That special, spooky night

This year for Halloween Kara wanted to be a can of Dr. Pepper, Kiersten wanted to be a pencil, and Evie wanted to be a cupcake. While I do think it's adorable that they had such cute ideas, it did cause me no small amount of anxiety, trying to figure out what I was going to do for the cupcake.

Kara thought it would be so funny to take a picture in her costume while drinking some Dr. Pepper. She kept calling herself a cannibal. I bought a six pack of the little short cans so I would have one to use for a headpiece. I thought of cutting the can up and making a flower or bow, but decided I'd like to keep all my fingers in tact. So we just went with the old can glued to a headband with some tulle look.

I had fun thinking of things to put on there as nutrition facts. She liked that for serving size I wrote, 1 girl.

She was happy to help me think of ideas for the ingredients list. I thought I would be more funny and put things on there to tease her, but at the end of the day, I could really only think of glowing compliments to describe her personality.

The pencil costume was the easiest to make. I'm still not sure why she wanted to be a pencil, but she was a cute one.

At trunk or treat she was going up to people and pretending to write on them with her sharpened pencil hat. She is a silly one. You can't really see well, but we did find some pencil socks at target to go with her ensemble.

I still can't believe how much sleep I lost over this cupcake costume. I ended up cutting the bottom off of a round laundry basket, and then folding cardstock like an accordion and gluing that around. Then I covered that with pink tulle. It was too monochromatic, so I spray painted the bottom with silver glitter spray paint. I made a sort of donut out of pink fabric, and stuffed that with quilt batting to give her some volume. Then I had her wear a long sleeved pink shirt, and pinned the pink organza around to look cupcakey. I would have preferred to do something more permanent, but I couldn't think of a way other than hand sewing, and I really did not have time for that since I was also planning Trunk or Treat for the school this year. I suppose I could have used hot glue, but was worried that would come apart unexpectedly. So she wore it with safety pins, and they didn't really show, so it was fine.

I also made cute little cupcake decorations for her shoes.

She wanted to be a two headed cupcake, so I put a cupcake liner on her head, and pulled her hair through into a bun. I sprayed her hair pink, and used bobby pins to attach a cherry that I crocheted. She was really in character for it too. A few days ago she said she would actually like to be a cupcake sheriff, but I talked her out of that. I think she actually decided she was a sheriff, but just she knew about it and no one else.

For trunk or treat, we went with an old favorite, the football player and ref. Though Ben said it looked more like a basketball ref outfit. (I was unaware they wore dresses in the NBA). So I quickly made a little yellow penalty flag to attach. It was a pouch, so it was a convenient place to keep my phone as well. Trunk or Treat went well, and we had tons of kids, close to 400. But it was a blast and mostly went smoothly and as planned. Ben was my hero as usual. He is so good at picking up the slack where I drop it, and thinking of all the things I miss. He's always there to help me tie up the loose ends when I get in over my head. (And to help set up tables, canopies, and hang Halloween lights!) So glad I have him!!!

 

Evie won the best homemade costume in Kindergarten. She was pretty darn excited. We had to bring our kitchen stool so she would be able to sit down. Luckily she didn't need to use the bathroom while we were there.

Second grade had some really fun costumes. I just love that group of kiddos.

4th grade was a very impressive, creative, and competitive group. I was relieved not to be judging those kids. There were some truly amazing costumes!

 

On Saturday we met up with friends to go trick or treating. The kids had so much candy. I don't know if my girls will ever get through theirs.

The adults took turns walking around with the girls, and they came back in between for chili and hot dogs. It rained a little at first, but was just a drizzle. Reminded me of living in Seattle.

These two backed off the group so they wouldn't get crowded at the doors. So I hung back and followed behind them for a bit.

 

A few pumpkin carving pictures. Kara did hers entirely by herself this year. She cut it, cleaned it, even found her own template online and printed it out.  

I helped Kiersten with an owl, and Ben helped Evie with her Tinkerbell pumpkin.

I let Kiersten help as much as possible, but she wouldn't make more than a few cuts before deferring back to me for help.

Owl

Tinkerbell

KC Chiefs arrowhead

All finished up and ready to hit the hay.

One last picture of the girls on career day. I kept calling Evie a farmer, and she would correct me that she was a cowgirl. Kiersten was a business woman/billionaire. Her teacher said she did jazz hands all day at school every time she said the word "billionaire". Kara was a basketball player. I don't know that she is aware of the WNBA salary cap situation.