So when Matt and I were talking about what Luke should be for Halloween it really wasn't much discussion. We knew he'd be a jet ski of some sort. A friend offered a Yoda costume and hence his "Yoda on a jet ski" costume was born.
Now, you might be asking yourself? What do Yoda and a jet ski have in common? They are both awesome. That is reason enough to be both at Halloween! Also, Yoda = rather topical with the new Star Wars movie and everything and jet ski = family favorite + a chance to personalize a costume. So, win win win.
We had a Yoda costume and then came the "making a jet ski" costume part. I'll admit, I left this entirely up to Matt. I am definitely not the crafty/handy one in our relationship. I mean, I can hold my own with basic stuff and I'm pretty good with copying things but I'm not the one to excel at "building a mini jet ski out of random things laying around the house".
So, basically my big contribution to this costume was...having a friend with a Yoda costume and saying "Yeah! That looks good!" when asked. It was a really tough role. Matt spent many hours constructing this things over the course of about 4 days. He is also more the "leave things to the last minute" type than I am (although, he did admit he should have started way sooner). His original plan was to make it out of cardboard and to have Luke wear it with some suspender like thing. That was still the plan the Wednesday before Halloween when I bought stuffing to make fake Yoda legs so his real legs could walk the jet ski. (Now I have stuffing to return.)
Then Matt started building it, didn't like where it was going, and decided to build a frame out of scrap wood. Well, that quickly became too heavy for Luke to carry around and Matt decided if he was going to make a jet ski, might as well be something Luke could use after Halloween. So now Luke has a ride-able jet ski.
Here is what I can tell you about the materials used:
-scrap wood
-scrap cardboard
-styrofoam packing brought home from work (it was trash bound, fine to take)
-leftover waterproof vinyl from recovering our actual jet ski seats
-leftover padding from my bench projects (here and here)
-a piece from our old garage door (to connect the push pole)
-the handle from our old grill (for the jet ski handles)
-PVC pipe leftover
-wheels (the only things purchased for this! From Harbor Freight)
-door pull from our old bathroom cabinet
-a hinge from some unknown project/the type of thing Matt has just laying around
The jet ski features a removable seat (just like our real jet ski), perfect for storing toy dinosaurs or Luke's sippy cup. It also has a compartment between the seat and handles, just like the real one. Perfect for stashing sunglasses (real jet ski) or candy (costume jet ski). There is a bar that can attach in the back for pushing, made to look like the "rooster tail" water some jet skis throw up (but not our real one). The handles turn but don't control the wheels at all but that's fine. Luke is generally pretty happy just sitting on it.
The last two years we haven't done the traditional trick-or-treat, but instead drive around to a bunch of people we know. I don't think Luke needs a lot of candy (my candy loving husband might not agree) and if we're going to show off our cute kid, I'd rather it be to people we know. So we stopped at Matt's sister's, then one of his brother's, my aunt's, my cousin's, my sister's, and my parents'. That sounds like a lot of my family but we did see most of Matt's siblings, his parents, and a lot of Luke's cousins at his sister's house. Unloading and reloading the jet ski at every stop wasn't the easiest but Luke's absolute joy and excitement was worth it. He was so happy all night showing off his jet ski.
Now to top it next year...we already have some ideas...
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