Halloween Etc

First, pumpkin carving, which was a fairly painless experience this year. Rex carved his own; Alice mostly carved her own; Henry and Greg worked together; and I took pictures and scrapped out a few guts.  I'm trying to not worry so much about messes and to just let the kids be kids.  This day, I didn't insist that the entire house be clean before we make a mess, and it worked out just fine.  I think we even ate dinner outside after so we could prolong the pumpkin mess.

Saturday was the ward Trunk or Treat, and as a self-proclaimed Trunk or Treat expert, I'd say this was one of the better ones I've been to.  Grant it, they didn't announce the starting time, so we showed up an hour early  (oops), the food wasn't ready on time, there wasn't enough food, they failed to announce that people were supposed to bring desserts and there weren't enough tables and chairs set up, BUT because it was just our ward and it was outside, I felt comfortable letting the kids run around and enjoy their friends on a friend holiday.    I even let them trunk or treat on their own, which took a lot of stress off of me trying to keep everyone together and happy, but I think the kids had more fun running around with their friends.  The reason why this was ok, AND the reason this was one of the better trunk or treats I've been to: after dinner the bishopric gathered all the kids around and gave the adults two to three minutes to get out the candy and they set limits of where the kids could go.  It was nice having an official start time and not just have people awkwardly start walking around they want.

Alice and her bestie Lottie

Jack and Henry

Piper, Hazel and Alice

Rex, Derick, Will and Jack

Now, onto the costumes.  I'm pretty proud of myself for these--I costumed the entire family and decorated our van for less than $50.  

First, the family:

 Aren't we adorable?  We're SuperHeroes.  Greg is Alfred, Batman's butler.  And Rex is an eagle.  He doesn't like to play along with my silly games.

So in case you want to copy me, here's how I did the costumes.

Me: I'm Batman.  I wore my black spandex and a black long-sleeved shirt that I wear all the time but my friends were all impressed by my sexy Batman.  It was more like work-out Batman who straightened her hair, but I digress.  I made a felt belt that I sewed the Batman logo onto and I quick-stitched that Batman logo on my shirt as well.  I safety pinned one of Alice's play Batman capes to my back.  BAM.  done.  Although cutting all those Batman logos was a pain.

Greg: Alfred the Butler.  He wore slacks, a white shirt, cardigan and tie that he already had.  Then we sprayed his hair gray to look like Michael Cain.  $2.  BAM.  Done.

Rex: Eagle.  This was a slightly annoying because he decided he wanted the feathers to be sewn on a different way than I had originally thought I would, so I had to hand sew them on.  And then for the head I was just going to sew a white hood with a yellow beak on but then I saw a more detailed version on Pinterest so of course I had to do that.  So for his costume, I got a brown hoodie and brown pants from a consignment store, then hand sewed felt feathers onto the arms, machine sewed the tail on (thank goodness), and pieced together this ridiculous hood.  But he was happy with it.

Alice: She started the Super Hero theme by wanting to be Wonder Woman.  For her, I bought a long-sleeved red shirt at a consignment store, because it's October.  I used freezer paper as a stencil to paint the Wonder Woman design on the front.  For the skirt, I used an old cape we've had laying around for years.  I sewed up the sides and added 3 felt stars.  For the head band I use Peltex in between 2 layers of gold and pattern I found on Pinterest.  The I used elastic in the back to keep it on her head.   I used the same pattern to make the belt, but this time I used felt for shape and only did 1 layer of gold fabric, but I cut it big so I could fold it around the felt and sewed that in place.  The arm bands are also Peltex.  I just wrapped some Peltex around her forearm cut, and sewed gold fabric on the top.  Then I cut the feet off an old pair of Rex's baseball socks because Alice hates stuff on her feet to make the boots.  I think Alice was a little disappointed in her costume because I made an appropriate for end of October and little girls version.  She got over it.

Henry: wanted to be Robin because he likes to wear Alice's Robin tutu around.  It took a bit of convincing to have his wear this more masculine version.  For Henry, I bought another plain red shirt from the consignment store, cut the sleeves off and re-hemed the now-tank top.  I made a Robin logo out of felt, which I sewed to the shirt and some yellow decoration.  He wore an old green long sleeved shirt of Rex's underneath that with some of Alice's yellow leggings, the cape from the tutu costume and the belt from the tutu costume.

 Zora: Super Girl!  For her, I bought a long sleeved blue onesie at the consignment store to which I sewed the Super Man logo.  Then I made her a red circle skirt, which I didn't bother to hem or make a real casing for, I just sewed the elastic right on.  Then I made a cape which I also did not hem, that I sewed the Super Man logo to and safety pinned to her shirt.  Can you tell, hers was the last costume.  I was so sick of all my sewing stuff being out that I just wanted every thing done.  She was also the only kid not bugging me about costumes.

For the car, I made a city sky line out of black foam board, yellow poster board, hot glue and 2 1/2 hours of my life.  I added some crepe paper that I already had to finish off the look.

Monday night, we had an uneventful but super fun nonetheless night trick or treating with the Wheatley's.  Henry eventually fell asleep on the stroller so I headed back to the Overson's and hung out by their fire until the other kids were done.