I bought an inflatable Godzilla Halloween costume for my son because he loved the Godzilla movies. The thing is, he isn’t a fan of trick-or-treating, even with the candy! In fact, he couldn’t be convinced to go at all this year. There must be a lot of kids who are shy about approaching the doors of strangers, for good reason. We didn’t want to force him to go, but I felt bad for him.

I was pondering this while assembling some office bookshelves, and realized I could use the styrofoam packaging to make some buildings for him to trounce on in his costume. I set to work and soon realized that buildings are like potato chips—you can’t have just one.

A trip to Lowe’s, and the obligatory Dunkin’ Donuts drive-thru, yielded several few packs of styrofoam. Over the next few days I went nuts with hot glue and craft paint until our garage was overrun by an entire city. I hung a city backdrop, turned on the fog machine, and unleashed my son on the entire city. Not a normal Halloween night, but one we’ll never forget!