Our Halloween holiday officially began this weekend. Do you remember when we were kids how much you would look forward to dressing up on Halloween night? Well, our kids still really look forward to it; it's just that they will have already had five other Halloween parties/functions before October 31st. That's right - we have six Halloween parties/activities this year. That's just nuts! The kids score on their very first outing, so who really even needs to go Trick-or-Treating!? Actually, it just makes me feel that much less guilty about raiding their candy bags while they are in bed or at school. Alright, alright - I don't feel one bit guilty!
We started off our busy weekend with our downtown businesses providing Trick-or-Treating, along with crafts and games on Friday night. It was very crowded but fun.
My sweet little Lamb, MalloryI am a big nerd when it comes to Halloween costumes for my kids. I LOVE to make them! However, I can't take complete credit for Mal's sweet costume. I knew I'd be spending tons of time making the other kids' costumes, and I didn't know if Mal would even wear a costume this year. So, I decided I wouldn't spend the time and effort on hers. I found this cute little number for $6 in our children's resale shop. I cut off the feet because I didn't like them, and created a cute little tail out of the leftover fabric. I also added the pink bow and bell, and I fixed the ears more to my liking (they looked more like bunny ears when I bought them).
When I tried the costume on her in the store, she screamed and kicked, so that made my decision as whether or not to make one or buy this one. All week I've been telling her we'll put the costume on and get candy (pretty much her favorite thing on the planet). It worked because she was SO proud to wear that costume! She loved it! I kept asking her if she was ready to take it off, and she always said no. What was I even worrying about?
Drew/ Danny PhantomDrew and I found a website one day while searching for ideas, and he found a Danny Phantom costume a mom put together for her son. Easy enough! I just bought a black shirt and a white turtleneck at a thrift store and used black pajama pants we already had. I bought some felt and sewed the boots and made the Danny Phantom symbol out of craft foam. I cut the neck off the turtle neck and cut some of the middle out for a belt and glued them on with fabric glue. A little white hair color and viola! Danny Phantom!
Drew, sweet Drew. I've posted before about what a cautious child he is. He is quite easily spooked, and Friday night was no exception. Edward was still at work when we started our Trick-or-Treating, so it was me and the four kiddos. As we walked along and he started seeing some of the scary costumes, he started to fall apart. He would immediately bury his face in my legs and start panicking. As we walked past the music store, one of the employees was outside playing eerie music on an electric piano, he became a little more frantic. The final straw was a scary Freddy Kruger kid that passed us, and that was it! He couldn't take another minute of it. With Edward still at work (20 minutes away), he couldn't come get him. So dear Grammy came and saved the day. She picked him up and rescued him from that frightful night. Halloween night should be interesting.
Elizabeth the Egyptian/Drama QueenIn all of the pictures I took of her she is striking some sort of pose diva-like. She came up with this idea herself (after changing her mind 87 times), so I was pretty impressed. I knew I could come up with something way better and cheaper than Wal-Mart's $12.88 cheap-o Egyptian costume. I found a silky nightgown for forty cents at the same thrift store as above. I cut off the sleeves and hemmed the bottom. We got the blue and gold metallic fabric to make the belt and collar, and we glued jewels (can't really see them in the picture) on them. The black wig came from ebay. Her costume was less than $10 probably, and won her a first place in the Cutest Costume category for the 6-8 age group. She was very proud.
The piece de resistance - The Mad Scientist
Ross is getting old enough that he doesn't want to be something "cute" for Halloween, but we don't participate in the bloody/gory side of Halloween. He was feeling like his options were pretty limited until we saw this great homemade costume. We loved it but wanted to put our own touch on it. I got a wizard mask on ebay. It had much longer hair and a beard originally, so I gave him a trim and hot glued some of the extra on his head. I also glued spray painted swimming goggles on his face. We used a backpack with a retractable handle, a Tupperware tub lid, foam insulation, an egg shell mattress, a thick winter coat, and LOTS of ductape to build the mad scientist's body. We covered it in my sister's lab coat and pinned Ross in there. The rubber gloves are hot glued and bobby pinned to a toy bucket with the bottom and back cut out.
This bad boy won Ross a first place ribbon for Spookiest Costume in the 9-12 year old group along with the admiration of MANY people. You can't imagine all the comments we got! People were stopping us to take pictures. One lady even said, "Wait! Wait! I have to get a picture! My husband is obsessed with this costume! He's been calling me telling me to look for you and telling me which way to look to find you!" It was very funny. Ross also got on the front page of our county newspaper! You can see it here. We were very excited as his picture and a small write-up are on 1/4 of the front of the paper, as well as he's pictured again on the back page. Elizabeth was also mentioned in the paper for her award.
Happy Halloween!
On Saturday, the town Edward works in was having a similar festival. He (and Drew who was too scared to walk the streets) handed out candy at his office while the rest of us headed out for some more Trick-or-Treating. Once they saw the inflatable play land they begged to forgo the candy for some entertainment. It was a good move because they had a blast. We had to ditch the costumes in order to do so.
The piece de resistance - The Mad ScientistRoss is getting old enough that he doesn't want to be something "cute" for Halloween, but we don't participate in the bloody/gory side of Halloween. He was feeling like his options were pretty limited until we saw this great homemade costume. We loved it but wanted to put our own touch on it. I got a wizard mask on ebay. It had much longer hair and a beard originally, so I gave him a trim and hot glued some of the extra on his head. I also glued spray painted swimming goggles on his face. We used a backpack with a retractable handle, a Tupperware tub lid, foam insulation, an egg shell mattress, a thick winter coat, and LOTS of ductape to build the mad scientist's body. We covered it in my sister's lab coat and pinned Ross in there. The rubber gloves are hot glued and bobby pinned to a toy bucket with the bottom and back cut out.
This bad boy won Ross a first place ribbon for Spookiest Costume in the 9-12 year old group along with the admiration of MANY people. You can't imagine all the comments we got! People were stopping us to take pictures. One lady even said, "Wait! Wait! I have to get a picture! My husband is obsessed with this costume! He's been calling me telling me to look for you and telling me which way to look to find you!" It was very funny. Ross also got on the front page of our county newspaper! You can see it here. We were very excited as his picture and a small write-up are on 1/4 of the front of the paper, as well as he's pictured again on the back page. Elizabeth was also mentioned in the paper for her award.
Happy Halloween!
On Saturday, the town Edward works in was having a similar festival. He (and Drew who was too scared to walk the streets) handed out candy at his office while the rest of us headed out for some more Trick-or-Treating. Once they saw the inflatable play land they begged to forgo the candy for some entertainment. It was a good move because they had a blast. We had to ditch the costumes in order to do so.A little earlier in the day we went with Elizabeth's gifted program (PAGES - sorry, I don't think I know what that stands for) to St. Louis for a field trip to Laumeier Sculpture Park. It was ...alright. I was glad it was free. Since I knew we'd never make it on time to meet the group to carpool up, we just decided to meet them in St. Louis. That never happened. Even though we kept calling her teacher, we never met up with them. Whoops. We did meet up with the family of a boy in Ross' class who is also in PAGES, so he was pretty happy about that. The kids had a blast climbing all over the sculptures despite the DO NOT CLIMB ON SCULPTURE signs plastered all over the park.
"Good Kitty"
"Here's looking at you kid."
We topped off a fun night by joining our friends the Williams at a state park. This state park hosts camping and Trick-or-Treating every weekend before Halloween. We joined them at their campsite (and their beautiful camper) last year and were excited to do it again this year. Some of those campers go all out, I'm telling you! Anyway, here's the whole gang.
And baby Quinn had the sweetest costume! She was a Cabbage Patch Kid! She, too, got many, many complements, along with her big sister, Anna, the cute pink poodle.
"Good Kitty"
Can you see the face?
"Here's looking at you kid." 
We topped off a fun night by joining our friends the Williams at a state park. This state park hosts camping and Trick-or-Treating every weekend before Halloween. We joined them at their campsite (and their beautiful camper) last year and were excited to do it again this year. Some of those campers go all out, I'm telling you! Anyway, here's the whole gang.
And baby Quinn had the sweetest costume! She was a Cabbage Patch Kid! She, too, got many, many complements, along with her big sister, Anna, the cute pink poodle.Whew, I'm exhausted after staying up late sewing and crafting and Halloweening this week, but I love it. I still will be working on Edward's and my costumes for our church's party Wednesday. I'll post pictures later.
Happy Halloween!
