have come up with were inspired by old movies and TV shows, plus their children’s hammy talents of mimicry, both purposeful and accidental. “We’ve been calling Johnny ‘Augustus Gloop’ forever,” she says with a laugh, referring to the gluttonous rule breaker in “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” For each idea, she adds, they’d show the children an original clip of the characters, and the little ones would take on expressions and postures so accurately during photo shoots that mom and dad would be crying from laughter. “I like the idea of getting into character,” says Kontoes, who dressed as Cher to her husband’s Sonny for a Halloween karaoke party recently. “You always act a little different. And it makes the spirit of an event more fun.”

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Effie Trinket

The Neverland Crew

'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'

'Raiders of the Lost Ark'

Laurel and Hardy

Lady Gaga

Wizard of Oz

'The Black Swan'

'Back to the Future'

Wayne and Garth

Sloth from 'The Goonies'

'The Little Rascals'

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