Halloween Costumes Unveiled!

Now that we've been seen in public, it is officially okay to reveal our top-secret, home-made, family Halloween costumes! You already saw The Frog's finished vest and the behind the scene makings of his hat, and Jay's costume didn't take more than probably an hour to complete (because I cheated and bought overalls. Like I'm going to attempt those when they're pretty cheap at Walmart) but mine was quite an ordeal. A fun ordeal, but an ordeal nevertheless. Here is the before picture of my "dress", i.e. a 100% polyester "nighty robe" , straight from the DI- $5.
And after I shortened the sleeves by about 5 inches, took in a LOT of fabric around the waist (in about 7 darts/seams), I removed the ties, unpicked them and added them to the new front of the skirt (in my finished product, I wear the robe backwards), sew on some hooks, a hem, collar, a waist thingy (do those have a name?), and a turquoise (plastic) "gem" (can you tell what I am yet?) you get...
Voila! The finished product (Jay and I together)! Can you tell what we are?
The gloves and crown are from Zurchers, though I had to add the "jewel" embellishments to the crown (Dollar Tree). Here's the back of my dress, for those of you who are interested...
We really really really wanted a good family shot, but The Frog would NOT cooperate... Here is the best one we got (at least we're all looking at the camera.) As you can see, we had to hold The Frog's hands down so he wouldn't try to remove his hat. As you can see, he is not pleased.
Andy (Lindsay's Andy) managed to get this cute shot of him. The Frog is too busy with the amazing broom to bother with removing his Toadstool hat.
Why did we put so much effort into these costumes you ask? Why, for my elder brother John's annual Halloween party! And ooooh man, did they put a lot of time and effort into it. Their house looked like a completely different place! They made it look like their walls were old wood with peeling wrapping paper, they put up a creepy "cast-iron" fence in their front yard, complete with jack 'o lanterns and graveyard, there were strategically placed little mice "running around" (black mouse silhouettes complete with mouse hole) appropriate spider-webs, funky colored fire in the fireplace, furniture covered in white sheets... the place looked like an abandoned mansion (though, I felt a lot more welcome than I probably would have at an abandoned mansion). Anyway, they put a LOT of work into it and it looked AMAZING. I wish I had taken more time to take pictures of the details, but there's something about the combination between lots of food, and watching The Frog where that never seems to happen. I did manage a couple though:

Here's my sister-in-law and baby S. Can you tell what they are? I think it's too bad that my brother didn't go as a king to put him together again ;)
And here are the cousins sitting together. I took dozens of shots of them in this position and this is the best one... still not awesome. Baby S was trying to grab The Frog's hat the whole time, and The Frog didn't know what to make of the whole situation. In the end, he decided to rip off his hat (as usual).
All in all, it was so fun making the costumes and seeing friends and family at an amazingly well-planned out Halloween party. I can't wait for next year. Any costume ideas?