Laptop Costume

This is my son, Sam. He is 7 years old.

Sam loves computer and asks to be a laptop for this year's Halloween. I have been making him his costumes (past years include Wubbzy and a Saguaro Cactus), so he didn't think it would be any problem for me making it this year.

I thought of putting two boxes together to make up the two halves of the laptop. I used shipping boxes, but needed a way to keep them attached and up straight. At first, I tried to stack one box on top of the other, but it looked out of proportion. So, I tried using a piece of cloth to keep them attached with the idea that you could close it. Unfortunately the box was too heavy. That was when I thought of using popsicle sticks and inserting them to the corner of the boxes to hold them to each other and upright. With a bit of glue, it worked. Then came the keyboard. My son asked that the keys would strike down just like on his computer. So, I took apart an old keyboard, kept the relevant component to ensure that it would strike down and bounce back up and make the click-clack sound. I also sawed off the extra area around the keys to keep it light. The screen was next. I used two screen protectors as the screen! . I then printed the screen of his favorite applications on the computer, including a desktop view of the iMac so he could be a PC or a Mac. These screens were split between two 8 1/2 x 11 sheets equally so when I inserted them, the screen looked complete. The final accessories were the DVD player, which was the bottom half of a CD case, the memory card reader, which was an old and broken mutlicard reader I had, and finally the speakers, which was part of a cheap freebie speaker I got from a state fair a few years back. For the DVD player and the card reader, I just cut out some slots on the side of the bottom box to fit them in. For the speakers, I took it apart, cut holes big enough to slip in the speakers and secure them down with the face plates. For the power button, my son used the cap of a sport water bottle to give the look of a raised up blue power button. By the way, the speakers work. I hooked it up to an old iphone and he would be able to play music out through the speakers on his computer costume.

We went to an event at the local zoo the next day after the costume was completed. Even without speakers and the power button, everyone thought it was very clever. Many people stopped and typed on his computer. He was very happy. RaisingArizonaKids Magazine also tweeted his photos as their favorite costume that day.

Raising Arizona Kids
@RAKmagazine
Our favorite costume at @PhoenixZoo Boo at the Zoo ow.ly/i/3tHh9