Leaves, Tricks and the Dead

Kids are asleep, wore out from all the fun at Nana Sandy's house today. Trick or Treating was a success. Now it's just time for a quick post and The Walking Dead.
 

We packed up and head out early this morning for a little fun at my Mom's house before lunch/dinner and trick or treating with the kids. Mad Dog took of for a bit to meet up with our favorite Book Man (co-host of Books on the Nightstand), while the kids and I helped with the leaves. The kids got into it and I'm happy to say no on managed to get injured even though both are not licensed wield rakes. They jumped and raked and I even gave them rides in the wheel-barrel.

I gave my Mom a copy of Stephen King's Bag of Bones for the All Hallows Read. I love this book and have the audio read by King himself, and I can't recommend the audio enough (AMAZING!). She is just finishing Under the Dome which we loaned her so I thought it was rather fitting.

The costumes were finished before we made it to Mansfield. I made each child a treat bag from some red bandanna fabric I purchased for something else. I also found the drive to make the boot covers for both kids form felt last night which worked out perfectly. We were very happy with the costumes and the kids were very excited about wearing them, though Loki really liked the Woody had to start with.

We hit the neighborhood early and hit about 10 houses, visiting some of my old haunts. I even took time in the cold to read some of the telephone poles, but that is another post.

I'm off the be scared out of my wits! I'm sure if anyone wishes to call me after The Walking Dead, I'll be up for several hours watching some kind of happy film: Bring it On; Spice World; etc.

 One last time Happy Halloween All!

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

 

H-A-LL-O-W-EE-N Spells Halloween!

I know I've said this before, but Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. Thought in recent years things have been tamed down with the kids, we still get excited about the 31st of October.

This year there is a lot to be excited about. Lex and Loki are getting into the spirit of things by helping decorate the apartment today. I pulled stuff I had packed away. I don't have nearly as much as I once had, but we still make it worth it. This also allowed me to take down Lex's Cars Birthday sign, since I needed to talk him into it. I pulled our my hand-painted skull lanterns. The ceramic white ghost that was once my Mom and Dad's (I really need to get a light kit for it again). A little witch I made before the kids were born out of newspaper, wire and clay. I still don't know how she has managed to survive this long. I did have these amazing Nightmare Before Christmas mini statues, but last year Lex broke Jack and Sally.

We hung cobwebs and ghosts. I made spiders our of pipe-cleaners and pom-poms. Lex and Loki made pumpkins for their walls. I cut the paper pumpkins and their decorated them. Once finished they hung them in their rooms. Loki went to bed with her 3 pumpkins on her walls, but Lex wasn't as brave. He had me clear out all his hard work before turning in for bed. When it got dark we turned on the cheesy fire cauldron, which Lex was very concerned about. He kept saying it was getting hot, I don't think he gets that it's a little fan, a orange light and some blowing fabric. Ahh to be a kid again.

We have more to do tomorrow. I might look at making a cookie haunted house with them, but that might be for another weekend later in the month. We still have bats, cats, rats and bugs (I know it doesn't rhyme) out of black paper to make. I still have to decide if the Lego City that gets decorated at Christmas, will receive a spooky touch this season. Might have to get some vampires and witches from the second wave of mini-figures.

I have to put something in here about Lex's pumpkins. He worked very hard and was very excited about them. Each one he made special. One he put glasses on. Another has a scar. One was even sad. Loki did some drawing on hers, but she had gone to bed by the time I started to take photos of things. We also worked on cut out faces, but that was mainly me cutting and Lex telling me the type of face he wanted for his new orange friends.

I have to pick up a wreath so I can deconstruction my Medusa wig from a few years ago, and make a snake wreath for our front door, since I got rid of my shrunkin head arrangement last year.

Along with decorating today, I started to work on Lex's Woody shirt. I had ordered solid plain longs sleeve t-shirts from Hanes for the costumes and picked up a red fabric pen at A.C. Moore this morning while we were out for a bit. I started making the 1 inch checker pattern on the shirt. I think I'm going to add the stitches Andy sews on Woody's right arm (from Toy Story 2) too. We still have to pick the cow print fabric, but this is coming along. I have the felt and ribbon for Loki's Jesse shirt. I know once they see the outfits they will be excited. Plus once this is all done, we'll have costumes when we watch Toy Story 3 on DVD on November 2nd. Yee Haw!

Oh one last thing I almost forgot to mention. October 31st is the premier of AMC's The Walking Dead. If you haven't read the graphic novel written by Robert Kirkman (art by Tony Moore/Chris Adlard) you should its great. I've fallen behind in my reading, but it's one of those books I pick-up from time to time. It's a story of life following a zombie apocalypse. It follows a group of survivors, lead by police officer Rick Grimes as they search for a safe and secure home.  The show starts at 10PM. Thank you AMC, for putting this on the air and for letting it start after season 4 of Mad Men ends!

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!