Throw-back Thursday: Halloween

When my child was three, we asked her what she wanted to be for Halloween.
"A toothbrush." was her reply.  "A toothbrush? Really?  You don't want to be a princess? Or a monkey? Or something spooky?  Or..."
"Nope.  I want to be a toothbrush.  Daddy, can you make me a toothbrush costume?"

We asked her every day for weeks if she really and truly wanted to be a toothbrush...and also, why?

"Yes!  Please!  A purple toothbrush! "
"Because it will be neat!"

And it was:

My husband, who is apparently the source of my child's blend of weird and creative set about to create the perfect toothbrush costume.  The body of the costume is your basic toddler sweat shirt/sweat pants combo.  He PAINSTAKINGLY cut iron-on felt into the appropriate shapes to be the rubber grip and the "Reach" logo.
For the head of the toothbrush, he started with a shoe box.  The back of the toothbrush is the lid of the box.  He just trimmed the box and the lid to have angles and cut a hole out for her face.  He painted the box white and the lid purple.
Then, he bought some whisk brooms and dismantled them.  With a blow torch, he melted bundles of whisk broom plastic straws together...then he spray painted some of them blue...to indicate when you're supposed to replace your toothbrush, apparently.
For the Pièce de résistance he bought a tube of toothpaste, squirted all of the toothpaste out, cut the tube open so that it would lay flat and then scanned it...then found a plotter big enough to plot out a very large picture of it.  After that, he used coat-hangers to get the right shape, glued the gigantic toothpaste "wrapper" on and stuffed with pillow stuffing.
It was awesome...particularly to me.
I couldn't believe how off-the-beaten-path my child already was at the AGE OF THREE...she was THRILLED with her purple toothpaste costume...even insisted we go get formal pictures made in it (Walmart, $9.95 package).
I also couldn't believe what lengths her Daddy would go to in order to make sure her vision was carried out.
When I say this was awesome, I really mean it.  I was freakin' awed.