Coming up with Halloween costumes for twins and multiples can be a lot of fun. There are so many possibilities, because so many great things come in twos. Whether you purchase a costume, or make it yourself, the possibilities are endless. It is also fun to do a whole family theme, where mom & dad get in on the action, too. Check out some of these great ideas to get you started, then let your imagination soar!

Classic Twin Costume Themes:

Thing 1 & Thing 2
2 peas in a pod
Yin & Yang
Candy (M&M’s, Hershey’s Kisses…)
Monkey See Monkey Do
Hear no evil, See no evil, Speak no evil Monkeys
Doublemint twins
Double-Bubble gum
Mr. And Mrs. Potatohead
Raggedy Ann and Andy
Sun & Moon (& Stars)
Playing Cards
Grapes
Crayons
Angel & Devil
Pair of Dice
Salt & Pepper
Samurai & Ninja
Dalmatian & Fire Fighter
Cheerleader & Football Player
Ketchup & Mustard
Hamburger & Fries
Milk & Cookies
Peanuts (Snoopy, Woodstock, Charlie Brown…)
Farm Animals & Farmer (cows, horses, pigs…)
Cowboy & Pony
Puppy & Kitten
Butterfly & Caterpillar
Big Cat & Tamer (Lion, Tiger…)
Cat & Mouse
Bride & Groom
Mr. & Mrs. Potato Head
Bumble Bees (Honey Pot, Lady bug, Flower)
Good Witch / Bad Witch
Frankenstein & Bride
Knight & Princess
Tooth & Tooth Fairy
Mummy & Pharaoh
Spider & Buy
Shark & Fish
Frog & Bug
Lemon & Lime
Anthony & Cleopatra
Mac & Cheese
Tarzan & Jane

Cartoon Costume themes:

Tom & Jerry
Scooby-Doo (Scooby, Shaggy, Velma…)
Pokemon (Ash, Brocke, Pikachu…)
The Simpsons (Bart & Lisa, Marge & Homer…)
The Flintstones (Pebble & Bam-Bam…)
Curious George (George & Man in Yellow Hat)
Bob the Builder (Bob, Wendy…)
Arthur (Arthur, DW, Baxter…)
Dora the Explorer (Dora, Boots, Swiper, Diego, Jaguar…)
SpongeBob Squarepants
Backyardigans (Tyrone, Pablo, Uniqua…)
Powerpuff Girls (Blossom, Bubbles, & Buttercup)
Mario & Luigi
Handy Manny (Kelly)
Super Heroes (Superman, Batman, Iron Man, The Hulk, Captain America, Wonder Woman…)

TV Show Costume Themes:

Barney & Baby Bop
Sesame Street (Elmo and Zoe; Bert & Ernie, Big Bird, Cookie Monster…)
Blues Clues (Blue and Magenta…)
Happy Days (Richie & Fonzie)

Movie Costume Themes:

Wizard of OZ (Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Man, Lion …)
Batman & Robin
Batman & Catwoman
superman & Wonder Woman
Toy Story (Woody, Buzz, Jessie…)
Shrek (Shrek, Fiona, Donkey…)
Superman and Lois Lane
Star Wars (Darth Vader, Luke, Princess Leia, Jar-Jar, Yoda, R2D2, Chewbacca…)
Harry Potter (Harry, Hermione, Hedwig, Dumbledore…)

Fairy Tales Costume Themes:

Goldilocks & the 3 bears (a great quads costume or mom can be Goldilocks)
Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf
Peter Pan and Tinkerbell
Alice in Wonderland (Alice, the rabbit, the Cheshire Cat…)
The Cat in the Hat (Thing1 & Thing2, The Cat…)
Jack & Jill
The 3 Little Pigs & The Big Bad Wolf
Little Bo Peep (and sheep)
Peter Pan (Peter, Wendy, Tinkerbell, Captain Hook…)
3 Blind Mice

Disney Costume Themes:

Beauty & The Beast (Belle, The Beast, Teacups…)
The Little Mermaid (Ariel, Founder, Sebastian…)
Snow White (Snow White, Dwarfs, Evil Queen…)
Any Disney Princess & supporting characters
Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse
Donald Duck and Daisy Duck
Lady and the Tramp
Hannah Montana and Jackson or Oliver
Nemo and Dora (or…)
Phineas and Ferb (Perry, Dr. Doofenshmirtz)
Disney Princesses (Ariel, Snow White, Cinderella, Bella…)
Disney Fairies
Winnie the Pooh (Winnie, Piglet, Tigger, Eeyore…)
The Lion King (Simba, Nala, Timon, Pumbaa…)

Hope these lists get you started thinking about the endless possibilities for costumes for twins and multiples. Halloween is all about imagination.  And, making costumes ”from scratch” is a lot of fun — and often creates the best memories.  Tell us what we’ve missed.  What creative costumes have you come up with for your twins?

Copyright 2010 Kathryn Whiteley — TwinParenthood.com

Join our TwinParenthood Community!

 
Are you overwhelmed and bogged down… finding it tough to make it through the day, the next hour, the next minute? Are you newly expecting twins and afraid of what you don’t know? Are you getting more than a double-dose of twin parenthood isolation? Then you need to join TwinParenthood — in the ‘hood — under the BigTent.

TwinParenthood is very proud to announce our new membership community and twins forums.

 
TwinParenthood is a place for parents of twins and multiples to connect for support and information as we share the joys and struggles of twin parenthood.

Our online community features active forums – where twin parents and parents-to-be can ask questions, offer advice, and occasionally escape from the day-to-day adventures of this thing called TwinParenthood.

You will also find a rich and growing set of FAQ articles on parenting twins, tools for download, and deals and steals gathered from across the internet as well as some exclusive deals negotiated exclusively for TwinParenthood members.

So sign up today — and begin connecting with other twin parents in meaningful way. Connecting.    Learning.   Growing.

Still need more information? Visit our Members page for more details about our membership community.

One of my favorite things to do in the summer is hit the movies with the kids — for FREE (or very low cost)!  We love to get outdoors in the summer, but sometimes the weather doesn’t cooperate (either too hot or too rainy). When that happens, we love to hit the movies. Each year the selection of days, locations, and shows seems to grow — and we are the winners!

While we love to escape the weather with an indoor movie — we’ve also discovered a new fun thing to do — an outdoor theater! These are not the traditional “drive-in” theaters. Rather, these are theaters where you bring a low back lawn chair and watch a movie in your local neighborhood.

It is super easy to find movies near you. Just search for “Free Summer Movies” with your city (such as: Free Summer Movies Seattle) or “Outdoor Movies” with your city (e.g. “Outdoor Movies Seattle”).  

See you at The Movies!

• Regal Entertainment Group has their annual Free Family Film Festival with selected G or PG movies starting at 10:00am every Tuesday and Wednesday during the festival. Tickets and seating are first-come, first-served and are limited to theatre capacity.
• AMC Entertainment offers their AMC Summer Movie Camp at 10 a.m. each Tuesday morning this summer at participating theatres, from June 15 through August 10.  At only $1 admission, it’s an affordable option for summer fun for families and groups. All admission and concession proceeds will benefit two AMC charities, Variety – The Children’s Charity and the Will Rogers Institute.
• National Amusements Bookworm Wednesdays. Wednesdays at 10 starting July 7 for 6 weeks. A fun and rewarding summer reading program developed to encourage young children to read during the summer months. BOOKWORM WEDNESDAYS entitles kids to free admission to a select children’s film when they present a book report at a participating Showcase Cinemas, Multiplex Cinemas or Cinema de Lux box office.

In the Seattle area, we have some great summer outdoor movie choices:

• The Fremont “Almost Free” Outdoor Cinema.  This quirky and fun venue is not about the kids — its for the kid in all of us. Going national and even international, their website says, “The original idea was to have fun and watch movies in an unstructured atmosphere of irreverent, laid-back, good humor. It became a zany, community-spirited celebration of big screen cult classics spiced with interactive audience games and contests.”  $5.00 suggested donation. Titles include Twilight: New Moon, The Hangover, and Pretty in Pink.  Don’t miss it.
• Outdoor Theaters abound in the Seattle Area — not all of these are free, but worth the ticket for a chance to enjoy the experience of watching outdoors. Check out this great listing of outdoor movies from MyNorthwest.com.

Twitter is a great place to connect in (nearly) realtime with other parents of twins.  And, in an attempt to do that, nearly every twin parent tries out a search on the term “twins” at some point or another.  But, searching on the hashtag #twins will return about 99% of the tweets related to that fabulous Major League Baseball team, The Minnesota Twins.

#TwinTuesday

This can be frustrating for twin parents that are trying to form a community. So, along came TwinHappy.com.  Jen at TwinHappy created TwinTuesday, a fun day for parents of twins to connect on Twitter — usually centered around a Question of the Week.  Jen usually has a weekly giveaway as well as a “shout out” to all the parents on her TwinTuesday roll call.  Kudos to @TwinHappyJen. It’s super easy to participate — just search on the hashtag #twintuesday to see the conversations, and tweet along – including the #twintuesday hashtag in your tweets.

What is a hashtag?

According to Ben Parr at Mashable, “One of the most complex features of Twitter for new users to understand is the hashtag, a topic with a hash symbol (“#”) at the start to identify it. Twitter hashtags like #followfridayhelp spread information on Twitter while also helping to organize it.” Read more about hashtags in Mashable’s article, ”HOW TO: Get the Most Out of Twitter #Hashtags”. 

Some existing hashtags on Twitter have HUGE followings.  For example, some of the political hastags (like #TCOT  – top conservatives on twitter) are often trending (that is, a lot of people on twitter are currently talking about it).

How do parents of twins connect the rest of the week?

Some parents of twins and multiples have attempted to use the hashtag #multiples.  That works fine, but it is a bit long. When you’re working with just 140 characters, it is desirable to have a short hashtag — to conserve your precious tweet characters for your real content. I’ve seen some amazingly long hashtags, and it’s just crazy. Well, I guess that’s the point.  People often come up with some crazy hashtag and get all their friends to tweet with it in an attempt to make it “trend”.

#TPH – Twin Parenthood

 Since #twins gets you MLB results, I humbly submit a new option, #tph  (for  Twin Parenthood).  It’s short — so it won’t take up too much of your 140 characters. And, it represents the connection many of us want to make — a connection about parenting twins.

I don’t want to “own” the hashtag.  There’s no such thing.  I just want to connect with other parents of twins ABOUT twin parenthood. So, let’s give it a go. What do ya say?

Copyright 2010 Kathryn Whiteley — TwinParenthood.com

Visit us on Facebook

Multiple Multiples. It could happen to YOU!

All parents of twins and multiples know the standard set of questions that we get asked over and over. One of the old standards is, “Are you done now?”

Many parents of twins answer the same way. I think we’re done, but wouldn’t mind having another — while inwardly the fear is lurking. If we tried to have another, would we have multiples again? How would we survive?

This lackadaisical outlook is what led us to become pregnant the second time around.  Normally, I would say that having a child is a serious matter and should only be undertaken with deliberate intent.  And yet, we all know someone who got pregnant without the intent to do so.  That would be me.

We made the assumption, because we had a significant amount of help and it took us 6 years to get pregnant, that we were “safe” from getting pregnant! A small part of me said to myself that if it did happen it would be great anyway. Well, it did happen, and in a big way.  And yes, it was great anyway.

Over the years, there are so many stories I’ve heard about how this happened to someone they know. The biggest story I’ve been told so far goes like this:

A friend of my mother-in-law said she knew a family that adopted twins. A couple of years later the adoption agency contacted them with another set of twins that needed placement. Would they consider? After thinking long and hard they agreed. Shortly after the arrival of the 2nd set of twins, the woman became pregnant with triplets!

Life with two sets of twins was extremely hard in the first few years. It is almost like labor — you know how that is… you know it was painful but you really don’t remember the pain. You know it was difficult, but it is somewhat of a blur.  We know there are many things we missed when the babies were young. We were just in the trenches — living hour to hour, minute to minute.

Bottom line is this… do be deliberate about having children.  Do plan ahead.  And, even if you do (plan ahead), God can throw you a curve. So remember to just go with the flow — and you will come out the other side.  Things do get easier. It’s all relative. Having one baby is tough, having multiples is tough, and having multiple multiples is tough. But, what a blessing.

As parents of twins, one of the common questions we get asked over and over again is, “Which twin was born first?”.  I’ve blogged about this subject before (TwinParenthood: Which twin was born first?) — expressing my opinion that it is not necessarily a good thing to reveal birth order of twins. 

Today, I came across this story from CNN about twins that were born 63 days apart. Yes, 63 days! That puts a whole new spin on the question “Which twin was born first?” — doesn’t it? 

The thing I find most encouraging about this story, is the fact that the twin boys are now, a few years after their separate births, almost evenly matched.  In fact, Adam, the extreme preemie, is now bigger than his brother. I think that piece of news is highly encouraging for parents of preemies everywhere. Adam is still a bit behind developmentally, as can be expected with preemies. Of course, it is also so encouraging to see medicine progressing to the point that a twin can be delivered so far ahead of the other twin. Go Doctors!

Did you have preemie twins? How are they doing now?

Copyright 2010 Kathryn Whiteley — TwinParenthood.com

Visit us on Facebook

Our twin experiment is now in its seventh year! We’ve had a wonderful Christmas season, and are moving quickly towards the new year. Although I should expect the chaos that comes with Christmas and two sets of twins, I find that I am always amazed at how busy this season plays out.  But through it all, we’ve tried to stay focused on “The Reason for the Season”, and that makes all the chaos bearable.

With the New Year just around the corner, I am thinking about my New Year’s resolutions.  I haven’t finalized my list yet, but here’s the informal list:

1. Simplify.  This has two elements.  First, I really need to de-clutter the house.  I know that will makes things easier for me, but there is work to make it happen. Second, I need to try not to take on too much. This is a common problem of mine.  When I see something that needs to be done, I volunteer to help (or take the whole darn project on myself!).
2. Get Fit.  It’s been seven years since the birth of my 2nd set of twins and it is about time that I spend a little time and effort on myself.  I plan to start eating right and to make time for exercise.
3. Schedule.  I plan to sort through all the things I want to get done on a weekly basis (like blogging at least 3 times a week!), simplify, and then fit it into a schedule that I’ll have a reasonable expectation of maintaining.

Have you set your New Year’s Resolutions yet?  Please share!

If there is one major thing lacking in families with twins, triplets, or more, it is time.

I often wish I had more time to give to my kids. And of course, with twins, there is the added need for individual time.  One-on-one time is what twins crave.

So how do you do it? How do you make sure each twin or higher order multiple is getting their share of one-on-one time?

You must be deliberate about it. You have to plan for it.

If you “just”  have twins, the old “divide and conquer” method is fabulous. Dad takes one twin, Mom takes the other, and off you go to run your errands. Each child is getting one-on-one time with a parent, and your errands are getting done twice as fast than if you go do them as a family.

Some will argue this is not “quality” time, and that is true. But it is still time spent where the child is ”just” a child for a little while — and not a twin. There is a big benefit for the child in doing every day activities where they are without their twin for a bit.

But what if you have more than “just” twins? It starts to get complicated quickly and keeping track to make sure everyone is getting their share is painful.

In our house, we established a chart for each parent.  Down the side we placed each child’s name, a repeating pattern down the page.  We added columns for “Date of Trip” and “Where They Went”.  A simple chart.  Each time a child goes somewhere alone with mom or dad, we jot a quick note on the chart. 

This chart has eliminated so many arguments! The kids no longer bicker over who gets to go with Mom or Dad — they just run over to the chart to see “who’s up”.

Over time, you can review the chart to see how often you are actually making time for individual trips with each kid. Sometimes it is shocking to see how long it has been since we went somewhere alone with any of ours. Having it in black and white, we are confronted with the fact that we are not doing well, and then we can again be deliberate about making it happen.

Of course, we also make sure each kid is getting their share of quality outings alone with Mom or Dad. But we save those for extra special rewards. Most of our quality outings are family outings – and that’s what we prefer — a strong family.

Copyright 2009 – twinParenthood.com / Kathryn Whiteley

How about you? What do you do to make sure each twin is getting alone, one-on-one time with Mom & Dad?

Anyone with twins, triplets, or more, knows how difficult it is to take a break. Life with multiples is just tough – and leaving them in someone else’s care is hard. When you have intimate knowledge of how difficult, tiring, and crazy it is to take care of twins for a full day or two, you are limited in your abilities to just get away and leave someone else to the pain of everyday life. Please don’t get me wrong – I love my kids very much, but they are a handful.

So, when the opportunity to head to LA for a twitter party on the set of CBS’ hit show, “Accidentally on Purpose” came along, we jumped at the chance while we scrambled to line up childcare. We are incredibly blessed to have my mother living nearby, and despite her age (80) she is more than willing to watch our “zoo”. She has been an integral part of our twin parenthood. Fortunately, she is healthy and more than capable – but we still didn’t want to overburden her. So we planned to make it a quick trip.

Flying out of Seattle on Friday morning at 0-dark thirty brought us to LA in time to hit Universal Studios before our twitter party at 4:00. Universal Studios in the off season can’t be beat. We were able to hit 2 attractions (Shrek 4-D, and The Mummy) with no wait, before hustling off to Studio City. We planned to arrive early because the first thing on the agenda was to meet the cast (something we didn’t want to miss).

Upon arrival, Security stopped us, saying we weren’t “on the list”. They asked us to exit the parking garage and call our studio contact person. Our early arrival at the studio melted away as we made one desperate call after another. Apparently, my “fast food curse” was spreading. Every single time we eat fast food, my order is always messed up – something left off, the wrong thing in the bag, you name it. And now, it was spreading to other areas of my life. Argh!!

Fortunately, our studio host, Mitch, came through for us – and we made it on the lot. Our first stop was a fantastic dinner buffet where we ate dinner with the cast from the show. Each of the actors took the time to come sit with all of us “twitter folk”. What a classy group they are — really interesting to talk with, and willing to share their opinions and time.

After our meal, we invaded the writer’s room. Now there’s my dream job. I would love to write for a tv show – but, alas, I’m just not as funny as that talented group. While we all chatted with the writers, we got to learn more about the awesome group of bloggers in our group. It is truly inspiring to hear about all the unique things happening in the blogosphere. And yet, that diversity can all come together for a twitter party on the set of Accidentally On Purpose. Humor is universal. We enjoyed the banter and noticed several of the writers taking notes. We hope to see some jokes on the show that we can trace back to those conversations.

Next stop was the set, where we enjoyed watching the filming of the show. We were surprised and pleased to be able to tour the set and watch behind the cameras as several scenes were filmed. The actors continued to be friendly and would come up and chat between takes. Jenna Elfman was amazing. Always friendly and tolerant of all the pictures being snapped of her and her sweet son.

I have to admit that I wasn’t sold on Accidentally On Purpose before our trip. I’ve always liked Jenna Elfman, but the concept was a bit disturbing to me. A tv show that trivializes the importance of having a baby – by treating it as comedy and featuring a single woman who had a one night stand with a much younger man, was going to have to show me some redeeming moral messages before I was going to endorse it.

And that is exactly what they have done. These characters are coming to realize the importance of their situation. And while the circumstances of their lives are the fodder for comedy, each show has, so far, managed to bring the characters full circle as they think twice about perpetuating the mistakes that put them in this situation in the first place.

So… bottom line… my fantastic trip to the set of Accidentally On Purpose, meeting the cast, and the writers’ decision to let the sobering idea of having a baby really have an impact on the characters lifestyle choices has made me a fan of the show. If they stay the course, I’ll remain a fan of the show. Thank you for a great time and a funny show, Accidentally On Purpose. You’ve earned a fan in me.

Copyright 2009 – twinParenthood.com / Kathryn Whiteley

Imagination games boost intelligence

Playing imagination games with your twins, triplets, or more, is one of many things you can do to help boost your children’s intelligence. And let’s face it, they LOVE it when their parents engage in this kind of play with them.

But playing with miniature plastic people or stuffed animals can get tedious for a parent at times. That is when it is up to you to introduce some imagination games that you find more interesting. These kinds of games can be played in the car to help pass the time, and are great dinner conversation.  

At our house, one of our favorite imagination games is “super powers”. It often comes up at dinnertime. We all take turns imagining life with our very own super power. Of course, we each get to choose what super power we’d have.

If you’re a little bit older (like me), you might remember the Gilligan’s Island episode, “Pass the Vegetables, Please”, where the Skipper and Gilligan are fishing and reel in a crate of radio active seeds. When the castaways ate the food produced from the seeds, they all gained super powers. Gilligan became very strong (spinach), Lovey went very fast (sugar beets), and Mary Ann gained super sight (carrots). My husband told the family a story based on this show. We were castaways and discovered radio active seeds.

When we started this game, I chose things you would typically think of in the super power category. My two favorites have been: “invisibility”, and “time travel”. It has been fun to imagine all the things you would do with those powers. Some of the kids’ favorites include: telekenesis, super strength, ability to fly, seeing through walls, super hearing, and running super fast. 

But over time I started to imagine what it would be like to  have a super power that would change my every day life. I began to want a super power I could have that would be a secret, but would transform my whole existence: the ability to touch an object and restore it to original condition — 100% new, 100% clean.

Can you imagine?After dinner, you simply pick up the dishes off the dinner table and put them back into the cupboard. Same with the pots and pans.  What a time-saver this super power would be! Think of all the time I would free up to be there for my family!

While I’m dreaming, here are some of the ways my life would be changed:

• The car — think of it. No french fries under the seat, no cracker crumbs, no finger prints on the windows. The tires would be new, as would be the engine.
• The laundry. Simply take the clothes out of the hamper, fold them, and put them away.
• The carpet. No more vacuuming, and your carpet looks brand new. The couch is now in a normal place in the room instead of off to the side to hide the big stain from your child’s latest mishap.
• The walls. No dirt, fingerprints, chipped paint. It looks like you just painted it!
• The bathroom. Need I say more?
• Toys and Books. Nothing broken, chipped, torn, faded, smelly, stained, or ripped.
• The house. A new roof, new paint job, new windows — anytime you want!

Since I’m human, I soon became disillusioned with my super power. I mean, it just wasn’t good enough. I needed to add the ability to “update” anything I touched. Clean and new and 100% restored to original condition just wouldn’t cut it. Who wants to look like they chose to buy at a lime green refrigerator? or clothes made in 1985? So, I added “updatabilty” to my super powers and once again my imagination soared.

But, as with all imagination games, it must come to an end. The bubble is always burst when I walk into my real kitchen to see the dirty dishes in the sink, the pile of old newspapers on the counter, and then discover a new stain on my living room carpet. And I realize that my choice is to live in a messy and sometimes dirty home — because I do want to be there for my family. Clean, and new is nice — but it’s nothing to playing imagination games with my kids.

But oh, to dream, if only for a moment.  What is your super power dream?

Copyright 2009 – twinParenthood.com / Kathryn Whiteley