World Book Day // Better Late than Never!

A little late to the party, but didn't want to let our first World Book Day with Annika pass us by without documenting it - I also LOVED the kids costume choices this year! They chose well!

I was on the ball for a change! Usually our costumes are thrown together a bit last minute as all my creative attention has been on Heidi's parties, but this year we had her party a little earlier, and the kids came up with their ideas well in advance, so for once, I was actually on it!

This year we had...

Emma Woodhouse, from Jane Austen's "Emma"

Ava is a massive Austen fan, and when I knew that was who she wanted to go as, I reached out to our wonderful friend Carrie who does a lot of Regency reenactment in the hope she might have something that fit her. She didn't, but in usual Carrie style said "leave it with me". A couple of days later she was round at ours with a dress she had picked up in a charity shop, measuring Ava up to adjust it. And lo and behold Ava's costume was born! I actually loved it when she was in the full outdoor garb too (see the top picture!)

Nymphadora Tonks from JK Rowling's "Harry Potter"

Such a fun dress up for Heidi this year - my sister's leather jacket, some hair chalks from Amazon, a pair of boots from the charity shop and some extra accessories from Temu. Dave and I commented that Heidi scarily really suited the "rock chic" look!! Oh dear...!

We've used hair chalks a number of times and they're brilliant if you have kids with lighter coloured hair...  it just washes straight out afterwards!

Asterix and Obelix 

The boys decided to double act this year, and it was so much fun! Jonas is usually really up for a good dress up; Elias is a little more self-conscious... but this year they totally went for it, and though Elias had a little wobble right before, he totally embraced it and went into school happy as larry (or should I say Obelix!?)

I used some fabulous "viking" helmets that my wonderfully creative friend Emelie made a few years ago. For Jonas, I cut the "feathers" out of card and sewed them in place. For Elias, I made two thick plaits with orange wool and sewed them into his helmet. Jonas wore red joggers and a black t-shirt and I threw together his belt and made his sword out of toilet rolls and his potion (which you can see in the pic below!) with an old sellotape roll, a milk bottle lid and a glue gun! Elias wore pyjama bottoms for Obelix and a white t-shirt with a small cushion stuffed up it!

They both looked fab!

and last but not least...

Cottontail from Beatrix Potter's "Peter Rabbit"

Little Annika - our last minute thrown together "Cottontail" looked super cute and was able to join in with the fun!

All the costumes (bar Heidi's boots which decided to lose half their sole on the way home!) survived the day, and everyone came home with big smiles on their faces, full of plans for next year's costumes already.

Oh help!