Halloween 2013

Above- The kids were Monsters from monster's Inc

Bellow- our two happy pumpkins for Halloween 2013

Last year I put too much thought and stress in to the kids costumes but this year was simple to choose with few complication besides a fabric cutting accident that I completely recovered from. At the beginning of October of last year a co-worker of Tyler’s gave us a Monsters Inc costume but it was too large for Issac.  I tucked it away & in September I pulled it out to discover it fit Issac pretty well.  In my head, I instantly wanted Josie to be the character “Boo” to match Issac’s “Mike”.  Online the costs of Boo costumes were close to a hundred dollars so I turned to Pinterest and cut and pasted different parts of different ideas and created my own costume!  I started with a grey hoodies from the goodwill ($3) and sewed a section of extra fleece I had around to add a skirt to the hoodies.  Then I sewed some purple fabric I scored on clearance for $6 over top the hoodie.  After that I used white string to sew circles around the body of the costume four times, bunching the excess fabric as I sewed.  For the top of the Boo costume I bought some sparkly pipe cleaners, foam balls and a yarn mop at the Dollar tree.  I had Tyler use a screwdriver to take apart the mop and I used my hot glue gun to glue the mop, eye balls & felt teeth onto the costume.  Anybody that has seen the movie knew who Josie was dressed as and I got a ton of kind compliments from other parents. So I’m marking this project as a complete success!

 We cut our pumpkins on the 20^th. At home in a very low key matter. The kids helped clean out the guts & then we did the rest because they’re still only 2 &4!!!

 

We celebrated Halloween in some new ways this year.  Everything we did was very fun and the kids had a great time.First, we celebrated the Saturday before Halloween at a kids Halloween party.  All the children were under seven and the games and activities were appropriate.  The kids enjoyed discussing their costumes with one another providing each other with compliments on what party of the costume they liked best.  The children each decorated a cupcake with frosting, sprinkles, crushed Oreos and gummy worms. 

 

On Halloween, Josie & I joined Issac in his Pre-K class for a day of fun. Earlier in the week, Teacher Colleen had invited Josie & I to come and stay.  We brought Issac’s favorite, Applesauce to share. All of the children in Issac’s class but one choose to wear their costume.  The kids did a Halloween, craft, enjoyed a wide variety of “party treats”, were read a few books and played a dozen or so rounds of musical chairs. 

 

After class we were invited to “Trick or treat the Waterfront” in Des Moines by some of Issac’s classmates.  We started at the north end of Memorial Drive at the old QFC and walked south along the business collecting our goodies. This activity ran from 3-5pm. It was our first time doing this and the children had a great time.  There were cops out directing traffic at busy intersections and all of the businesses were super friendly and I felt safe about the items we collected.  A little after 4pm we walked back to our car to meet Dad at home to enjoy the homemade chili I had cooking in the Crockpot.

 

After dinner Tyler & I took the kids out to trick or treat around our apartments for an hour. 

 

At seven we were inside watching Homeward Bound and happily greeting trick or treaters.  October 31^st itself was exhausting!  I needed all of Friday to recover but I would do it all again in a heartbeat because the kids enjoyed themselves and minus a twenty minute battle of getting both kids to walk up a hill to the car and getting home to eat dinner I enjoyed myself too.  Another holiday filled with memories in the record books for us. I hope you had a great Halloween as well!