Halloween and such...

Hope you all had a happy and safe Halloween. We sure had fun at our house!

I was let off the costume hook by my kiddos, which is great becuase I'm not sure I would have been up to making costumes for them. Allison decided months ago that she wanted to be a witch and wanted to wear the costume I got for the dress-up box during last year's after-halloween clearance. And Carter was going to be a wizard, but then decided to be a pirate instead. I found his little costume online for 99 cents... I bought 2 to make the shipping worth while and now my kids don't have to fight of the pirate costume during dress-up... yahoo!

At the ward's trunk-or-treat

trick-or-treating our neighborhood with daddy

Beginning the sugar high...

We had some other fall fun at our house too. A few weeks before halloween we went to a little pumpkin patch near our house. Nothing big, but the kids had fun.

they love silly photo ops...

And were all about the mini pumpkins and gourds.

Unfortunately we went about a week too early. They INSISTED on carving the pumpkins for FHE a week later, which meant that by the time halloween rolled around those poor jack-o-lanterns were BLACK with mold. Ew... Needless to say they got tossed yesterday.

All Things Halloween

On Thursday (with a Friday Encore) we carved pumpkins with the kids...

Then Saturday we drove to Kirtland to see Brian's parents and crash (with permission, of course!) a local ward's trunk-or-treat for the kids. Mike and Julie really loved seeing the kids (and us too!). Fun was had by all. Sadly, I didn't get a single good photo of the kids together. Hopefully theres one on my in-laws camera... hint, hint...

Allison loved showing off her treats...

Carter loved stuffing his face with them...

And I loved that they thought they got SO much candy, when they only had a handfull each. :)

Fortunatly, becuase no one in our house have been healthy since we said goodbye to August, the kids were super wiped-out last night, so we didn't have to crosss the "why can't I go trick-or-treating on Sunday" bridge. Both kids were asleep before we got our first trick-or-treaters.

And my favorite part of the holiday? The great deals I snagged at Target on clearance this morning. Best time of year to buy dress-up clothes. :)

Halloween's Dress Rehearsal

The Disney Store here in Syracuse did a Halloween Dress Rehearsal event. Basically it was an excuse for little kids to dress up in their costumes, come to the store, play a few games and parade around (all in hopes of their parents spending a few dollar there, I'm sure).

Allison loved being able to dress up in her Tinkerbell costume, and she got a LOT of compliments on it. She enjoyed...

playing in the Disney Store as long as she wanted...

playing the "Banish the Villians" game...

"Freeze Dancing"...

parading around the store, waving... with BOTH hands.

And she loved getting to take a carousel ride when the party was all over.

It was a good day to be Allison...

As if I needed a longer "To-Do" list

For your viewing pleasure. Please note that I take no responsiblity for your urge to do these projects as a result of looking at this post.

I've been thinking I should make some skirts for Allison. She loves skirts and they'd be so cheap to make... cheaper than buying the things. Toddler-sized skirt patterns don't exist (becuase they're so stinkin' easy, but I'm a Type A, so I looked anyway), so I hit the internet. Here are a few of my favorites that my searches yeilded me today.

Lazy Days Skirt. No picture here, but click the link for the instructions. Its simple and easy. I'll probably make this one several times over.

The Dresden Plate skirt. Cute, huh? See the scallop edge? Not being a quilter I had no idea what a "dresden plate" was when I stumbled upon the post. But it makes a DARLING skirt. But, not-so-simple. Good thing I was taught well how to sew well (thanks, Mom!). Find the tutorial over at Crafter Hours.

The Tumbler skirt. Adorable. I love the shape. I acutally think I need to make one fore me before Allison. Looks like the PERFECT summer skirt, if you ask me. Tutorial over at Crap I've Made (seriously, thats the name of this blog).

Easy Whirly Skirt. Cute, simple, looks FAST to stitch up. Another make-it-a-million-times winner by the looks of things. Find the tutorial over at This Mama Makes Stuff.

By the way, if you're in the market for patterns, Simplicity is $1.99 at JoAnn's this weekend. We picked up the pattern for Allison's costume today. I'm not telling what she wanted to be... I was mildly (but not completely) surprised at her choice, and I'm excited that she chose something that I could use as a jumping-off point for costumes for the rest of the family. We might even convince Brian to play along and dress up this year. :)

On a related note, I now aspire to NEVER take my children to Jo-Ann's again. Ever. And if you happened to be in the Fayetteville Jo-Anns before 11 am today, I apologize for the crying, screaming banshees' behavior... er... I mean, my children's behavior.

Halloween and such...

Yes, we are still alive. And now that Halloween has come and gone (and I'd discovered that my dad's computer has an SD card reader) I have something to blog about that doesn't involve discussing how much I dislike unemployment and job hunting.

Halloween was fun this year... Allison went as Cinderella (her favorite princess) and Carter was a guitar. I got to make both kid's costumes and I loved how they turned out. Carter's didn't end up exactly how I thought it would, but I ran short on time, and what I managed worked out anyway. We took the kids to a 2-ward trunk-or-treat at the stake center. It was huge and it was a good one. Allison thouroughly enjoyed herself and has periodically been asking to go trick or treating again. We have yet to oblige her on that point, but I do let her wear her "halloween dress" around as she sees fit.

Allison. Isn't that dress (and the girl in it) too cute? Best part, it was totally free. The blue fabric was left over from decorating for my wedding. Mom donated the starry fabric and the little trim... tiara was one hanging around the house from our pagenting past. Oh... wait... I lied. I did buy a little dollar store princesses bracelet to steal the Cinderella "gem" from. So this costume cost $1.

Allison up close, with the dress all done.

Apparently Carter was the devil baby guitar... I had intended this to go on his front, but then decided it would look just as good on his back and bug him less. He was happy to just be held during trick-or-treating... no candy required for this kid.

Beyond Halloween, life has mostly been revolving around trying to find a job (which I'm beginning to think might not happen before the first of the year) and trying to help my mom accomplish as many projects as possible for Emily's wedding on the 21st (note to self: hire a wedding planner to do all the projects for Allison's wedding...).

Allison has provided us with some recent excitement too... Thursday evening she pulled a 30 inch barstool down onto her big toe, splitting the toe nail in half, pulling the nail matrix out completely, splitting her toe open pretty well and chipping the bone a little. She got her toe numbed, nail replaced 3 stitches and a splint to keep her from pushing off with her toes when she walks... oh, and 15 stickers (we've been to the urgent care 3 times now... once for the injury and two wound checks). Hopefully we'll be able to get her stitches out next Thursday when we take her in again. And, heaven willing, then never go back.

The Perfect Costume

I found the perfect costume for Carter's first Halloween... nevermind that we have a perfectly good purple monster costume that that Allison wore last year and would fit him just fine this year. But I saw this one at Babies R Us the other day and we have to have it. Its $30, and I would never pay that, but I think it'll be pretty easy to make. What do you think?

Too cute, and too perfect, right? I think it'll be pretty easy to make my own... Black sweats & long sleeve onesie (good thing those are available at Halloween), little bit of red, white and black vinyl or something...

On another note, when discussing Halloween, Allison told me she would like to dress up as a princess this year (surprise, surprise!). When pressed, she informed me that Cinderella was her princess of choice. That sounds less easy. Good think we'll probably be living with the super-costume-sewing Grandma... she'll be great help. =)