With Halloween approaching, mothers across the country are beginning to<a title="Halloween_Costumes" href="http://www.cnbc.com/id/44788550/?slide=1" target="_blank"> think of costumes</a>. Estimates are that American parents will spend <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/id/44788550/?slide=1" target="_blank">one billion dollars</a> on Halloween costumes this year.

[caption id="attachment_154" align="alignleft" width="199" caption="Three Year Old Spiderman"]<a href="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/spiderman.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-154 " title="spiderman" src="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/spiderman-249x300.jpg" alt="" width="199" height="240" /></a>[/caption]

Some well-prepared parents have already bought costumes for their children. Unfortunately buying ahead does not guarantee that your child will still want to wear that costume on Halloween.

Some creative seamstress-mothers are planning to sew up some costumes. And the well-prepared-seamstress-mamas have already finished sewing the costumes. We truly hope, for those mothers' sakes, that their children will still be willing to wear those costumes on October 31.

And some mothers out there are stressed-out about their children's Halloween costumes.

[caption id="attachment_167" align="alignleft" width="235" caption="Amanda, Matthew and Josh"]<a href="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/halloween_costume1.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-167" title="halloween_costume" src="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/halloween_costume1-300x211.jpg" alt="" width="235" height="166" /></a>[/caption]

I was never good at arranging my children's Halloween costumes ahead of time. In part because I am a spur-of-the-moment person. And in part because my children could never make up their minds.

I remember the year that Andrew couldn’t decide between being a cowboy and being a clown. He facilated back and forth, for three or four days he'd be sure he wanted to be a clown.  Then the next few days, he'd have decided on the cowboy costume.

[caption id="attachment_151" align="alignright" width="219" caption="Andrew as a Cowboy Clown"]<a href="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Andrew_cowboy_clown.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-151 " title="Andrew_cowboy_clown" src="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Andrew_cowboy_clown-274x300.jpg" alt="" width="219" height="240" /></a>[/caption]

In the end he decided on being a cowboy clown.

Whatever the final decision, we never had a lot of money to spend on costumes for five children. I quickly discovered that my children never felt cheated, never ever seemed to even mind, that they didn’t get a pre-made commercial costume. We always had so much fun creating costumes from scratch. Or, at least, almost from scratch.

[caption id="attachment_149" align="alignleft" width="243" caption="Benjamin as a happy witch"]<a href="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Benj_halloween_2.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-149" title="Benj_halloween_2" src="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Benj_halloween_2-243x300.jpg" alt="" width="243" height="300" /></a>[/caption]

The year Benjamin dressed up as a witch, he wore one of his Dad’s black t-shirts, a one-dollar black witch hat and carried a broom we’d gotten for a quarter at a yard sale. The broom had originally been a Christmas decoration, with a bow and bells on it. We easily removed the red decor, and, voila, a perfect witch's broom.

My children were intrigued that I had been able to see a potential Halloween broom in a Christmas decoration. They began to see yard sale items in a different light after that.

<a href="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Benj_Halloween1.jpg"><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-150" title="Benj_Halloween" src="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Benj_Halloween1-166x300.jpg" alt="" width="166" height="300" /></a>But Benjamin's favorite costume was the football outfit that was handed down to him from his cousin Josh. Benjamin idolized Josh and had enjoyed watching Josh play football in that outfit. He was in seventh heaven to be able to wear that for Halloween several years later. And, of course, it became a favorite dress-up item long after October was over.

Halloween costumes became a fun and creative adventure with my children.  What could we find at yard sales that we could turn into parts of costumes or props to go with costumes? And what could we find around the house that would fit into the picture?

Superman pajamas worked as a superman outfit for my nephew Josh one year.  And then he wore them for months as his favorite pajamas.

[caption id="attachment_152" align="alignright" width="187" caption="Josh in his Superman Pajamas, with the famous red cape"]<a href="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Josh_Halloween.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-152" title="Josh_Halloween" src="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Josh_Halloween-187x300.jpg" alt="" width="187" height="300" /></a>[/caption]

My mother sat down one day and made red capes for the three grandsons: my Andrew and Matthew and my nephew Josh, who were within 18 months of each other.  My children got YEARS of play out of those capes.  Josh wore his red cape with the superman pajamas.

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I am now long past the days of choosing Halloween costumes for my children.  But each year, as the director of a mother's morning out program, I get to see what children are wearing for Halloween.  One of my favorite costumes of recent years was the little girl, the fourth child in her family, who came to the Halloween party dressed as "Thing Four."

[caption id="attachment_155" align="alignleft" width="249" caption="Thing Four - What a cutie!"]<a href="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Lucy_Thing_4.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-155" title="Lucy_Thing_4" src="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Lucy_Thing_4-300x259.jpg" alt="" width="249" height="215" /></a>[/caption]

Her costume was a one-piece outfit, with a felt circle on which her mom had written THING 4.  The felt circle was loosely stitched onto the outfit so that the circle could easily be removed and the outfit return to regular use. Then a can of hair paint had turned her hair bright blue.  Cost of the Halloween costume? Fifty cents for the white felt and $2 for the can of spray hair color.