Heroes come in all sizes

As I've stated earlier this is Red Ribbon Week in the states and our school district celebrates with silly dress up days to help get the kids motivated about the Drug Free campaign. Today's theme for the intermediate school was Super Heroes.
I asked my son last week, in preparation for the individual days and he said he really wasn't sure. I began looking around the house for options...a mask, a cape, shiny shorts...such as that. So on Monday, I ask him again, and this is the response I get : the dragon warrior. [Now those of you not in the know are asking yourselves...the dragon warrior? Well who is that? Some of you may even come up with Dragon--as in Bruce Lee. The Dragon Warrior is none other than Po-THE big fat panda!]
I did not bat an eyelash. I have lived with this child for 11½ years. This is the child that desired to be a helicopter, a Renaissance man, a dinosaur, and a hot rod tractor for consecutive Halloweens. Having been on board with all of the aforementioned disguises, I could be on board with this one. After all I am a woman with a green clown wig and a clown makeup chest in my closet.
I asked him WHY The Dragon Warrior. He said, "He save all of China from Tai Lung." I smiled and nodded. He continued that he could be either that or a janitor--and every day hero. Did I mention I love this kid? So I look around for things that could help us be The Dragon Warrior--this is what we had to work with:

Within reason we had to keep to school code: shoes, no change of hair color, stuff like that. So to create a homemade Po costume for yourself you will need:

Black T-shirt or sweatshirt

Black pants or sweat pants

White undershirt that you can cut up

White Duck Brand Tape

small piece of black material [felt or fleece]

head band

larger Khaki shorts

Red belt [rope and red material]

material strips for the rags at Po's feet

face paint

pillow

I cut the white undershirt just below the armpits. The pillow was taped to the black shirt so that it rested just under his underarms. It was taped at the top and in the middle. The white undershirt was placed over the pillow and taped into place. The tails of the shirts and the pillow were tucked into the over-sized shorts and a simple belt from rope wrapped in red fabric was fashioned and strung through the loops. Rags were wrapped at his feet to simulate those on Po's. Ears were constructed by gluing black felt together with Duck Tape as a base to stiffen them. They were hot-glued to a headband. [Will's ears are in a relaxed Panda position, not the agitated panda position indicated in the photo below.] We painted his face to look Po-ish. 

I tried to get him to pose in the above kung-fu stance but Will said no. He would however do the skadoosh pose for you all. He is very pleased with his super hero costume and that makes me a happy mom. 

Thank you for stopping by! I hope you enjoyed our super hero idea.