Halloween 2014

Halloween snuck up on me again.

Right in the middle of everything it snuck up on me!

I've been helping with costumes for our High School musical production and trying to turn 250 pounds of apples into sauce and pie filling as well as everything else so when my mom offered to make my youngest's Halloween costume I was so, so grateful.

To say it turned out perfectly would be an understatement. My mom is an artist with fabric and this is just further proof.

She used Simplicity pattern 1233

Last November, the day after we saw the movie Frozen as a family, my youngest decided she had her sister HAD to dress as Elsa and Anna for Halloween.

What's a mom to do?

However, because I am the queen of procrastination Elsa's dress wasn't even begun until around 8pm October 30th.

But I got it done. There's a lot I could have and should have done to it to make it more special but she was happy so that's good.

I used McCall's mp381

Sometimes it's hard for a preteen boy to decide what to be for Halloween but he finally settled on Mad Scientist. Such a easy and fun costume. The hair makes it.

We were able to get together with another lovely Elsa. This is my great-niece......oh man that makes me sound old.

And finally, Halloween wouldn't be complete without a few jack-o-lanterns.

This years selections included:

Randalf the wizard (Gandalf's less famous/successful brother)
A kitty and her pumpkin
and
Our Lab Sadie

The weather was perfect, everyone was healthy and it really was a great day.

Now bring on the turkey and the pumpkin pie.....

Thanksgiving here we come!

There be pirates matey!

Avast! It be "P" week at Kindergarten! Argh, and that means it be Pirate day!

Captain Rosarita Chihuahua Hook be ready.

Thank goodness her older brother Captain Doodle Hook was willing to let her use his hat and jacket!

Halloweens past....circa 2004.

I think this was the last time we did a family theme. We're missing our 7 yo who was the crocodile from this picture.
Smee's striped shirt came from a good will bed sheet.
Capt. Hooks jacket and Smee's hat were a good will red polyester pant suit
Wendy's night gown was also from good will
Peter Pan and Tinkerbell were designed and sewn by me.
Crocodile (not shown) was also designed and sewn by me.
All of the costumes have come in handy over the years. Believe me we've seen our fair share of "P" week pirates in this house!

Yee-Haw, Happy Halloween and Say Boo to the Flu

Wow! Can't believe Halloween has come and gone already!

What an adventure!

The costume season started for our family on Saturday October 27th with a costume birthday party for Sweet Cheeks to attend and a church chili cook-off for the whole family.

I had the privilege of being a judge for the chili-cook-off.

It was interesting but I'm not sure it's something I'd like to do again.

Costumes this year were fun for me and I think they turned out pretty cute.....if I do say so myself.

Like I said before,

After many ideas of what she'd like to be this cute girl finally settled on 

Jessie from Disney's Toy Story.

Honestly, I think her choice was PERFECT!

She is Jessie personified.

She's the rootin'est, tootin'es,t sure shootin'est cowgirl ever!

Doodle chose to be Tintin

Just in case you don't know Tintin you can click here to read more about him

or

just read this from Wikipedia.

The Adventures of Tintin (French: Les Aventures de Tintin) is a series of comic albums created by Belgian artist Georges Remi (1907–1983), who wrote under the pen name of Hergé. The series is one of the most popular European comics of the 20th century, with translations published in more than 50 languages and more than 200 million copies of the books sold to date.^[1]

The first Tintin comic was published in 1929 and a 3D motion capture computer animated film was released in 2011.

When he was telling me what he wanted to be for Halloween I asked him if he thought people would know who he was or if he wanted to wear a name tag.

He told me the people his age would know but older people wouldn't.

Turns out he was right.....

Check out the Tintin hair!

Mr. Man chose to be Davy Crockett this year.

Is he his father's son or what?

Turns out most people thought he was Daniel Boone but don't worry my boy corrected every.single.person. who was wrong.

We told him they were both considered mountain men/explorers and that kind of kept him from being offended.

This picture is Davy preparing to attack a bear.

And

It was really nice to have Davy Crockett around when we were trick-or-treating.

He kept us safe from Cougars and other varmints.

We really couldn't have asked for better trick-or-treating weather.

The kids didn't even need a jacket.

Seriously, the nicest/warmest Halloween I've ever seen.

In years past we've had over 200 trick-or-treat-ers 

and with the weather being so nice I thought we'd have even more.

But we didn't...

I think we had under 100, kind of weird.

We call this version of her costume

Contagious Outlaw Jessie

When she got home from school on Tues. she had a fever.

During the night it spiked to 105 so I took her into the Dr. in the morning.

Turns out she has the true flu.

Luckily we got her in soon enough to take the medicine but she's out of school until Monday.

She had to miss her first class party......Oh the tears were so huge and heartbreaking.

We told her she could still go trick-or-treating but she had to wear a mask and she wasn't allowed to touch ANYTHING. That included doorknobs, doorbells and candy.

When people would say you can choose a candy she'd say, "I'm not allowed to touch any candy."

We got a few strange looks.

Her brother was kind enough to ask her which one she wanted and then he'd grab it and put it in her bag.

Thank goodness for brothers!

The older kids stuck around and passed out candy for us so that MDH and I could take Davy and Jessie trick-or-treating.

Isn't that great!

We had fun with the pumpkins this year.

MDH did a Scooby Doo theme.

I think next year our whole family should dress-up as the Scooby Doo Gang.

Here's Sweet Cheeks Classic Jack

I even tried carving one this year.

S.C. helped me choose Minnie to carve.

Hope you had a fun and safe and healthy Halloween.

 And now we're starting into the month of gratitude.

My favorite month by the way.

Halloween Costumes.... Yee-Haw!

Halloween snuck up on me again this year.
Hard to believe I know exactly when it's going to be yet somehow I still get surprised with how quickly it comes around again.
Luckily, I did manage to get the costumes done before the big day.
However, I was still down to the wire for the parties we had on Saturday......
Oh Well...

Today I'm sharing youngest's Toy Story Jesse costume.
You don't know my girl but believe me when I say this costume totally fits her "Go -n- Get'm" personality!
She's loved Jesse almost her whole life so it was a natural choice for her this year.

And, by the way, the poses in the pictures were all completely her saying, "Take another one with my foot up and another with me looking off into the distance."
Oh man she makes me smile!

The costume wasn't too hard just a little time consuming.

I found the cow print cotton at Hobby Lobby and traced the pant leg to get the shape.

Sewing the cow print fabric onto the front of the jeans was the tricky part.....going slow was the key.

For her shirt I used one of her brother's old white church shirts and added yellow cotton and red piping detail.

The hat was a dollar store find that I added yarn detail stitching to the edge. I also added loops to the inside so I could bobby pin it into her hair.

And her belt was a $.50 thrift store find. I was going to make a faux belt buckle for it but I got lazy and decided she didn't need it.

Honestly, what makes the work totally worth it is how much she loves it.  After wearing it to a party Saturday night she asked me if she could wear it to church on Sunday.  She understood when I explained it wouldn't be appropriate but she did tell me she couldn't wait for Wednesday so she could wear it again.
Yep.....that's how you make me happy!

So I have a couple more costumes to share soon. I promise I've been busy.

Halloween 2011

I started out saying, "No."

"No, I am not going to make any costumes this year. We have plenty in the box. Find one that fits."

He dreamed of being a Jedi, young Obi Wan to be specific.

Perfect! We have that in the box. 

But then,

Where are the pants?

 Oh ya, I let his big brother use them for pajama pants and they were worn completely out.

Where are the belt and leg things? 

Oh ya, I have no idea.

So I made new pants, a belt and spats.

Not too much work though though.

(I used this pattern for the spats. I cut them about 1/4 inch smaller all around and 6 inches taller. I used elastic to keep them together on the sides and one button on the bottom edge. I also put 1/2 inch wide elastic to go under the foot. The belt and spats were both made from brown vinyl that was on clearance. I bought 1/2 yard for $1.50 and I have a bunch left over.) 

She started out saying, "I want to be Cinderella with a cape."

I considered making it.

Then she wanted to be Darth Vader, Dora, Snow White, Ninja, etc.

Ummm, no.

But then she looked in the box and found....

Clifford, the big red dog. (made it for her brother 10 years ago and made up my own pattern)

It was love at first sight.

And

No alterations or additions needed.

Easy-easy! Mama like!

Oh this boy.

He wanted to be an undercover goat.

Hmmmm.....not sure how to do that one.

Then he wanted to be Prof. Lupin.

 His vision for that particular costume included half wolf, half professor....furry legs, suit and all....

Sorry son, not this year.

He settled for a Pacific Giant Octopus. Red please and thank you.

And I did make this one but it was super easy thanks to familyfun.com.

This girl dug out a costume my mom made for me 20 years ago.

Can you believe it?

The costume has seen lots of use by various family members over the years.

I think it has aged fantastically.

Second oldest had his toe poked and cut and pulled and wrapped and he hobbled so he called His costume, "Tiny Tim" from A Christmas Carol.

Pumpkins.

This is MDH's favorite part of Halloween.

He likes to do a theme each year.

This year he and the kids chose characters from their favorite show.

Phineas and Ferb

Really? Halloween is over?

I know, I'm sad too.

But just think how much fun it will be next year!

PS this is our first trick-or-treating outing sans stroller! And sans fear of dogs.

I was in heaven!

She ran the whole way and didn't complain once.

She didn't refuse to go to a door because she heard a dog.

And I only had to defend her from one scary Halloween decoration with Mr.Man's light saber!

I'd say Halloween was a success.