Our Family Project

We found the dress up clothes a week or so ago.  I posted these photos on Facebook, so they aren't a surprise to most of you, my friends and family.  The story behind it, is this: Upon opening the box of dress up clothes, I saw many, many items which I made in the past.  This one item stood out to me.  I think it's because I never took a picture of it when Adam wore it for Halloween in 2009.  This cape was originally going to be green on the outside with a black lining.  I cut out all the pieces for the cape when I cut out everyone's costumes last year (I made almost everyone's costumes ... two of four consisted of capes which made it easy), then set the fabric aside.  Adam decided to be "helpful" and cut the green fabric in several places.  So, I improvised.  Instead of a cape with a lining, I rounded off the places he had cut and ironed them under about a 1/2-inch.  Then, I sewed the green and black together so that it looked like ...

For Halloween this year, we went to two different trunk-or-treats.  Instead of trick-or-treating on Sunday, our church combined with another congregation to put on a trunk-or-treat on Friday, the 29th.  Basically, everyone who wanted to give out candy backed their car into a parking space and opened their decorated-for-Halloween trunks, then handed out candy to the children who were dressed up.  Oh, and it was also a kind of pseudo-carnival, and an announced but nothing was ever really judged chili cook-off. Then, on Saturday, we went up to Prescott Valley to visit our good friends.  Their church also organized a trunk-or-treat with some other congregations, so we got to go to another one!  Halloween is always better when you get to dress up twice!  Our children had a blast playing with their friends (and they still play/hang out well together after months of being apart), and LOVED decorating their truck and our van.  They did way b...

Today, being the last day before Halloween, some of my children got to wear a costume to school.  Eliza's class has been studying pirates all week, culminating in a class-dress-up day as pirates today.  Believe it or not, she got two homemade costumes this year!  All she has to do is swap out the bottoms!  She plans on being a gypsy tonight for the trunk-or-treat, but for today she is a pirate.  (And, of course, her costume is labeled all over the place!)  However, Poor Andrew!  He has a store-bought costume.  I HATE store-bought costumes!  No offense to anyone who buys their costumes.  My issue stems from the fact that my children actually like to play dress-up.  They will wear their costumes everyday leading up to Halloween if I'd let them.  Unfortunately, this does not bode well for the store-bought costume.  In my experience, they are very cheaply made (I'm talking HUGE stitches that pull apart at the seams, and nyl...