Okay, so Halloween is not my favorite holiday. I don't like the creepy, ghouly & blood-oozing costumes...they don't make me queasy, I just don't really get them. I also prefer a holiday that has a bit of a deeper meaning. That being said, I realize how much kids enjoy celebrating a night when you get to dress up in a fun costume, & walk around the neighborhood ringing doorbells to be rewarded with free candy!
There is usually talk in our household for months regarding what the kids want to be for Halloween...and it generally changes about a hundred times. This year, we really didn't talk about it that much (other than Jack who talked nonstop about wanting to get the Deluxe Super Mario costume from Party City...which I was going to get for him, but then he lost the privilege of a new costume as a consequence for something.) With Jeff being out of town last week, I knew we were not going to make any progress on costumes. So Sunday afternoon, we sat down at the computer & brainstormed ideas & looked through lots of fun costumes on the Family Fun magazine website. I had seen the cute paper doll costume on their magazine cover & thought that would be cute for Darcy. Sophie wanted to do that, too. And somehow Jack came up with the idea to be Snoopy the WWII Flying Ace on the roof of his doghouse! Step 1: Deciding on costumes...check! Step 2: Jeff went to the store to buy lots of poster board & hollow core mat board...check! Step 3: Getting it done! The kids were off of school today for teacher conferences. Jeff & I went for our conferences around lunchtime. (A big thanks to Pop & Nana for babysitting everyone while we went to the school!) When I got home from conferences (Which were great, by the way! We are proud of both of our good students!) I tried to get Drew & Lucy down for naps & then I got busy to work making paper doll costumes. I drew a fairly simple design for Darcy's dress & cut it out...then of course, Sophie found a picture that she wanted me to copy for hers...a fancy princess...it was a little more complicated! The girls & I worked on the paper doll costumes pretty much for a solid 3 hours, but I thought they turned out really well! (Drew & Lucy never did go to sleep, so Jack worked hard to keep them happy & out of trouble while he waited patiently for Daddy to come home & work on his costume. What a great big brother!)
Darcy, our Classic Paper Doll
Pure preciousness!
So sweet!
Sophie, our Princess Paper Doll
Such sophistication & grace!
Jeff got home shortly after 5pm as I was finishing up the paper dolls, so I immediately put him on dog house production. With a box, some poster board, a piece of black mat board & some duct tape, Jeff knocked it out of the park!
The WWII Flying Ace!
Soaring through the sky!
(Not bad for a 45 minute costume, eh!)
Drew was too busy playing to put on his costume. Even when I said we were going to go get candy from people, he wanted to just stay home & play. But finally we convinced him to put on his king costume (home made 6 years ago by Nana for Jack!)
Drew really didn't care about the costume one way or the other, but he liked getting to carry something that basically looked like a baseball bat!
Super-cute king!
(I am not wearing this crown!)
The king & his loyal subjects!
Poor Lucy, we woke her up from a good nap (finally!) to get her costume on for trick-or-treating.
We didn't want her to miss the fun!
Our cute little dinosaur! Each one of our kids has been this dinosaur for their first Halloween!
Trying to get the annual Halloween pic of all the kids...
Turns out our king is quite the drama queen & would not cooperate at all!
But now we are finally off!
Candy awaits!
Lucy isn't so sure this is going to be very fun! (But she sure looks cute!)
It was neat for Jack because people were calling in the streets, "Hey Snoopy! Great costume!" He got lots of attention for his creative costume...it ended up being waaayy better than Super Mario!
I know this is blurry, but I think Jack-o-lantern snowman beside Lucy is hysterical...haven't even been to one house yet & already the kids buckets are too heavy...great!
Trick-or-treat!
Wait for me!
Drew was going no where fast! He was always our little straggler.
A pretty crescent moon
Drew getting a little lift from Daddy
When we were at least two houses behind the rest of the group, I had a conversation with Drew that went something like this...
Me: Drew, can I carry you so that we can catch up?
Drew: No
Me: Would you like to ride in the stroller?
Drew: No!
Me: You sure don't like getting anywhere in a hurry, do you?
Drew: NO!
Like it or not, Drew had to ride in the stroller
Not 5 minutes later, Drew was asleep!
(See what happens when you don't nap like your mommy says--you sleep through trick-or-treating!!)
Finally a group shot of all the kids....even if Drew had to fall asleep for me to take it!
Even kings need their rest!
Once back home, Jeff got Drew changed & put straight down to bed, while the big kids sorted their candy.
Lucy supervises
After a couple of pieces of candy each, it was time for our merry bunch to head to bed!
So there you have it, folks, that's how you do a last-minute Halloween!
Our jack-o-lanterns
(And whoo-hooooo, I did it! I'm done! I made it!! I accomplished my goal of blogging every day for 31 days! Now please excuse me if I go crawl into a hole to sleep take a break for a few days & actually go to bed before 1:30 am!)
