Halloween 2014

Lexi and Jordan dressed up last weekend for a Trunk-or-Treat party.  This year, our theme is circus.  She is a 3-Ring Master and he is a Strong Man/Lion Tamer.  I had planned to be a Fortune Teller, but this has been a hectic month.  Plus, after sewing Lexi's skirt at the beginning of the month, I realized I was done with sewing for a while.  My plan was to make a black peasant top to match her skirt, but life marches on too quickly.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! 

Steam Punk Halloween

Lexi and Jordan decided to dress up as Steam Powered Giraffe for Halloween.  Lexi dressed up as a Walter Girl (like Aunt Paige) and Jordan was The Spine.  Very few people in Houston know what steam punk is so explaining their costumes was difficult.  Everyone (even teenage boys) thought they were awesome anyway.  The costumes weren't that tough.  I guess the toughest part was Lexi's dress, which my mom made.  

Halloween Costumes 2012

After my last post, I hope you didn't think Lexi was the only one who got a fun costume.  Jordan has been talking about being a vampire for a whole year.  I made his cape and pants.  My mom bought his vest in Romania when she was there last month.  It is a little difficult to see, but it has leather and is lined with fur.  

As usual, I got in on the fun too.  I decided to be a character from Pride & Prejudice & Zombies:

Peacock Costume

This year, Lexi wants to be a peacock for Halloween.  I looked at the options online and decided I would make a tutu for her costume.  There were several examples on Pinterest, but none that were exactly what I wanted.  I knew I wanted a multi-colored puffy tutu and I liked the idea of felt feathers.  I was basically left on my own to wing it.

I started off with 2 yards each of different colors of tulle, elastic for the waist band, and 8 rolls of ribbon (4 colors).  I cut the tulle into 24" strips and sewed a piece of contrasting ribbon on each end.  Then, I folded it in half and scrunched it up to sew onto the elastic.  I went around making a pattern out of the tulle - purple, aqua, green, and teal.

Then, I was tired of this project, so I put it away for a week.  (Just sharing a little truth)  Soon, Halloween was drawing near, so I decided to make the feathers.  Yesterday, I sat at my computer and drew up a pattern using CorelDraw.  It allowed me to play with different shapes and to see what the pieces would look like stacked up.  Once I was satisfied, I printed the sheet out & cut them up.  This is what I made:

I knew I wanted the littlest circle to have a pie shape cut out, but I decided not to bother drawing it on the computer.  I pulled out my felt sheets and cut out the pieces.

Then, I had to sew them of course.  I am sure that gluing  or hand stitching them would have worked, but I prefer to use my machine.  I used a wide zigzag stitch:

Front

Back

As you can see, I also sewed a ribbon on.  I attached a feather to each end of the ribbons (two feathers for each ribbon) and then tied them to the tutu.  

Here is the final result:

Halloween Costumes

This year, I didn't have the time, energy, or money to devote to coming up with new costumes, so I convinced the kids that we should be the same thing as last year.  They dressed up on Friday and Saturday for church trunk-or-treating.  We all got dressed up last night to go to a friend's house for a Halloween party.  Of course, I was the only adult dressed up.  That either means that I am insane, immature, or just too much fun... you decide.

Decorating Pumpkins

This year, I decided that I didn't feel like carving pumpkins.  Actually, I should say this week has been crazy hectic with work.  I barely survived getting by on minimal activities and very little sleep.  However, holidays must go on, right?  I decided that we should do some kind of pumpkin decorating activity one evening.  I pulled out my hot glue gun and bin full of ribbons and this is what we came up with.  The kids picked out the ribbons for their pumpkins.  Jordan wanted bats and spiders.  Lexi wanted skulls and polka-dots.  We used these as our decorations for trunk-or-treat.  Maybe next year things will be a little easier and we can go all out. 

Trick-or-Treating 2010

We took pictures before heading out the door for trick-or-treating last night.   As you can see, we dressed in an Alice in Wonderland Theme.  I love doing themes, but I know it will not be too long before Lexi and Jordan will want to do their own thing.  For now, I'll enjoy it. 

Halloween JibJab

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

What could be better on a rainy day than playing around with JibJab and laughing with the kids?  We even cast my brothers in the Monster Rap. 

Our Peter Pan Costumes

I just love themed costumes. I knew my mom had a great Captain Hook costume so I talked everyone into doing Peter Pan this year. It was an easy sell even for my mom who made costumes for Lexi and me. It was all planned. My mom was Captain Hook. Lexi was Tinkerbell. Jordan was the croc (I got his costume off of ebay). Paige would be Peter Pan. My step-father was going to be Smee. As for me, the clear choice was Wendy.

We tought we were going to get to wear them a lot. We were lucky enough to be invited to a block party last weekend, have a church party this week, a little party at my mom's work today, and then Halloween. Nothing ever works perfectly. My step-father had a gig on Saturday, so he missed the block party. He is out of town this week for work. My mom suddenly got sick on Wednesday and is still down with some kind of flu (not H1N1). Paige and I took the kids to the church party. Paige has party plans for the real Halloween. I will probably be taking the kids trick-or-treating myself and might not dress up. (Maybe the fake eyelashes though- I love those things). Here are our costumes:

The Croc & Tinkerbell

Tinkerbell


Cast of Peter Pan

The Croc & Wendy

Tink & Wendy

Tink (Lexi) & Peter (my sister)

Captain Hook (aka my mom)

Tinkerbell with Face Paint


For next year, I have been talking about Alice in Wonderland. Yesterday, I found out that Disney has a new one coming out:

Alice in Wonderland Official Trailer

Halloween Costumes

We had a great Halloween and came home with WAY TOO MUCH CANDY. Here are some of the photos:

Princess Lexi & Frog Prince Jordan


Gathering Candy


Full Costume


Another Photo of Jordan