Halloweenie type-blog

Okay, so the four of you who actually read and follow this blog may have noticed that I have a fancy-pants new Halloween banner, designed by none other than the fabulous Mrs. April McDonald, fabulous friend and owner of SHEflops (http://www.sheflops.blogspot.com)! So I wrote this heavy blog the other day, and when I went back to edit, I looked at the cute little witch and thought she should have something light and Halloweenie underneath her, so here it is, a light, meaningless, Halloweenie-type blog...

So, today is October 1, and my mother has already started decorating the inside of the house, as much as she can around the papier mache mess that is our dining room table at the moment. Our dining room table is a papier mache mess because Mike needs papier mache skeleton heads and pumpkins to concoct his fabulous front-yard masterpiece for this year. For those of you who don't know, we live in a corner house. This means that not only is our house a prime spot for trick-or-treaters, but our house is highly visible from the street, and Mike loves to get his Rick Baker on, so every year, he builds this amazing front yard display that draws people for miles. Every year, he outdoes himself...this year is sure to be no exception, but such an alluring display takes time and effort, so we got an early start this year...I will post pics as they are available...but in the meantime, here was last year's display...

This was a wizard that my talented hubby made "animatronic" using the guts from an old fan and various pieces from old Halloween costumes and decorations from previous years...yes, seriously...

This was the rest of the yard, in front of the house, which he tries to make "kid-friendly" for the smaller kids so they don't get scared to come up to the front of the house...

So, that was last year...this year, in addition to making sticky papier mache heads and pumpkins with the kids for the display, I have also been busy crocheting, because Sarah decided that this year she wants to be a clown fish. Why, I have no idea...She loves Nemo as much as she loves all of her Disney movies, but I don't know that I would call it her favorite. So, I got right to work designing and crocheting a clown fish hat, because all of my costume designs for the crazy costumes this child comes up with that, of course, can not be found in any store or online, are based on one thing: WARMTH...we live in Southern California, which means that Autumn is a relative term denoting the general time of year and not necessarily the temperament of the weather. It was 86 degrees today. I am running the air conditioner right now praying that this child goes to sleep sometime soon. But come October 31, it's gonna get COLD...and I don't just mean cold, I mean ridiculously, "now, where did I leave that parka?" cold...and every year, I take the kids out in this cold in the spirit of not being the crazy mom who denies her children one of the pleasures of childhood because I'm too overprotective, and every year, either they end up sick, or I do and THEN they do...not fun...so instead of being the crazy mom who bans Halloween because it's too damn cold outside, I am the crazy mom who makes the kids wear sweaters, under or over their costumes, it's up to them. If it's one of those jumpsuit type costumes, then I layer them up with thermals and undershirts, a la Christmas Story ("I can't put my arms down!") So designing Sarah's costume the last two years has actually been good for me because I could give my little girl exactly what she wanted while still getting what I wanted.

Last year, she decided around this time that she wanted to be Coraline. Of course, I have yet to see a Coraline costume on or off line, so I set about to make one. Easy enough: Raincoat, sweater, jeans, rain boots, and a blue wig...only she wouldn't keep the wig on because it was "itchy". So I set about designing a sort of hat/wig combo, (which took hours) and it actually came out pretty cool, and she loved it...for about 30 seconds...she marched about the room, went to Ama's room to look at herself in the mirror, preened for a bit, and then threw the hat on the floor and declared that she didn't want to be Coraline anymore, she wanted to be Olivia. Sigh. I kept asking her again over the next couple of days, whether or not she would reconsider, but that would have been too easy. Nope. She absolutely refused to wear the Coraline costume. And since it was her first real time trick or treating (the year before her counts were low so we were forced to stay indoors), I begrudgingly obliged. I went to the fabric store, bought some red felt, and sewed a simple red jumper; painted red stripes on one of her turtlenecks with a fabric marker; made her a headband with pointy, Olivia-esque ears, which I inserted into a pink beanie; sewed a pair of too-large red and white striped tights to fit her, and finished it off with pink ballet slippers and a child's procedure mask with a snout drawn on it in crayon...she looked adorable, although most people thought she was a bunny, which seemed to upset her just a little...but she got a ton of candy, and she got to go around the block, plus she was super warm in her turtleneck, tights and several undershirts I layered underneath the turtleneck! Here is a picture...

 

and another...

and one more with Daddy...

So this year, I told Miss Bossy Boots that she needed to pick a costume and stick to it. She is adamant (so far) that she wants to be a clown fish, so I spent an entire day making this:

And she loves it! Wore it all day! Yay! Now to figure out the rest...so yesterday, Mike and I went running around with Sarah and Azrael after we picked Azrael up from school, and we picked up a pair of white sweats, because Mike said it would be much cooler if we tie-dyed them orange so they would have the subtle striping instead of just buying plain old orange sweats...so we went to the store to buy the sweats, and my daughter, who takes after me in almost NO way whatsoever, spends the entire time doing this:

She walked around the entire store so enraptured in her book that she was running into the racks! Then we ran the rest of our errands, and I spent my Friday night doing this:

You would think that after a few HOURS, her sweats would now be a vibrant, clown-fishy orange, right? Nope...her sweats are a sickly peachish color...so tomorrow, Daddy and I are going to look for orange paint for the air brush, or orange sweats as a backup...and if none of that works, we are going to break down and just buy this:

In case you can't tell, this is a PREMADE clownfish costume that according to my research did not exist two weeks ago...$20 at Big Lots...but then what do we do with the fabulous clownfish hat Momma made? Oh, well...

I for one am looking forward to this holiday season...already I have started making my daughter's halloween costume, eaten WAY too much Halloween candy, watched the Great Pumpkin about 14 million times, and am greatly looking forward to toasting pumpkin seeds with the kids as I do every year....the air is getting cooler (somewhat) and the time is drawing nigh for everyone to draw closer together...as this year draws slowly to a close, I realize that we have much to be thankful for, and I for one am looking forward to celebrating this upcoming holiday season as always...surrounded by those I love most.