Just Another Trick or Maybe a Treat

I am the one hiding under your bed

Teeth ground sharp and eyes glowing red

Lex & Mad Dog carving

The final countdown until all the goules, witches and frights come out to enjoy the night. Time to finish up costumes, fight last minute parents and the lines at the Halloween store for misfit costumes what no one wanted. The kids will be dreaming of chocolate, gummies and treats, similar to those they dream about on Christmas Eve, tonight. 

I am the one hiding under yours stairs

Fingers like snakes and spiders in my hair

Loki's Pumpkin

We have carved pumpkins, roasted pumpkin seeds, decorated for the spooky time of year and we have even made Halloween treats. Along with all this we have been working on Lex and Loki's costume for several weeks on and off. Though we had wanted to make them several costumes we found that Halloween snuck up on us. This resulted in one costume each. With their current obsession with Toy Story we thought that Woody and Jesse would be perfect. Mad Dog has been working on Lex's Woody vest and I have been working on both kids shirts. At this point we're down to finishing touches. Mad Dog has to stick Loki's chaps on to her pants and I have her buttons to put on her shirt (would have been done, but I lost one of the pairs I purchased). I need or I should say want to make felt boot covers for their sneakers since we couldn't find any cowboy boots at the Salvation Army, but this moment my heart isn't in it. 

Lex's Pumpkin

I am the clown with the tear-away face

Here in a flash and gone without a trace

Lex's costume is made of a Yellow Hanes long sleeve t-shirt, which I drew red lines on with a fabric marker to make the checks of Woody's shirt.I added the additional red stitches at the shoulder for when Andy fixed Woody in Toy Story 2.  He will be wearing his blue jeans and a home made cowhide vest. We purchased the hat, which came with belt from the Disney Store. 

I am the "who" when you call, "Who's there?"

I am the wind blowing through your hair

Woody's shirt

Loki's costume was a little more involved. I purchased a similar white Hanes long sleeve t-shirt which I painted the cuffs with a yellow fabric paint (from Lex's Robin costume from last year). I then sewed red 1/4 inch embroidered ribbon and a white button on for detail. With the sleeves done, I moved on to the front of the shirt. I cut yellow felt in a scalloped shape and sewed it to the front of the shirt, using a yellow thread, and a dark bobbin thread with wide stitches to give a home stitched look. I then had stitched the same 1/4 embroidered ribbon on the front in the loopy design found on Jesse in the movie. The piece will be finished with the same big white buttons found on the cuffs. Her pants are stretch pants which look like jean fabric. We have added cowhide chaps to the front. Her costume will be finished off with a Jesse hat purchased at the Disney Store. 

Mad Dog working on Vest

I am the shadow on the moon at night

Filling your dreams to the brim with fright

With all the costume work I made some treats for tomorrow, along with the pumpkin soup and the breads Mad Dog made for our trip to my Mom's for a fall fest (you can read all about that at Cute Fan Girl Goes Local). After eating and Trick or Treating we'll come home for a little zombie fest with The Walking Dead on AMC. This will of course result in me watching something happy afterwards like Bring it On. Oh well, part of the fun of Halloween is the scare. 

This is Halloween, this is Halloween

Halloween! Halloween! Halloween! Halloween!

Halloween! Halloween! 

Jesse's Sleeves

 Some advise before I go. Remember you can walk faster than a zombie (a real one!). Aim for the head. Real vampires don't glimmer or shimmer. There are monsters under your bed, so make sure you're feet are tucked in at night. Blonde children with blue eyes are evil and should not be trusted (thank God I got a mixed bag on that). Babysitting on Halloween is not the brightest thing to do, but if you do make sure to check the children several times and if the phone rings know it's someone in the house.

Jesse's Shirt

Also don't forget give a book this Halloween as apart of All Hallow's Read. If I didn't love Neil Gaiman before I love him even more now (and Mr. Stephen King for supporting the new tradition). Hmm...did I get everything now? I think so - Oh wait! There will be pictures of the kids completed costumes to follow. Otherwise have a Happy Haunted Halloween.
**Lyrics from This is Halloween by Danny Elfman

Oreo and Marshmallow Pops

Alien Oreos

 

Holy Trick or Treat Batman!

I have to say Fall is my favorite time of the year. The leaves changing, the cooler weather and most of all Halloween (also all the yummy Pumpkin stuff). It's been a few years since I have been in full Halloween swing. Its been harder to get things pulled together with the little ones and plus I don't want to scare them too much with all our decorations and stuff. This year is different, I think we will go all out. It's time to pass the torch to the next generation, get them to love the fear, to spookiness and to watch for things that go bump in the night.

We have asked the kids what they want to be (well Lex anyhow). He informed us that he wanted to be Spiderman, and then that Loki should be Batgirl. Once I reconfirmed Spiderman and Batgirl, I was corrected and told Superman and Batgirl. Yes our kids are DC kids, might have been being baptism by Dan Didio at our first Baltimore Comic Con. Superman and Batgirl it is, well until yesterday when he changed to Batman. We're looking at old school Batman and Batgirl from the Adam West television show. If we can't pull that together, I'm mostly concerned about finding the right fabric for Loki's costume, I think we will got with The Batman television versions. I have looked up online to purchase tights for Lex's costume (gray) and a long sleeve t-shirt for the top. We'll have to make his cape, and I'm thinking dyed black underware for the briefs.

Loki's Batgirl costume will need to be fully made, no short cuts for this one. I have found directions to make the cowls, which doesn't seem that hard. We'll have to make them for either version of the costumes. I think I'm going to make their utility belts out of felt this year. Lex was Robin last year and I used foam sheets and it didn't have what it takes to hold up to a toddler. His Robin costume we made from destructing T-shirts, a little bit of fabric paint and sewing.

Along with making the Superhero costumes, Mad Dog and I are making them Toy Story costumes, Woody and Jesse. Loki adores them both and they both are big fans of the movies. I am picking up simple long sleeve t-shirts, and some cow print material for the vest and chaps. Mad Dog purchased the hats at the Disney Store yesterday, I didn't think I was up for make those. Family Fun magazine has a how to make yarn wigs, which will be perfect for Jesse's yarn hair. Along with the cow print material I need a little yellow for Jesse's shirt, some ribbon for accents and a red fabric marker to make the pattern on Woody's shirt. Part of the reason for making these is because in the end it will be so easy, but the other side is that the kids will be able to play dress-up and encourage creativity in the process. They both already play pretend ALOT.

Mad Dog has already expressed that next year he wants us to have a Halloween party, which I would love to do. I think it would be fun. Before some of us had kids, at least one of my friends hosted a Halloween party (I did one year too). The bests were always hosted at my friend Blue's place (her and her roomates at the time would host). My friends came up with the best costumes, making the night very exciting since you never knew that people were going to come up with. Most if not all the customes were handmade, which is part of the reason I like to make the kids costumes. I think it makes it more exciting and makes you honestly think about the objects around you. It's easy to order something or run to Target and pick one up, but to breakdown an outfit to think about how to reconstruct it from simple pieces of clothing or props it far more fun.

Mad Dog always jokes that he wait until the kids are old enough to really get into Halloween. With my need to show off, there will be alot of kids running from fear and envy of the costumes our kids will be wearing. I do like that idea, not being mean to other kids but the fact that I can show off to their parents (I know I'm terrible) - it's probably one of the catagories I can be "That Parent" in, you know the one that the other parents hate! What fun! For now I can only hope and dream, until my kids can wear full on make-up and be covered in a disgusting subsitance or dressed in something Stan Wiston would be proud of.

Happy Fall!