Halloween 2011: updated

It's very unusual for me to post a bunch of pictures and NOT say anything!

I usually have a lot to say.

Sometimes too much, I hear.......

I am here to rectify the situation. I was off to an out of town party and my mom requested pictures so up they went without time to do anything else. I expected to fix it on Sunday when I got home but after unpacking, I was too tired.

Actually busy and too tired is kind of a theme for this Halloween.....

Carly and Rachel didn't even dress up. Rachel did put on her racing shoes and her Halloween Half Marathon shirt that she got for working the race with her cross country team and declared "I'm a marathon runner" when she kept me company Halloween night as I took the 3 youngest out Trick or treating.

Samantha took pity on me and said "yes" when I suggested a beautiful Asian dress we already had in the Halloween box. Rachel wore it in 7th grade so it was a little big on Samantha but she's a lot taller than Rachel was in 5th grade so it worked. She borrowed this gorgeous fan that Rachel got at girl's camp this summer, we twisted her hair up and stuck some chopstick looking hair clips in it and put some make up on her and Voila! her costume was complete with minimal effort on my behalf.

Mark decided he wanted to be Abinidi for the ward party. We already had the tunic part from a christmas party a few years ago where we were encouraged to dress as if we were from Bethlehem.

I cut flames out of felt I had on hand and glued them together

and then sewed them onto the bottom of the tunic.

I wish it had been longer but "it is what it is".

We added some paper chains and sprayed white in his hair and he was happy. There had been talk of making a beard but I didn't get that far.....

This adorable guy wanted to be a "spy/secretservice/FBI guy" It was different every day but they all basically look the same right? so it was all working out for me. We had to buy the jacket at DI but he already had the rest. We bought the sunglasses at DI and he REALLY wanted a "spy watch" so we looked and looked for something cheap that would fit the bill but the dollar store who ALWAYS has cheap watches had none and Savers wanted way too much for their old dead batteried watches. It was as much to buy a new one which I was not going to do b/c it would be lost in a week. We looked in toy departments, etc. It just didn't happen.

He carried an old briefcase of Mark's to school when he dressed up on Halloween day and when we went trick or treating but I forgot to get a picture. He looked cute holding it. I thought later I should have had him wear one ear phone tucked in his ear with the wire going down into his jacket pocket......

Oops. I thought of it too late. If I'd only googled secret service costume.....

This guy, as usual, had some big ideas. Do you remember when I told you about the kids liking this movie and this dance?

He wanted to be "an Indian guy, not a cowboy & indian guy but an Indian guy."

I helped him define it a little.. "East Indian? Like in Bride & Prejudice?"

"yeah, that's what I mean!"

We spent an entire morning of our Fall break from school at Savers just looking ALL OVER the store and, miracle of miracles, found just what we needed. I was sure I was going to have to sew the long vest which I was nervous about but my friend said she'd help me so that helped ease my fears going in but as it turned out that was unnecessary.

We found the burgundy shirt first with gold and black "indian looking" embroidery on the front and hidden buttons down the front and the right kind of collarless collar.

I didn't think we'd really find them but then we found a pair of scrub pants that were exactly the same color. How is that possible?????

Finally we found this truly horrible, but perfect, long stretchy yellow vest that matched the embroidery on the front of the shirt. I had to cut and sew a bit on the collar and front of the vest a little to make it just right but that was easy copared to having to sew the whole thing.

Then we needed a turban.

We found a pattern online and it was surprisingly easy. We cut off the bill of an old baseball cap and bought some material and a fake jewel, plugged in the glue gun and we were in business!

They all looked great and were happy which, of course, is the point. While my efforts were minimal this year they still had fun.

.....til next year