Something Odd Was Happening on 10.31.16

I love posting our Halloween photos here each year.  They are by far my most pinned posts and I love getting to share our ideas with others.  

This year, we thought we had our Halloween costume ideas in order earlier in October, and then, we went to an Odd Squad Live show at a theater nearby recently.  The kids loved it.  And I loved hearing a theater full of kids whispering math problems excitedly.  But, I didn't love the prices of the souvenirs.  After we walked out with $20 worth of badges attached to the older two, and them still wanting the shirts that would make them look like Odd Squad Agents, my cheapskate side quipped that I could make them whole nice outfits for the price of the shirts.  And with that statement, their costumes for the year were born.

A quick trip to the thrift store and asking around to borrow things yielded blue jackets, red ties, and white button-up shirts.  Elijah already had red shoes.  And I learned what "Chuck Taylors" are when Brian said Theo really needed those for his outfit (plus they should be good motivation for him to learn to tie).

Realizing that we already had a black stroller and shirt that said "genius", Thomas's outfit came together instantly.  He was Baby Genius.

While very few adults knew who they were (most guessed detectives, policemen, or Trump), when fellow devotees of Odd Squad recognized them they got plenty of admiration.  And I gotta say it made my "teacher side" pretty happy.

Not a Doctor (Halloween 2015!)

This year, Elijah was 100% sure he was going to be a train.  No amount of parental persuasion was going to change that (despite the fact that we realized how cumbersome a train could be for a little three year old).  While I was hoping for the three little pigs (maybe next year), coordinating outfits were not to be this year.  Theo, on the other hand, didn't really have a clear idea and vacillated from one costume choice to another.  After a fun visit to the dentist (and seeing his permanent teeth under his baby teeth on the x-rays), he decided on being a dentist and I jumped on board (loved the simplicity factor).  I knew that most people would think he was a doctor/surgeon, but we went with it anyway.  And my third child, became a spider for his first Halloween.  Mostly because it was super easy and Eli has always had a love for spider webs and has recently taken to saying, "Spiders are me friend!"  So, it was just meant to happen.

The train basically came together from two cardboard boxes, an oatmeal container, and lots of duct tape.  Eli was adamant that the train have a snow-catcher on the front, and a smoke stack with lots of smoke.  We used brass fasteners to attach the wheels, and my favorite part was the push light headlight, which was very helpful on this dark Halloween night.

Theo's get-up is simply a set of scrubs we bought on Amazon, accessorized with a doctor tool and toothbrush in his pocket, and his set of x-rays.  While we had also ordered a white coat, it was apparently lost in the mail so he did without.

Thomas's costume included a black onesie, black pants, and 3 pairs of black socks.  I stuffed some filling in them and safety pinned them in place.  So easy, and I can still use everything from his costume once I unhook it all.  I know I wasted the perfect age to make a fun costume using his carrier, but Halloween just came way to fast this year for me to get something else together.  And, he was pretty adorable.  His brothers were so excited to see him as a spider that they actually looked at the camera and smiled simultaneously.

Trick-or-Treat/Moo!

It's getting to be one of my favorite things... dressing my two little boys up in semi-homemade costumes around the end of October.  I think it comes from the fact that there's not a lot of accessorizing you can normally do with boys.  Sure, they look super cute in overalls, or with their seasonal hats (pumpkin and blueberry are my favorite), but it's nothing compared to the cuteness and selection available of girls clothing.  But on Halloween, I think boys costumes can finally compete for the cuteness award.  See their costumes from 2010-2012 here, and 2013 here. 

Early trick-or-treating at the mall.

Thankfully, my boys are still into cute (not horrific) costumes, and I still get to influence their choices.  While last Halloween Theodore loved all the Thomas and Percy costumes he saw, and he declared he would be Thomas this year, that eventually faded.  The next idea he had was a race car, and thinking about the difficulty of getting a race car in and out of a car seat, I hoped that desire would fade as well.  Thankfully, when it was finally time to decide Theodore came up with a farmer (his future occupation, he has added a farmer to his builder dreamers).  How much easier of a costume can you get?  We already had boots, overalls, and plaid shirts.  All we needed was a John Deere hat (grandma found one and sent it) and a handkerchief.

And knowing that little brother still has more animal sounds in his vocabulary than real words, we knew we'd have to make him a farm animal to go with big brother.  I gave Elijah a few choices, and even though I think he is the best, most authentic "oinker" in the world, he went with "moo".  I found this tutorial online and couldn't have been happier with the results.  I ordered the black sweat suit from Carters, and sewed everything together in an afternoon (though it is hard to machine sew in the small areas of the legs and arms).  I used up some felt and googly eyes I already had, found a huge pink button in my button jar, and pinned on a tail we picked up at Joanns. I added some tie-on hooves out of black felt as well, and tagged him with a yellow ear-tag (#2), but that didn't make the pictures.

We grabbed some pails I originally bought for my classroom years ago, and were ready to go.  So far this year, while Theodore properly says "trick-or-treat", Elijah just "moos" at everyone.  If only I could bottle the cuteness.

Alexandria Boutiques & Air and Scare

I love Alexandria.  I like to pretend I live there.  And it would be great if I did since it is so close to Brian's work, but we don't.  But I love all of the boutiques on King Street, and have been wanting to get in them for a while.  I finally got my chance when I read about Alexandria's Boutique Trick or Treat last Saturday.  We dressed up the boys and headed there for a great afternoon checking out lots of new places.  I have lots of places to take my little sister to shop now when she comes out here next.

We took a break midway through to go to an author visit at the local bookstore, Hooray for Books!  We were one of only a few there, so it was awesome that Theo basically got his own personal reading from the author of a pretty popular children's book.  And since we are focusing heavily on numbers right now, Ten Timid Ghosts was the perfect story at the perfect time.  The author/illustrator Jennifer O'Connell even did a drawing using input from the kids.  And Theo got his first signed book.

(I forgot to mention that the cool people at the comic store were so impressed with Theo's Superman costume, that even though they weren't giving out treats they tracked us down on the street to give Theo a FREE comic book.  He spent about the next two days totally absorbed in it.)

 After this, we let the kids nap while we drove out to the Udvar-Hazy National Air & Space Museum's annual Air & Scare event.  This is free, being a Smithsonian, but requires a $15 fee for parking.  They stayed open extra late for this event, and it was packed.  Besides the candy stops, there were story, craft, and activity stations.  Our three year old had a great time.

Racing his "witch on a broom."

I should have mentioned last year that none of our Halloween costumes could be complete without the help of my hubby.  He is surprisingly crafty, and has a knack for figuring out how to get things to work.  Every year he willingly completes whatever I ask.  This year, I unfortunately did not get to pick out the costumes.  Theo got it in his head that he should be Spiderman, and since there was know way I was making that, I talked him into Superman.  I don't think he really knows who either of these  heroes are, but he was convinced he needed to be Superman.  We almost had him convinced to be a "knight in shining armor" (from a favorite Sesame Street episode).  He agreed once we explained the sword he would get.  And the fact that Eli would be a dragon.  But, he recently went back to just wanting to be Superman.  So, Eli was paired up as Batman, naturally.

These were pretty easy to put together.  We found the shirts and tights at Wal-Mart and some tights/socks and undies at Target (this is the second year in a row Theo is wearing girl's tights) and then got fabric, felt, and ribbon (yellow belt) at Joanns.  I put together Theo's cape based on this tutorial, and we threw socks and hose over Theo's rain boots to make them red.

While this was Theo at 44 months, his father was the same character many years ago at 38 months of age.

 His brother was Batman too.

For Elijah we went ahead and paired him as batman too, since he didn't have an opinion on the matter.  His cape was a lot more complex when I realized he should really have a hood and a bat-look to it.  I basically came up with it on my own, making a newspaper template to fit him, and using these three tutorials for ideas.  Super Hero Hooded Towel, Bear Hooded Towel, Cape Expectations

Brian then made Eli's black gloves, and their emblems also.

For more costume ideas, check out these links for 2010-2012 and 2014.

HallOween

So, for some reason, I have decided that I would really like to make my kids their Halloween costumes for as long as they will let me.  But I am not one to spend a lot of time with an elaborate costume.  I try to find ideas that are fairly simple (cheap) and quick.   Here are the ones we have come up with so far.

2012:  Football 1 month old and Football Player 2.5 Years Old

Having a newborn at Halloween kind of narrows the options, but I saw this on pinterest months ago and knew it would be perfect.  The football onesie was very easy.  Dyed it brown, and then used fabric glue to attach white bias tape that I already had in my craft supplies.  Brian gets the credit for making the stitching look as realistic as possible.  Bias tape worked much better than ribbon, which the glue kind of bled through on.  We put a green sleeper underneath for warmth, and thought it could double as a the green grass on a football field.

 For the player, we used a Colts jersey, blue socks, and white sneakers that we had at home.  For the pants, we bought some girls leggings and just adding two strips of ribbon down the side.  Theo was most excited to put on "mama's make-up" for his eye black, and was tolerant with the pads that dada made for him.  My husband spent quite a while making very, very realistic looking shoulder pads out of a plastic container and cardboard, and kitchen twine. He also made thigh pads out of cardboard and stuffing.  It was a little dangerous walking around in Eagles territory with the Colts jersey on, but he still got treats from everyone.

2011:  Johnny Appleseed:  1.5 Years Old

This year Theo had just begun saying the word "apple", so it gave us the inspiration for this costume.  Hubby again got in on the action with this one, creating the hat that Theodore would wear (a real pot was too heavy and wouldn't fit his head correctly).  He used cardboard covered in tin foil. I added a quick vest I made out of some brown cotton material I found, and made a quick pouch for his "apple seeds" (candy bag!).  Theodore carried an apple with him, and rolled up his pants to complete the look.  He could have gone barefoot to add to the look, but that wasn't practical. 

2010: Chocolate Chip Cookie 6 months old

For his first Halloween, I made T a cookie costume.  I simply made two light brown circular pillows, and then added dark brown chocolate chips to each one.  He still has these pillows on his bed.

For some more recent costume ideas, check out 2013 and 2014!