Happy Halloween 2021

We got no troubles, life is the bubbles, under the sea! 

Sophie picked our theme this year and wanted "ocean" costumes. With that to guide us we ended up with a Charlie Shark, Griffin Octopus, Daddy Crab, Sophie Mermaid, Mommy Anemone, and Davey Pirate (above the ocean, but still counts). The shark and pirate were already in our costume closet, we bought the mermaid at Target, and I made the other three. Overall, not too stressful this year. 

We had beautiful weather for both our ward party and trick or treating on Halloween night so the costumes needed no modification. Griffin eventually did succeed in ripping off his octopus eyeballs, but everything else held up fine. After the weirdness of the covid Halloween, it was nice to have everything go nice and easy this year!

Making our costume debut at the ward Trunk or Treat

Pumpkin carving crew - Sophie did her own pumpkin this year!

Sophie - Sea Turtle

Davey - Jurassic Park

Charlie - Blippi

Griffin had already gone to bed so I carved a page from his favorite Halloween book.  The chickens always make him laugh real big!

Pumpkins aglow and ready for the big night

Love these salty sea kids

Ready to hit up the neighborhood!

Sophie stayed out an extra hour with dad to bring home a big haul

Video: 2021 Halloween

It's-a me, Mario!

So far we are still sticking with themed family costumes for Halloween, and this year we were the Mario Brothers! In addition to Mario and Luigi, we also had Princess Peach, Toad, Bowser, and King Boo. Sadly our ward Halloween party was cancelled (curse you covid!) so the world never got to see us in all our glory, but the kids were still able to wear theirs out Trick or Treating.

These costumes were all labors of love. I am not an experienced seamstress (probably because I only do it once a year at Halloween) and spent many nights at war with these costumes. It was my first experience with elastic, gathers, sleeves, and pants and I sewed things together inside out, attached pieces before finishing the edges, measured way wrong, put snaps on backwards, and the list goes on. But in the end they actually turned out wearable and recognizable!!

Dave's costume was my crown jewel creation and I'm still a little sad he never got to make his debut as King Boo. Maybe someday down the road he'll have a need to wear it again. 

Best brothers around

The cutest toad and prettiest princess you ever did see!

Mario must have been a popular theme for the year. This was a picture we got from Davey's preschool with the other Mario's dressed up that day. 

Halloween 2019

We had a SUPER Halloween this year! Davey really wanted to be Batman, so the other kids joined his universe as Wonder Woman and Robin. I don't know how much longer we'll be able to keep doing coordinated costumes, but sure has been fun while we can!

Batman and his sidekick

Off to save the day!

Wonder Woman - 6 Years Old

Batman - 3 Years Old

Robin - 1 Year old

WARD HALLOWEEN PARTY: Our ward party was the weekend before Halloween. The youth were still in charge this year, but there was no carnival this time, just a dinner and trunk-or-treat so my night wasn't nearly as chaotic as last year. I made costumes for Dave and I so the whole family would match! I went as Catwoman and Dave was the Riddler, and we quickly learned the lesson that if you dress as a bad guy, all the kids attack you. 

Batman punching out the Riddler

The kids were pros at gathering candy this year and wanted me to let them go on their own so I just watched from a distance while Dave passed out the candy.

HALLOWEEN NIGHT: the kids were so excited to trick or treat this year! They literally ran without stopping for an hour and we had a hard time keeping up with them. It was cold, but not freezing like last year. We all went out together for the first hour, then I came back with the boys while Dave and Sophie hit up the rest of the neighborhood.

Batman's mask kept slipping off and so we ended up just taking it off

Charlie stayed in the wagon and enjoyed all the candy the big kids brought back to him from the houses. He loves suckers and grabbed all he could get his hands on.

We live at the end of a dark court with no street lamps, so I tried to make our house look somewhat inviting to entice trick or treaters to make the trek down.

Sophie with her haul, all organized by type. I was pleased with the number of Snickers bars she brought back! Her favorites were the jolly ranchers and gummies.

Our INCREDIBLE Halloween

This year we did an Incredibles theme for Halloween. With the new movie that came out this summer it was a popular costume choice, but we would have done it anyway because we had the perfect family set up - dad, mom, big sister, middle brother, and baby boy.

I chose to make our costumes again this year and spent a long time searching second hand stores for red clothing for the entire family. I had to resort to eBay to get a red sleeper for Charlie, but in the end I was able to find stuff for everyone. I also ordered iron-on logo transfers from eBay because I didn't want to attempt making them on my own. The last big piece was creating masks, which actually turned out to be way more challenging than I planned. It turns out I am no good at measuring faces, or cutting eye holes that actually align with a person's eyes, but they worked well enough for the short time we were wearing them.

We debuted our costumes at the ward Halloween party. It was actually a great costume theme because the red made it really easy to find everyone throughout the night. And there was no question about who the kids belonged to, so we let them wander freely, even Charlie! We brought his walker and he just cruised around the church gym looking at things. The YW were in charge of the carnival and party, so I was busy making sure everything was running smooth and didn't take many pictures, but it was a fun, successful night. 

Sophie with her friend Bodie, and Davey at the cupcake walk. I was helping him and it took us about 15 rounds before he finally won. 

We carved our pumpkins the day before Halloween this year. I let the kids choose what design the wanted and Davey requested Chase from Paw Patrol, and Sophie wanted a cat. I did a passable job on Chase, although his face got a little wonky near the end, and Grandmari did Sophie's cat. Both kids loved their pumpkin, and that's all that matters. 

Halloween night was very cold, but at least the forecasted rain never showed up. We bundled the kids up in coats, hats, and gloves before heading out into the neighborhood. The boys only lasted about 10 houses before Davey started asking to go home, so I took them back while Dave went around more with Sophie. They stayed out another hour before heading back to count up the candy. 

Sophie with our orange dinner of mac & cheese, carrots, baby oranges, and orange jello

Our house decorated for Halloween. We live at the end of a dark court, so I tried to make our house bright and fun so people would know we are there.

Happy Halloween 2018!!