Happy Halloween

We're heading off to trunk-or-treat 2014.

Captain Mexico, Captain America and Captain Canada in honor of the three North American missionaries from our family.  I found masks at the dollar store and sprayed them the right colors, printed off symbols from each country for our suits and shields and used plastic platters from the dollar store for our shields.

S was happy to be our 50's girl.  I found the skirt at Goodwill and then I put the poodle on it.

B my little angel.  

little g our zombie

My original costume was a flapper because I had found a neat dress at Goodwill, so that's what I was for Trunk-or-treat at the church.  I wasn't about to parade around in a skin tight jumpsuit.  

Happy Halloween.

Halloween 2013

We had so much fun with Halloween this year.  Well, we always do thinking we've really out done ourselves each year and happy with the comments.  But this year I couldn't help myself with a theme.  We've never done that before.  We love the show, "Duck Dynasty".  It is a funny semi reality show about a family that makes and sells duck calls.  At first glance they seem like rednecks and totally dumb.  But when you watch it, you smile and laugh and enjoy the show because it is clean and the family is close and are religious. Something you don't see much in the media anymore.  Anyway...just like every other year, I begin collecting costume pieces for weeks rather it be on line shopping, thrift store hunting, making do with what we already have, tweaking existing wigs or masks, and this year, ratting the heck out of beards and trimming them just as we walk out the door.  The boys loved all the attention and D was a hit at the ward trunk-or-treat.  Some kids had their eye balls bong out of their heads sure that "Duck Dynasty" was there.  So funny.

Happy Halloween.

Silly Skeletons

With A gone to college, G was excited that he got to do the Halloween decorating on the house this year.  I sat out front and coached him as to where I wanted each skeleton and their poses.  He was cute and worked on the house for three hours.  Some of that time was doing an awesome spider web going across the top of the garage with huge spiders and a black widow's nest but the wind blew it down the next day.  So, it's ixnay on the whole spider thing.  The kids love the house and so did all of the trick-or-treaters.  D said that many of the kids had their pictures taken in front of the house.  Made G's day.

Egyptian Royalty

D and I went to a couples Halloween party last night.  I think we rocked it.  :)  Or should I say, D rocked it???  I simply made a request of a song and next thing I knew, D was getting crazy on the {dance} floor.  Like seriously, crazy!!  Then it led to another song and another.  Oh.  My.  Word.  I mean his King Tut beard was getting jiggy with it flying around all over the place.  There is no one that dances like D.  I repeat.  There is NO ONE that dances like D!!!

Wizard Costume for pictures

So one of my friends on Facebook said this the other day.  "only in october do i wish i knew how to sew. and trying to make a wizard robe this year freaks me out! wishing i could be spared the pain and agony..."    I responded that I knew someone if she just asked.  Next thing I knew, she and her son were over at my house with a sketched out wizard costume.  The ten year old had drawn it himself and had even included a key so that I knew how to create his vision.  My friend and I just laughed at the situation.  They had picked out the fabrics and piping, and had just thought I could whip out something that looked more like a Power Ranger in my eyes along with some "Wizard" arms.  Which I could...but I knew that things would be walking the halls in the school, attending trunk-or-treats, Halloween, not to mention Instagram and Facebook and lastly my reputation.  You know, the three things around here.  Halloween costumes, Pinewood derby cars, and crazy hair days.  They left the sketch and the fabrics and told me not to go buy anything but to just use what they brought me.  I giggled as they walked out the front door wondering how in the world I was going to come up with that.  She told me that she would do our family pictures for helping her out.  Done!  I was totally in at that point.  The next day I raced to the store and picked up a couple dollar pattern of what I thought a wizard costume looked like and headed home.

I cut out inserts and did top stitching, hand sewed the piping around the neck and crossed my fingers that it would get the ten year old's approval.  I had reassured the mom that it wouldn't look like the sketch but it would look good.  I sent a text to my friend two days later saying that she could bring her boy over to visit me.

The moment of truth.....He was ecstatic!  He loved it.  It was perfect.  I was relieved beyond belief.  Check. Wizard costume made.  Hello family pictures in December when my big boys return home from a two year mission in Mexico and a first semester of college.  A great trade I think.

Halloween art

S drew some pictures to get ready for Halloween this month.

Witch

Dorothy

Jack-o-lantern

Trunk or Treat

For some reason I just wasn't really into the whole costume thing this year.  And.... my kids said that they never get to choose what they are so I let them this year.  Sort of.  :)

I'm exhausted.  We're home from Trunk or Treat, the kids have done their annual candy trade, we've watched Survivor and I'm ready to collapse into bed.  All I have done today is costumes.  Do you know what you can do with Duck Tape?  It's awesome.

This years costumes:

A, a red guy.  We spotted the outfit at Savers while looking for his Homecoming suit.  It was $35.  We opted out from buying it.  I found his red one at Goodwill this week for $3.99.  He was ecstatic about it.  It's really funny watching a string bean of a tall teenager dart across the down stairs.  Totally glad the whole Where's Waldo thing didn't pan out.

I tried and tried and tried to convince G and every other boy to be Elliott from E.T.  I lost.  One glance at A's red outfit and he wanted one.  So, I saw one at Walmart for $20 and knew it was a good investment not only for Halloween but for future family reunions, etc.  He was thrilled with it.  We did have to pin a lot of the  outfit around his midsection since it was for a tall person.

J wanted to be Captain America.  I cringed when I heard that.  Not one of the four zillion Captain Americas running around on Halloween night!!  But, when I saw the outfit for $2.99 at Goodwill, I couldn't rationalize it anymore.  J was thrilled, and then informed me that he needed a mask, and a shield and boots.  What??  So, the $2.99 suit turned into a $8 mask, a $1.99 plastic platter plus paint for a shield, and about $5 worth of Duck Tape for those awesome boots.  Did you see those things?  Made me happy that he was happy.  And.....he was the only Captain America tonight.

 little g wanted to be the Cat in the Hat.  What??  You thought I cringed when J wanted to be Captain America?  I almost threw up in my mouth when I heard that little g wanted to be the Cat in the Hat.  But, I decided I would let the kids be what they wanted.  I found one of those cheapy Star Wars outfits at the Goodwill for $4.99 and thought I could make a cat outfit from it.  I bought some white and black fabric for the tummy and tail, $1.50 white gloves, and $3.74 for Duck Tape to make the hat.  He thought it was wonderful.

I found B's Flamenco Dancer outfit at Target last year for about $2.  Couldn't pass that up.

Nor could I pass up the Cleopatra outfit on the same Target clearance aisle last year.  So, S was the $2 Cleopatra with a $4 wig from Savers.

And then there is this guy, with those teeth.  He's tried to get a kiss from me for years.  Still not happening.  I can look at him now though.  :)

Tis the season to be hunting......somewhere else!  I couldn't wait to show off my buck I found at the Salvation Army back in February for $16.  I was determined to be a hunter.  I checked out a few places for some cammies and then while heading out of the Salvation Army one day, I spotted the most beautiful pair of hunting pants ever.  They were a $4 pair of orange camouflage overalls.  The rest is history.

So much fun tonight.  So much fun seeing my kids happy and seeing them appreciate the little but tedious things I do for them.  Makes me feel like a good mom.  Happy Halloween!

Trunk or Treat...for weeks

The end of my kitchen counter has had a pile growing on it for weeks now.  Blue gingham fabric, pink shoes, freezer paper, rick rack, paint, colored hair spray, Cheetos jar, etc.  It evolves as the weeks go by too.  Pink shoes become Modge Podged with red glitter.  Freezer paper is used to make iron on stencils for a BYU jersey, etc.  Little by little, my Halloween collection is complete.  Ready for trunk-or-treat.  Ready for my reputation for costumes.  I'm happy.

Where to begin?  Hmmmm.....

I was afraid the girls would want to be princesses for the next ten years so I suggested a couple characters in bed one night.  They had never heard of Little Red Riding Hood until I told them the story that evening.  They wanted to hear it again and again.  I like the crazy, hunting, creative process of it all so, I ran down to the Goodwill and found an old Gap hoodie, tore it apart, hand stitched it together, unpicked all the Gap logos, glued on some rick rack with liquid stitch since my sewing machine is acting out and voila.  Little Red Riding Hood.

I then suggested Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz.  Once again, they had never heard of her.  So, we made a trip to Target and got the movie.  It's been a hit ever since.  S agreed that she would be Dorothy once she heard she would have red glitter shoes.  Have you ever made a dress without a sewing machine?  Or pattern?  Check out what liquid stitch can do.  I'm serious!!  New BFF.  Bought my first jar of Modge Podge too and glittered her pink patent Old Navy shoes once I cut off the straps and such.

After making my sister's skeleton shirt using freezer paper, I kidded that I could make anything!  J demanded a "Jimmer" jersey.  Easy enough.  After about eight to ten hours, he had a jersey and a pair of shorts good enough for Jimmer himself.  Although the freezer paper thing is very tedious work, it too is a good friend of mine.  :)  J then requested his hair be dyed like Jimmer.  I bought a brown paint that I use for crazy hair days, but he wanted it dyed.  Okay.  Dyed it was with Revlon 41 this afternoon.  Followed by several foam curlers.  Do you know how hard it is to get "Jimmer" hair?  It's hard.  But so worth it.  He was thrilled.

I wasn't quite sure what to have little g for Halloween.  He came up to me two days ago and said, "Mom, I've never been a vampire".  So, he was a vampire.  It's about the fifteenth one we've had, so he got robbed of anything cool.  I mean, I just look at this picture and I can tell I was like, "Just slap this kid together and call it a costume!"  At least he thought it was cool.  It's all about the fangs at that age.

I saw a costume idea on line the other day and showed it to G.  It was a quick sale.  He couldn't wait to parade around as the headless dude carrying his head.  Too bad we didn't have a Cheetos jar.  So, we headed to Sam's to buy Cheetos.  Took a knife to the jar, then scissors, then a saw, then a pocket knife, then finally sanded it so that it wouldn't literally behead him.  He said that he had over 25 compliments on it tonight and got extra candy because of it.  I guess it was a hit.

I found a dress at Ross the other day and it screamed "Wicked Witch".  So, a witch I am.  I needed a broom though.  Not any broom. Her broom.  So, I bought a wreath, cut it in half and wired it around my garage broom stick.  It was good but not good enough.  So, I cut the grass off a plant in the back yard and wired it on too.  Little brown spray paint and the perfect Wicked Witch Broom.

I had fun watching all my costumes parading around the gym during dinner tonight.  I could appreciate all the hard work I had put into them.  I had a few different women make comments to me about how I always pull this together every year.  That's when I would say, "Trunk or Treat takes me weeks!"  There is NO WAY this can be done over night.  Makes me happy.

Pumpkins our way

The kids did their pumpkins for Family Home Evening tonight.  It was crazy.  Long gone are the days of the pumpkin cutter thingies.  We pulled out the apple corers, cookie cutters, wood rolling pin, knives and cheese grater.  Yes, the cheese grater.  G said it made his pumpkin look cool and old.  Whatever.  :)

A had an apple corer.  Rather than kind of twist it into the pumpkin to make a hole, he just kept stabbing it.  Pumpkin innards were flying across the kitchen every time he pulled back out.  It was hilarious.  Until it came time to clean up.  Kind of wish we had a few chisels at that point.  Do you know how hard it is to clean up dried pumpkin innards?  Not cool.

Anyway, my soon to be nineteen year old in two days thought it was quite childish to have to carve a pumpkin.  But, it's his last one with the family so we made him.  I'm sure he especially loved the family picture with pumpkins and sparklers out for the neighbors to see.  He'll miss it all next year I'm sure.  

 How do you do your pumpkins?

Home again, home again, jiggety jog

It's not Thanksgiving yet, so I guess I can still post about Halloween Weekend. We went to visit my sister and celebrate in the small town festivities. It's become a tradition and I felt like we needed to go again since that would be time with my siblings. Several of us dressed up in our costumes and ran in the races. G was cute and helped the little girls run in their sprint. And yes, that is me as Cinderella dragging my sister along in the sprint. It was too funny. I was sure that my big Cinderella hair do was going to fall apart.

We went back to my sister's house for lunch and the kids enjoyed running around in the big space. (Where we live it's space. Where she lives it's acreage.) The girls somewhat like riding the horse, and the boys...well either they're city boys are they take after their mother. It's not for us. We don't like it.

My grandma came down for lunch. She's always called G her cinnamon bear because of his hair color. This picture is priceless.

I like my sidewalks and my cul-de-sac and the fact that I live in the most convenient place ever, but it really is fun going back to the small town to visit.

A few days later, I got a dreaded phone call from the nurse's office at the school. G came home with a goose egg the size of a, well, it was HUGE!

S ran herself into the ground the other day and fell asleep on the stairs.

The girls love doing hair. Somehow they convinced D the other day to do his hair.

This last weekend after we did our Veteran's Day deliveries, I took the five younger kids somewhere and stayed the night. We ate, swam, shopped and rode on rides. We had a good time but we anxious to return home. It's always fun to get away and see new things, see friends and family, relax, and such, but it always seems like we're antsy to get home again, home again, jiggety jog.

And since I'm on a roll now, one more thing. Despite my stupid toe and my back that's been bad for over a month, I've pushed through it, turned down lots of yummy food for months, began running again, and...

I'm now down over 30 pounds! Woohoo