Schmidt brothers dress up in costumes for their sister

Kassia Skorzewska
Apr 23, 2023
2 min read

For more cute photos of Avery and her brothers, Patti’s Instagram is linked here:

https://www.instagram.com/pattischmidt/

Avery, dressed as Buttercup from The Princess Bride, in 2020 – Photo by Patti Schmidt

Patti Schmidt, a woman in her 50s residing in New Jersey, has four children. Three of her children are boys. Larry, aged 28, Patrick, aged 26, and Gavin, aged 22, while her daughter, Avery, is five years old.

Due to this age difference between her sons and daughter, Patti created a photo series called #Averyintheair, where baby Avery would get thrown into the air by her brothers.

Avery and one of her brothers dressed as Peter Pan characters for the #Averyintheair series – Photo by Patti Schmidt

Patti then came up with an idea to start doing costume themed photos for Halloween when she saw how cute the #Averyintheair was.

Patti’s ideas for Halloween costumes began in 2017, and every October since, has seen her children dressed up in one theme.

2017 was the Wizard of Oz, 2018 was Star Wars, 2019 was Game of Thrones, 2020 was The Princess Bride and 2021 was Harry Potter.

When her sons were younger, there were no elaborate costume themes.

“They always wore whatever they wanted! A couple of times that happened to be a theme,” said Patti.

Patti orders the costumes from an online costume store or from Amazon.

Between the previous Halloween and the next Halloween, Patti starts thinking about the next costume idea usually around the summer or fall seasons.

“Usually when people start asking me,” said Patti.

Since Avery is getting older now, she is having more and more memories of the costumes, and so far, her favourite costume has been Harry Potter.

“The older she gets the more input she likes to have with my photo ideas. She was like a little director for Harry Potter this year,” said Patti.

This was Avery’s favourite costume theme so far since she was older – Photo by Patti Schmidt

Patti’s favourite costume theme so far has been The Princess Bride, and she loves seeing her sons dress up with their sister.

I really love that they’re willing to do it,” said Patti.

In 2017, Avery was 1 year old – Photo by Patti Schmidt

Back in September 2020, Patti posted a TikTok video of all the years leading up to 2020 of her kids in costume, and her video racked up 27.3 million views and five million likes.

The story of her Halloween costume themes was even written about in People magazine.

“I was genuinely surprised! I never thought when I started doing this that so many people would see it,” said Patti.

During this year, Avery kept escaping down the beach where they were taking the photos – Photo by Patti Schmidt

Patti is hoping that her kids will continue to want to dress up in themes in the years to come, and as long as they’re all willing participants, she’ll continue to capture the family’s Halloween memories.

For now, 2022 Halloween costumes have not started being discussed, but look to see as elaborate costume theme as the previous years.

In 2022, Avery and her older brothers dressed up as Wendy Darling and the Lost Boys of Neverland.