costumes make me crazy

I tend to be a last minute costume person when it comes to Halloween. This year, I headed out at the beginning of October determined to find something decent for the boys to wear. And then I saw the price. Thirty dollars for a preschooler's costume! There were even a couple for $40. I couldn't do it. I just couldn't spend that much money for something that they will only wear one time.
I went home discouraged and started looking online for costumes that I could make for the kids. So many great ideas out there! And so out of my comfort zone. Spray paint? A hot glue gun? Measuring and cutting? I just couldn't work up the energy to do it.
And so I found myself running to Target today to look for costumes, hoping that they would be on sale since it is Halloween day. No such luck. The costumes were still outrageously priced, at least by my standards. Plus, a lot of them seemed really inappropriate for preschoolers. Like this one:

 

 

Seriously!?! Who thinks it's a good idea to dress a three year old up as a demonic devil? What happened to being a fireman or a cowboy? It is so hard to find generic costumes. It's either really scary stuff or characters from tv shows.
Luckily, we were given one hand-me-down costume that fit Jem and I found a generic super hero costume for $10. It just had a vest, cape and mask but Truett was happy with it once he realized that I really wasn't going to buy him a sword and stopped screaming at me.
I think that I'm going to change tactics for next year. I'll head out this weekend and pick up some costumes once they are on sale. Or I'll find a crafty friend and pay her to make some for me. Or I'll just pray that they don't grow at all and still fit into their costumes from this year. Given my pattern, it will probably end up being option three but if I was being smart I would go with option one.