Max? Thomas? Taxmas? Maxmas?

Since the great Thomas-themed Christmas of 2011, Max has only grown in his love of all things Thomas, so it was no surprise when he chose Thomas as his Halloween costume for this year.

Our only concern was the execution of it; I've seen store-bought Thomases, that were basically a tunic with the character printed on the front… no fun!

So Jamie and I discussed it, and researched a little online, and had an idea of what we wanted to do… build it out of cardboard, and basically put suspenders to hang it from Max's shoulders.

I talked about just printing the face out and gluing it on; Jamie talked about dry ice in the funnel and making it so that Max could control Thomas' eyes. (I just rolled my eyes at that, to which Jamie exclaimed, “Yeah! Just like that!”)

So it wasn't entirely surprising when I received the following photo from Jamie via text message, when he had a day off work and was home alone:

Sure, I can totally see the Thomas shape there! If you're following along at home, this is a large box from my pressure canner, 2 large Priority Mail, 2 medium Priority Mail, and a chunk of concrete form tube, purchased from Home Depot.

The wheels and face, which you'll see in the next photos, are styrofoam circles… he carved the basic face shape, and then used paper mache over it for final contouring and smoothing.

So I got that text in the morning, and had so idea what I was in for when I got home that evening.

I couldn't believe it.

I took Max out today to get the costume well-documented… we do have some concerns about how well it will survive the school parade AND trick or treating, so I wanted to get photos NOW!

Can you believe this thing? It's amazing and wow, my husband is ridiculous.

I'm still in awe of it. It's incredible, and I'm a little sad that he'll wear it on Wednesday and not again!

We're lucky in that we have an adorable little town near us that has an old train station and some unused tracks; while we were driving around looking for a good spot for photos, we came across a work crew relaying some track, and they let us use the working tracks for some photos! I was so excited! (It's actually trespassing and dangerous to take photos on train tracks… it's why I was so excited to find a stretch that was blocked off by machinery, and then to get permission from a very nice crane operator lady to take photos today!

So there it is! Please feel free to tell Jamie how impressive his crafty skills are… I've lived with the guy for almost 10 years and I still can't believe it! Also, if you have any specific DIY questions, let me know and we can answer them for you!