Three Kids for Halloween!
Happy Halloween! We just ended our day and I’m ready to slow down for a second and catch my breath. No such thing with these 3 littles. I finished the costumes down to the last second before the Trunk or Treat. Read more to see what costume Baby ended up with!
Pumpkin Time
These beauties are from our local pumpkin patch! I tried to find ones with personality since they would be carved into Jack-o-lanterns. We started carving them 2 Mondays ago for Family Home Evening while watching Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Unfortunately it was super late by the time we finished carving, so we didn’t put anything away (let alone take a fresh picture).
My white double-pumpkin was a happy smiley face on one side and a scared face on the other. L carved hers all by herself (say what!) with heart-shaped eyes and a teardrop. Jer’s is a classic sort of scary Jack-o-lantern. Now over a week later they are looking quite sad and old, curling and browning. They lasted until today, but just barely! We still have 2 more that need to be carved; I’m just not sure when we will have the time!
Let’s Talk Costumes
Water Fairy
Who knew there was such a fine line between a Water Fairy, a Mermaid, and an Ice Queen? Wings, apparently! L specifically requested that her Water Fairy costume not look like a blue version of Tinkerbell. The original plan was to make her a bodice which I bought sparkly see-through fabric for. After I realized that time was running out and we still didn’t have a design, L found her favorite blue sparkly dress and decided it would work perfectly! (Whew, I love it when that happens!)
We made her a fancy crown with seashells and leftover beads from my bridesmaid gifts years ago. Our biggest challenge was figuring out how to keep her warm without having it look like a Winter Fairy. I didn’t realize it until the day of, but her hair and costume had to hold up the entire day at school and shortly after for Trick or Treating with no time in between to redo anything. She had a coupe of fishtail braids and I wove her very top-heavy crown into her French braids, but it didn’t even last an hour later for the school parade.
Lightning McQueen
F was Lightning McQueen! I started sewing his costume a month ago before realizing that I should have just made it from cardboard because it had lots of structure issues. However, I wanted a version that was 3D because I thought he’d enjoy it better—and one that was higher quality I could wash and recycle for some other Halloween for the next kid, and that would withstand rough play from active boys. I finally tried it on him last night and alas, he was not happy to wear it—especially the box! I still didn’t have a solution for the structure 1.5 hours before go-time. My husband came up with the brilliant idea to make “pillows” and sew them for comfort and to help the costume keep its caboose shape, no cardboard required. I cut up a skirt I had planned on using and filled it with poly fill; it worked in a pinch!
Sushi Baby
I wasn’t going to dress up the baby, but I couldn’t let him go in an old sleeper! He will only be this little once and when else will I be able to dress him up this way? Whipped this up in 20 minutes! It would have taken maybe 5 if I was okay with hot-glueing everything to the onesie, but I sewed everything on.
Trunk or Treat!
It’s so nice with this age group to be able to just show up and have them go 3 feet to the next bowl of candy rather than up and down stairs and through people’s yards and doorsteps. It’s with a bunch of people you already know and love, you get to see everyone’s costumes before sunset, and then it’s all over in an hour right as it gets dark and freezing. It’s also super efficient! Your bowl of candy is gone, your kids’ buckets are filled, and everyone leaves to have a nice bowl of chili in the comfort and warmth of home.
The whole family came down, and the twins basically won the Best Costume Award as the BFFs Woody and Buzz from Toy Story! Their older sis had a matching Jessie the Cowgirl costume, but she refused to take off her pajamas to change (haha, the best laid plans). We were so happy to see all the cousins, Uncles, Aunts, and Grandma!
