Costume #2

Both kids were allowed to wear costumes to school today. They had to be something comfortable enough to wear all day. Danielle was afraid she wouldn't be able to sit in her seat with her peacock tail on, so she opted to throw together something different. I can't remember what title she settled on, but she's supposed to look like she just got up.  Tyler decided to wear the sunglasses I bought to wear last year. He wore them for 2 periods and then decided he didn't want to wear them anymore.

Time to Trick-or-Treat

The entire peacock ensemble came together tonight, and Danielle looked great! I think this is my favorite homemade Halloween costume.

We found some glitter spray at Walmart, and it was awesome! We sprayed it on everything. I liked it so much I might spray it on my clothes for work tomorrow.

Despite my unsteady hands, her face turned out pretty good. It wasn't symmetrical, but I think that only bothered me.

We had to get a shirt big enough to fit over those layers. Wish we could have hid them a little better, but she was warm enough.

Tyler decided he was too old to trick-or-treat and opted to pass out candy with his friend instead.

Halloweens Past

Tonight I spent some time looking at the kids' past Halloween costumes. Thought I'd share.


2002
Mamaw bought Tyler a giraffe costume so he could enjoy his first time trick-or-treating.



2003

 

2004
Danielle's first time trick-or-treating.

2005
I was so disappointed when Tyler picked out the motorcycle, but we jazzed it up and the costume turned out to be one of my favorites for him.

2006

2007

2007
He was trying to look scary. I used white craft foam for the bones and then painted them with glow in the dark paint, but they didn't really glow. Still a cute costume.

2008
I made the bat costume from a black umbrella. It was pretty cool. Loved Danielle's monarch costume, too.

2009
Danielle was a leopard frog. This was her first homemade costume and she was SO proud of it!

2010

2011
I think this Rapunzel costume was Danielle's favorite. The hair turned out really cute.

 

2012
I hated this costume. Still do. Would like to lose the picture. ;)



2012



2013



2013
Tyler's last year trick-or-treating. :(

Our Jack-O-Lanterns

Apparently Meijer pumpkins carve up just as nicely as official pumpkin patch pumpkins.

A Patch of Pumpkins

We have gotten rather unceremonious about picking out pumpkins the last few years. This year was by far the worst. We remembered at dinner last night that we hadn't picked out or carved pumpkins yet. Trick-or-treat is Thursday evening, so the kids and I went to the store after school to pick out a pumpkin for each of us. Here are a couple pictures of the kids picking out their special pumpkins. Good times.

A Rare Sighting

No, it wasn't sasquatch, big foot, or the legendary skunk ape, but it was something almost as rare: the kids willingly playing a board game together (and enjoying it!).

Painting Practice

Danielle and I talked about possibly painting a design on her face to go along with her Halloween costume. We found lots of cool ideas online, but I'm not sure my hands are steady enough to create anything too elaborate. I bought a Klutz face painting book because it came with the paints and instructions (and I had a 15% off coupon). I figured we would have fun with it even if it didn't amount to anything for Halloween, and I was right. Danielle and I had fun practicing today. Between the balloon animals and now the face painting, I'm thinking maybe I should start hiring her out for birthday parties.

Soaking Up the Sun

Today's Pic

My friend ran her first marathon today. Danielle and I were thankful to have the opportunity to cheer her on. I've started and deleted about 20 sentences, because I just can't find a way to adequately capture the emotion of the day. All those runners, so many different stories and journeys to get to that point. Such a huge accomplishment.

 

 

Peacock Costume

Danielle and I finished most of her Halloween costume today.

First we made the skirt. We used 5 different colors of tulle, cut into strips, and alternated them around a piece of elastic I sewed together to fit Danielle's waist. There were only supposed to be 4 colors, but the 2 rolls of turquoise didn't quite match, despite being the same brand from the same supplier. Thankfully it didn't matter. (The rolls were each 6" by 25 yards. The 6" width was perfect.)

The skirt was actually very easy to make. We worked together to cut all the tulle at once, and then made the skirt in about an hour. It's huge and poofy. Just perfect!

The tail took a bit more time, but it really wasn't difficult. We started with a piece of cardboard cut into a fan shape. We used tacky glue & hot glue to glue a 6' turquoise boa to the cardboard. (We covered the entire cardboard, I just didn't post a picture of it completed.)

While the boa was drying, we sorted our peacock feathers by eye size. We started with the feathers with the big eyes and worked our way to the smaller ones.

This part was definitely easier with two. I held the peacock feathers in place while Danielle added the hot glue. I won't lie. It was painful at times. I have a nice little 3rd degree burn blister on my thumb, but it was all part of the experience. I loved working on this with Danielle.

Once all the feathers were meticulously hot glued to the tail, we turned it over and hot glued a piece of ribbon onto the cardboard. The ribbon is long enough to wrap around her waist and tie in a bow in the back if we decide to do that. If we don't, I'll just cut off the excess. I left it long so we had options.

The finished tail and skirt. We still need to make a headband, but that should be easy. If I get ambitious, we might add a couple more feathers here and there. Can't wait until Halloween!

I snapped a cell phone pic of the tail on her so she could see how it looks. She hates this picture because she thinks she looks short and like a little kid, but I'm posting it so you can see how the tail lays on the skirt. I'll post a better picture of the complete outfit on Halloween.