I {heart} Halloween. I really do! I know in years past I have complained about it being a stupid holiday because all I do is sew costumes into the wee hours of the night, but this year I started early enough that by the time Halloween rolled around I had no projects left to do! And this year was a total success!! I was thrilled with how each costume turned out!
Paige is still on a baking kick from her August birthday bash! Maybe it's because I can no longer bake these days, or maybe it's because if she wants to stay up late with me, I make her watch Food Network...I don't know, either way, she wanted to be a CHEF this year. The pants were fairly simple...basic elastic waist pants in a fun food print. I had a pattern for the hat (and technically the jacket too, but it was a size 4). I found a pattern for a long wool coat and modified it to be a chef jacket. My only complaint is that it was pretty see through...but with a shirt under, who cares??
She topped it all off by trick or treating with a saucepan.
THE GIRLS...sadly Bode wasn't dressed yet, and I didn't really want pictures of him sitting in the dirt...kind of detracts from the girls cute full length costumes. Sorry, buddy...maybe next year!
Claire decided on Minnie Mouse. Honestly, I found the perfect Minnie dress fabric and gently
persuaded her to be Minnie Mouse. It wasn't a hard sale. Who would have thought stupid McCalls and Simplicity would have pulled that classic pattern??? There were several options for a gazillion princesses, but not the mouse. So I took a basic dress pattern and viola!! Thanks mom, for teaching me how to sew...those early Saturday morning "UNITS" classes really have come in handy! I was planning on spray painting some old shoes yellow, but as it grew closer, the shoes grew stinkier and stinker and finally walked themselves to the trash! (Claire may be cute...but she has the stinkiest feet ever!) I totally scored at Walmart one afternoon in finding yellow crocs for 3 bucks! Tie a little red bow and perfect Minnie shoes!
Notice the ears...this is the second set we went through this year. Luckily they were abundant and easily found in the costume aisle. I was so happy to save a few bucks and re-use some ears from a previous "Boots the Monkey" costume. We had a ward trunk or treat early in the month, and since then couldn't find the ears again. Of course we didn't know the ears were missing until we were trying to walk out the door to Grandma and Grandpa McClure's party. So, one earless party and one trip to Walmart, you would think that would have made one happy girl, but instead it made 2 UNHAPPY girls since ear #2 came with tail #2, which led to both girls having play tails and only one set of ears to fight over for eternity. When will they learn that life just isn't fair? And speaking of life lessons...when will I learn (after black noses and whiskers 4 days in a row) that black eyeliner doesn't come off easily and it is best to buy the Halloween makeup?
Bode's little turtle costume came as quite a surprise as I had set out to make him into a snowman. I had all the supplies and was ready to start when I got a message from my sister, Marnie, saying, "Forget the snowman...Bode is going to be a turtle." In talking to her about it, she had hosted a costume exchange with her Primary. It wasn't a big hit, but her neighbor had brought over the cutest turtle costume, it almost wanted to make Marn have another baby...almost. (Luckily it fit Bode, so he saved her from going to all that trouble!) The costume was adorable, even though Bode refused to keep the hat on. I still really wanted him to be a snowman, until Steve gently pointed out that he would really just look like a snowBALL sitting in the stroller...it might be a better idea to be a snowman that could actually walk. (So much for the surprise for next year!!)
I know this is really out of character for me to allow my children to wear a store-bought costume...but it's not a cheesy plastic outfit, it was plush and pouffy and it had the cutest shell and little turtle feet. And I could call Bode a little "TERD" and get away with it!
While daddy and the girls trick or treated, I crawled all around the living room floor making noises and faces, trying to get the perfect picture of Bode in his costume. He was more interested in drinking his bottle, and then moved on to reading books.
And then he turned into all smiles when I told him what we were going to do next...
RAID THE GIRLS' CANDY!!!
Yes, it's true. With choices like these...I am a complete Bella Swanabe.
Last weekend my monthly Bunco group happened to fall on the same night as the New Moon premiere. So, Lanie and Steph, our cute hosts, went totally above and beyond and hosted the best New Moon party ever! I truly could have skipped out on Bunco that night, we were just so excited for the show! (Which by the way, did NOT disappoint!) My good friend and I were SO excited that we made "dazzling" shirts to wear. One Bunco member backed out at the last minute, so I was able to call my sister and invite her to meet us at the movies. She had already seen it the night before, but accepted the invite in an enthusiastic "YES!"
Steph and Lanie provided gift bags for everyone to take to the show, complete with "Blood", Edward, Bella and Jacob hologram cups, candy bars and Sweet-tarts, Twilight lotion, and of course...vampire teeth!
We pulled out our "inner vampires" and drank blood straight from the IV bags hanging into the punch bowl and feasted on red velvet cupcakes with dripping blood icing.
It was truly the funnest night! I can't WAIT to see it again!
