Do You Believe in Magic?

If yes, then this rainbow wizard has a few things to show you about ice powers! A blast from his ice lighting bolt? Zap! A glowing spell from the ice orb on his staff? Whoosh!



If no, then this illusionist magician will be more to your liking! Behold as she conjures coins from behind ears, flowers from seemingly ordinary magic wands, and cards out of thin air. Marvelous!



I have to say I was very tickled that the kids picked these very complimentary, two-sides-of-the-same-coin style costumes. I did have the good sense to ask them to draw what they were envisioning before getting out my sewing machine. Why good sense? Because my idea of a wizard is Gandalf as portrayed by the delightful Sir Ian McKellen. Jake however, was imagining a rainbow-colored cape and hat, a prickly staff, and a lightning bolt:



What are the odds that the next day after he drew this I would find a plastic light up lightning bolt in the Target dollar bin? Apparently excellent, because that is exactly what happened. And of course when I showed it to Jake, he was entirely unsurprised. Why wouldn't every whim of his imagination be easily and readily available at any given moment?



Lara's more worldly understanding of magicians and their craft is evidenced by this drawing, a nice and sober companion to Jake's fever dream (I wouldn't be surprised if he half-expected that moon and stars to be a constant part of his costume backdrop):



I originally just bought a top hat from a costume store, but it was deemed insufficiently tall. Amazingly enough, I found some swirly felt that almost exactly matched the material for the cape! Again, what are the odds? These costumes were clearly fated to be by the Halloween gods. Here you can see her magic trick: a disappearing feather flower: perfect because it is very easy to perform and to carry around.