The Man with the Yellow Hat and the Golden Arches

I have a reputation to uphold.

Many years ago (too many to count), I was put in charge of Halloween costumes for my brothers. Now they were typical boys requesting He-Man and GI Joe. After much negotiations, I convinced them that I had the most amazing costumes for them. They just needed to TRUST me.

24 hours later, my masterpieces were complete. For Tony, it was easy...a white pillowcase with eyes cutout. A scary ghost...how classic of a costume can you get?

For Baby Rusty, I had to get a bit more creative since he was a little more persistent for his costume. I stapled two red poster boards together and cut out long, yellow rectangles to poke out from the top. A rounded "M" cutout and pasted to the front and that baby brother of mine was my favorite fast food treat...yep you guessed it...McDonald's french fries.

Needless to say, this story and the accompanied pictures have provided hours of family entertainment. (Oh what I would do for a copy of that pic...mom? Can you help a sister out?)

Fast forward to last week. Tate had been sick with strep throat and I fell a little behind on his kindergarten classroom activities. The night before the big "Dr. Seuss' Birthday Party", I found myself scrambling to find a costume to display my son's favorite book character. The rules?

1. No masks.

2. No modern day costumes (i.e. Mario Brothers, Ninja Turtles, etc...)

3. Must be able to be worn all day with little disruption to regular activity.

4. Must have the book to carry in the Character Parade.

Believe it or not, #4 was the hardest part. My kids have a hundred books, but none of them seem to fit in the criteria listed above. After much deliberation, a smile finally came over his face and I knew that I had it!

Who is this character, you ask? Why "The Man with the Yellow Hat" and his trusty pal, Curious George. Needless to say, Tate was thrilled and I might have been a little excited as well.

Postscript: Please note the following details...

• Yellow felt glued over brown hat and yellow shirt with character name compliments of Hobby Lobby (and a little handy work from mom).


• The part of Curious George is being played by Seymour the Monkey (compliments of Uncle Red-Christmas 2009).


• Curious George book loaned from Lily's library and inscribed by Lea Myers as a baby shower gift.