COWABUNGA DUDES
What started out as just a fun T-shirt her dad would wear to bed, turned into a mini obsession right before Halloween. Waylin has been enjoying watching the ninja turtles, especially the old school cartoon + movie.
We own one of those old bubble TV with a built in VHS tape deck. The kind that substitute teachers would roll into the classroom on a big cart signifying a “chill day” in class. I believe it came from Ben’s Grandma Hopper. Ben had one of the original Ninja Turtle movies and we’ve watched it a couple of times. DEFINITELY a classic!
Now, I have to tell you I was very surprised to hear her say “ninja turtles’ when I asked her what she wanted to be for Halloween. Mind you, this girl has already come up with the craziest combination of Halloween costumes that always has me reaching deep down into my brain to pull off!
Let’s recap the past few years! She has asked to be:
Rainbow Vampire (2022)
Rainbow Turtle Ghost (2023)
Rainbow Mermaid Skeleton Bat (2024)
Rainbow Jellyfish Bat (2025)
Many times, Ben asked me if I just wanted to buy a ninja costume from Walmart, but I just cannot. I am a “homemade—ish” mom. I like to make her costume and gather pieces to pull it all together. Would buying a $30 costume kit been cheaper, perhaps. But, I am a maker, and enjoy the process of figuring it all out. Out of all the memories I have with my own mother, her making my Xena costume one year always stays with me because she was sewing it even up until the minute we had to head out the door to trick or treat.
So, we started our journey to try to make a ninja turtle costume. You wouldn’t believe it, but on Waylin’s birthday, we went to Goodwill and she happened to reach up on a shelf and found THIS TURTLE MASK! It was only $2! We both jumped up and down dancing because we were SO EXCITED!
I bought her a sweatshirt + sweatpant combo for the base of the costume from Amazon. I ended up ordering two because we weren’t sure which route we were going to go. But, we ended up going with an outfit that she can rewear at school and not feel “boyish” as she called the other set, so the base of the outfit was done!
I had also bought a backpack knife set that I found at the Dollar Store (which is no longer “the dollar store”). It isn’t even “the $1.25 store”…now everything is random prices throughout the store, so I spent $5 on this knife kit knowing that it was going help us be able to have the “turtle weapons” without having to carry them around in her hands on Halloween.
Next, was the shell. It took me awhile to brainstorm what I wanted to do. I originally thought I would use cardboard or something similar to the turtle shell I made out of a roasting pan for the Rainbow Turtle Ghost costume I made in the past. I wanted to challenge myself to make something different.
Cue a stroll past this little end cap at Hobby Lobby:
It’s a wall hanging basket which is used in a lot of boho home decor. It was perfect as it was light, had a good size shape and even had string to hang it! I was pretty happy with this idea!
I grabbed some foam sheets in different greens + browns to cut out a pattern to glue onto the wall basket. This is about the time where I was overthinking what I was doing and decided to just go for it. I added stacks of the shell pieces to make it a little more 3D than just a flat shell.
The last piece to the costume was creating “the chest” of the turtle which is always classically a yellow beefy 6-pack of pectorals and ab muscles. I used some yellow fabric I found at Hobby Lobby and wrapped it around cardboard pieces to give the chest some dimension. Hot glue everything to the foam background to keep everything she’s wearing as light as possible!
Waylin helped make the belt out of some leather ribbon and even drew the “L” on the belt herself!
I was pretty happy with how it all turned out and honestly even Ben told me he liked my costume. Compliments from him mean a lot to me, especially when I make things! I’m glad I didn’t just go buy her costume…I’ll forever be a homemade-ish mom!
Happy Halloween, dudes!
