Halloween

The last few years we have really enjoyed doing a theme with all of the kids for Halloween (thanks Alison!). The first year we were a zoo (I was the zoo keeper, Kalen was an elephant, Taylor was a jaguar, Kendall was a giraffe, and Lynnsey was a koala.) The following year, we went back to letting the kids do whatever they wanted but the year after that we tried a Star Wars theme (Taylor was Obi Wan, Kendall was Darth Sidius, Lynnsey was Princess Leia, and Spencer was the cutest little Ewock you can imagine). That was so much fun that we kept it going last year with a Harry Potter theme (Taylor was Harry, Kendall was a darling Dumbledore, Lynnsey was the perfect Hermione, and Spencer was a dragon). Well, the kids started planning right after last Halloween for what they wanted to be this time around. I thought it was a great idea and then once I started this blog I knew I had to go with it:

The Wizard of Oz! This is likely going to be the last year that we get all of the kids to go along with a theme (Taylor really didn't want to do this one this year), so I think this one turned out to be a nice way to end it. I also took individual photos of the kids too and will post them on my side bar as soon as I can but I have to go to Kalen's office to do it since it would likely take hours on this ridiculously slow computer. I found Taylor and Lynnsey's costumes on eBay for a good price after a long and arduous search and I found Kaya's dress on there as well, but Mom and I added the sleeves to it since it only had spaghetti straps. I made her crown out of pink foam and covered it with the leftover fabric from the sleeves and finished it off with glitter. We had the lion costume already so that was a bonus. Kendall's costume is actually one of my favorites. He already had the shirt and pants and we just tied the waist with rope. I used the head covering of Spencer's old Ewock costume as the headcovering for this one. We found some little straw-looking wristlets at a Halloween store for practically nothing. The hat was the trickiest because I couldn't find a pre-made one anywhere unless I bought the whole costume which I was unwilling to do for $50. So instead I bought an 80 cent fabric remnant and came up with it myself. I don't sew well at all but the great thing about this costume is that sloppy stitches just added to the whole look! Not bad if I do say so myself.

Anyway, it was a great day. The kids had NO SCHOOL that day due to a teacher inservice day so we spent the morning at a party at our local kids museum. They had events going on throughout the day, the favorite of which was making flubber, but mostly the kids just loved playing and showing off their costumes.

That night we got them all put together again (Lynnsey got paint on her dress in the messy art room at the museum so we had to wash it before going out trick or treating). They have a set time here to do our trick-or-treating from six until eight p.m. The weather was amazing. It has been so cold here recently but Friday was sunny and upper 60's so the kids didn't have to hide their costumes under coats. First we hit our neighborhood. Not too many people actually participate in our area but a few neighbors like for us to bring the kids over so they can see them all dressed up. Then we headed over to what is known as the Faculty Ghetto which is actually a very nice section of town where an inordinate number of college faculty live. They were a big hit over there. Several people would ask us if they could take the kids' picture. As soon as Spencer would see them with a camera, he'd bolt and everyone would laugh because he was playing his role as "cowardly" lion so well. Kaya had been having a great time early on since she loves to be outdoors but partway through she gave up and took a nap. Then we headed to a couple of Kalen's colleagues homes so they could see the kids and finally we wound up at Nana's where she had special bags just for our kids. We visited for a bit but by then Kaya was through! By the time we got home, she was so MAD! Once we got her out of her costume and in some cozy pajamas, she was much happier.

On Saturday we dumped all the candy together and counted out our "tithing" to give to the Branch President for his candy jars. We do this every year and it is a great way to illustrate how little a tenth really is. It has caught on and some of the other families in the branch now do the same thing.

Okay, this isn't from Halloween but Kaya was so stinkin' cute in her little "I Love My Mummy" t-shirt that I couldn't resist. She just had her 4 month check-up a little while ago and is doing great (she's about 24 1/4 inches and 13 lbs 4 oz). She rolled over from her tummy to her back about a week and a half ago and the next day she rolled from her back to her tummy! She might do it more often except she'd much rather be sitting in someone's lap. She's a joy!