Halloween House

Here are some of the decorations from our spooky Halloween house. I know kinda late to post.

Halloween 2012

Emily ran out before I could really get a picture of her. She wanted to be a "Girly Girl" is what she called it. She wanted things to be extreme and things she normally wouldn't wear... Lots of sparkles, dark makeup, her hair all done, pink stuff. Not that she doesn't like pink, but she always says she isn't a "Girly girl" and I agree, she isn't super fussy about all the glamorous things advertised for girls.

Lindsey wanted to be a voodoo witch. It was lots of fun making. She looked very gross! I could hardly look at her. Not sure if you can tell but she even had brown teeth. There were all sorts of things hanging from her skirt, snakes a bird, voodoo doll, spiders, skulls... many things from Halloween stuff. Even a rat! Her costume was lots of fun.

Lauren wanted to be a pretty witch, whatever that meant I wasn't sure. People would refer to the girls as a bad witch and a good witch. Lauren was pleased with her costume.

Amber was a princess, Costco costume made easy. We did spray her down with glitter.

Samantha was a fairy which also came from Costco which made it easy.

The grade schoolers, Lindsey, Lauren, and amber had a Halloween parade at school. Lindsey didn't wear her wig or much makeup for school. The individual pictures were taken right before school. I painted Samantha's face like 3 times and then just gave up.

It was my year to take the girls around trick or treating. We got way too much candy and I, myself ate way too much candy too!

Halloween Time

Now that it is nearly Thanksgiving, I suppose I will get my Halloween pictures on here.  Life has been so busy!  The day is over before it starts somedays!

The girls' schools have a Halloween parade where they get to wear their costumes, parents come and get the see all their costumes.  Last year both the girls' school did it at the same time.  I went to Emily's school and then raced to the twin's school to see them finished with the parade.  This year they had one in the morning and one toward the end of the day.  I was so delighted!

Emily wanted to be Cruella DeVil.  She made a good one!  I made her coat the morning of school, and she had a black dress that she wore.  I also made her bag for treats (pictured later).

 Lindsey wanted to be a mummy, I told her I couldn't let her do that for school, because she wouldn't be able to do it herself.  She decided to be a witch for school and then she would be a mummy later.

 Poor, Lauren, I totally missed her picture!  You can see her in the back, like the 3rd person.  She was an indian, but later I found out that was just for the parade. 

 Then for Halloween, Lauren was a witch. 

 Luckily Emily stuck with Cruella, for the parade, the turnk or treat, and trick or treating.

 Amber was an elephant... and she made a cute one.  Except when she was tired and just laid on the floor sucking her thumb. (Notice the 9-1-1 bag, those came from WA as a barf bag because Emily had thrown up the morning we left, if I remember right.  They came from Aunt Lorri but were at my parents house.)

 Lindsey was a mummy... for only trunk or treating.  She threw a fit because it was falling all apart... mostly it was my fault because I went about it the wrong way.  I should have used a stretchy material instead of cutting up a painting cloth that you use to cover things with.  I will know for next time.  Stretchy only!  It fell to pieces as she got in the car, as she moved, as most anything.  Not to mention when it was raining, she wasn't sticking together very well.  I felt bad, and Lindsey was crying and didn't want to go to trunk or treating.

 Samantha was a cute little Dalmation dog, which was suppose to be with Cruella, but somehow I didn't get a picture of the two of them together.  Bummer!

 After I painted Samantha's nose, Amber wanted her nose painted too. 

 So cute aren't they?  I couldn't help but take lots of pictures because they were so cute!

 Samantha loved her tail!  She kept finding it and pointing it out to us.  Sometimes she would even freeze, and say, "where's my tail" as she would look for it.

 Then after the trunk or treat and the mummy costume turned bad, Lindsey decided to be a gypsy.  No one looks very happy in the picture except Lauren.

 I think everyone was ready to go and tired of standing for pictures.  This was the best picture I got of all the girls for Halloween.  Nice huh!  Maybe we will get a better one next year.

 I also forgot to show you our pumpkins.  This is all of them together on our steps.

 This is Samantha's pumpkin, the smallest of the all. 

 This was Lauren's and she carved it herself.

 This was Amber's she told me what shapes and how they were to be for her face.

 This is Emily's pumpkin.  She wanted a small one.... less guts and seeds I guess.

 This is Lindsey's she carved herself except for the glasses.  She wanted a "nerd" pumpkin.  Funny girl!

 This is mine... I can't help but to do a pumpkin with the girls.  I actually gutted two, but a neighbor used one of them.

And did I mention all these and 3 more were grown from our garden?  Nice huh!  Unfortunately those were about the only thing that grew in our garden.  Oh well. 

I got some trees!

It takes so long to get everything all ready.  You plan and plan things out how you want your yard to look.  Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't work out.  I carefully thought it all out how I wanted everything to be, where I wanted this and where that should go.  I have visited the store countless times looking for great deals and things that will be perfect for my yard.

I found 4 trees that I loved, one in particular that I had to have the minute I saw it.  It took some time to get ahold of the right people to get them.  I was so excited the day we picked them up.  4 trees for our yard!  I could hardly wait to put them in their places!

After all my hard work and planning, I think my yard is done!  It is such a accomplishment when you get it all taken care of and it is finished.... well almost! With all the excitement of doing our yard, the neighbor kids wanted to help and so did my own girls.  For the most part it was helpful, but the idea and picture in my head wasn't the same outcome of their helpfulness.

See here it is... my finished yard.....  for HALLOWEEN!

I must admit it looked better at night.

 There's Spiderella!  It was formed after Emily.  I wanted to do another one this year for one of the other girls, but didn't ever get around to it.  I was so busy...  life has been CrAzZzY!

 We covered our lights with these pumpkin buckets.  If only I would have remembered we had 3 with broken handles, I could have used those instead and used these are real treat buckets.  Oh well, they were $.97 a piece.

 This was my FAVORITE tree.  I loved the black bird in it. 

 Would you have guessed these use to be tomato cages?  They are turned upside down.  Then I put lights on them too so after 6pm the timer would turn on these lights and any lighted pumpkins.

 Here's our graveyard... it was so windy, I didn't ever put the grave stones out.  I was afraid they would blow away. 

 We had tons of bugs and snakes on our front door.  The kids even put some on our door bell.  They didn't decorate how I had it all in my mind, but they had fun decorating and it was okay.  I am getting better at letting go of things being done MY way.

 Here's one of our trees that we got... from the garbage pile at the public works building.  Robert that I was crazy!  Perhaps he is right.  "You got dead trees for Halloween?  Why?" 

 This is Jack, he come back every year now.  Him and Spiderella.  The girls told me I put his shoes on the wrong feet.  Ooops!  A neighbor boy told his mom, "did you know that Jack is just fake?"  Kind of funny!

Then I also got some sticks...  I think they were from my trees mostly.  I put them in a pot and we had spiders and snakes and bugs hanging from them.  The girls put spider webs all over them, but I didn't want them that way.  I took most of them back off.

Life and Halloween Costumes 2006

I am one of those late posters on Halloween.... I have thought before, how could you NOT have time for this blogging stuff.  I have recently found out how you don't have time.  It seems like the last 3 weeks and possibly the last month has gone by so rapidly and I have been so busy being busy I can't do much of anything. 
First my siblings and I were busy planning a special surprise for my parents anniversary, I stayed up many late night making new email accounts, and creating a website/blog for a company that we made up that would be sending my parents on a weekend getaway.  (All this is enough for another post I am sure.) 

Then Robert got sick, we canceled my trip to WA... then the kids got sick.  Meanwhile Emily had a project due...  as she does every month.  Then Halloween was approaching so I had to get ready for that, or more like the kids costumes ready.  Next came a trip to WA for my Nephews wedding.  I get home from that to Amber's birthday and then the week full of Halloween sewing.  The week of Halloween I didn't even get on the computer for my personal use until I think Friday, I didn't even check email and I do that several times a day.  I would get on to look up costume pictures to get ideas of how to make the girls' costumes. 

Then Halloween was over so I thought things would slow down, but then I had the whole messy house from the week of not doing anything house related...  it just goes on and on.  And now Emily has yet another project due this Friday.  Through all of life, I somehow managed to finish costumes.  The girls kept asking, "what if you don't get it done?"  I told them I would stay up all night if I needed to so that I could get them done for Friday's costume parade, which by the way, both schools were having at the same time. 

I kind of skipped out on Amber and Samantha's costumes.  I pulled some out of the costume box.  They were both giraffes.  Funny thing, as the girls and I were talking, we realized that they have all been a giraffe for Halloween at one time or another.  I guess these earned their keep.  Emily was a giraffe when she was about a year and half, Lindsey and Lauren where when they were 2 I think, and now Amber 3, and Samantha about 1 and a half are using them.  It was a little big for Samantha, but she pretty much stayed in the stroller the whole time.

Lauren wanted to be a Ninja.  I wasn't really for sure what she wanted.  She first saw a costume that was a dress and then just had a headband and a sword or something.  Then she decided she wanted pants instead.  Her costume was the easiest, but the most expensive really.  I bought her some black pants and a black hooded shirt.  We also bought the backpack weapon pack.  It came with two swords and two smaller knives. She lost one while we were trick-or-treating and found it a week later.  I bought some red material, which I started to sew so it wouldn't be all stringy and then I remembered I could also heat it or burn it and it would do the same but be less time, so I got the torch out.

Lindsey wanted to be an Egyptian last year and this year too.  Last year she changed her mind but this year she was sure she wanted to be an Egyptian.  I thought about buying the pattern for the costume but I am cheap and thought I could do okay with out it.  I didn't like the way the dress came out.  I put an elastic at the waist but did it without Lindsey so it ended up being a little too high for her.  I guess I should have taken it out but I lost my little handy tool to take it all out easier. We bought a few accesories and some embelishments and tada, she is done. 

Emily wanted to be a Gypsy, and she made a great one.  She had a costume in mind... although we didn't ever see a costume for one, she wanted a white dress.  I looked for a pattern and couldn't find one that I liked and I am cheap, so I made my own tiered skirt pattern (or equation) and then used a shirt pattern that was too small so I altered it a bit.  It all worked out good, which I was grateful for.  She now has a new shirt and skirt to wear too.  Her costume consisted of her new white skirt and shirt, then some material for the wraps on her waist and head.  We got bracelets, a necklace, rings, and earrings that she never wore (waisted $12).  Oh, and some coin trim. 

The girls had great costumes.  Lauren's leg straps kept coming down, I didn't ever notice it until we were out.  I should have pinned them I guess.  The girls looked great, and had fun this Halloween.  On Friday before Halloween the girls had their school costume parades, like I said, at the same time.  I called to see what the order was at each school and still didn't get a real straight answer.  I was dropping off Emily shortly before hers started so I stayed there.  I literally RAN with 2 in stroller to my car after I saw Emily.  My lungs where on fire from the cold air and I raced to the other school. 

I was hoping I didn't miss the twins parade but as I approached cars where leaving.  I was so bummed.  Of course when I talked to the girls telling them my problem of both of their parades at the same time, they suggested for Dad to come to one of them.  He couldn't, so then I asked for more suggestions.  All girls wanted me to be at THEIRS.  I raced into the school, strollerless, carrying both girls and find the parade over.  I did see both Lindsey and Lauren's classes in the hall and so I waved and hugged the girls as they passed.  That was as good as it was going to get.  Luckily that seemed to be enough for them. 

The girls wanted to do a funny picture.  It seems they accomplished that.  I wish I would have gotten one of little girls with the big girls too.  It seemed like we were in such a rush still on Halloween.

It was my year to take the girls trick or treating.  We over purchased our candy for this year.  I think we had about 12 knocks on the door. 

Friday we had our church party, which was a trunk or treat.  Before that we went to a car lot that was sponsoring a trunk or treat as well.  Samantha collected candy at those but not on Halloween night.  I figured she had enough.  She did go with us on Halloween in the stroller.  The girls of course refused to wear coats because it would cover their costumes.  The giraffe's were pretty warm except their hands and faces.

Amber was just hilliarious.  So honest.  She was at one house and told the person handing out candy, "I would really prefer a sucker."  I didn't hear it, but Emily told me she was getting kind of sassy, and then told me what she said.  I stayed back a bit with the stroller and Samantha while the girls all went up to the house.  Amber started out in the stroller and then after a few house when I asked her to get in the stroller she held up her foot and said, "I have shoes on, I can walk."  She walked for awhile and then decided after a few doors that it was okay to get back in the stroller as long as she could get back out again with the big girls. 

After one of the doors, Amber came bouncing back to the stroller and hit Samantha's giraffe nose a few times and said, "How ya doing little Giraffe?"  Then she got back in the stroller.  Amber seems to always have a spring in her step or is dancing or swaying as she moves.  She spent most of the night singing and dancing to the doors, at the doors, and from there to the stroller if she would get in.  She was singing made up songs about trick-or-treating and a song that went something like, "I'm gonna get candy, beacuse I really like candy...."  She cracked up me and the other girls too.

For the most part, Samantha just enjoyed being in the stroller.  She didn't seem too sad that she wasn't getting out to get candy.  Some people commented on how cute my giraffes were.  Emily was upset because people didn't always know what she was.  She was called a pirate, a princess, and a few others I forgot.  She was upset that people didn't know it right away.  I thought about the time she wanted to be a "Cowgirl Princess Bride" and knew people wouldn't really know what that was either.  The gypsy I felt was better than the Cowgirl Princess Bride, which she just ended up being just a Rodeo Princess that year.

It was kind of weird with the time change being later, so it was so light when we normally would be out trick-or-treating.  It didn't take long though, and the girls where cold after about an hour and we went home.  At one of our last houses though, we went to and they had a scary clown thing that came down from the porch ceiling when they opened the door.  I told the girls, "just FYI, I think that thing is coming down when the door opens" and pointed up to the clown.  The girls all stepped back except Amber who didn't hear me or look at me.  She got clonked by the clown.  She didn't care, and didn't know to be scared really.  The last house we went to the guy had a scary looking mask on, and Amber turned to me and said, "I don't really like him, he looks really scary."  She took candy anyway, but a little cautiously.  The big girls at all the houses kind of were cautious and stayed back from the doors, Amber wasn't afraid at all.  She went right up to them all.  A few doors Lauren was afraid they had some motion sensored scary animated statues and wouldn't go up.  She wouldn't say she was scared, she would just say, "I don't want any more candy."  If it looked okay once the girls were getting candy she would say, "okay," and run up to the door really quick to get the candy.  One more year of Halloween memories.