October 30

It was 74 degrees out today and the Halloween costumes were officially finished, so I decided to take the kids somewhere fun and take their pictures in their costumes.

It didn't quite go how I had hoped. 

Lily fell asleep in the car on the way there.

The downside to 74 in October was that everything was sopping wet from the humidity.

Getting a picture of all three children in costume was nearly impossible.

Still, it was fun.

I dressed the kids in cute normal clothes, hoping for a pre-costume photo opp. Only Caleb cooperated.

Doesn't he look like such a big boy here?

He was really in a mood today - such a goofball!

Poor Daisy still has a cold. At least there's no snot in this picture!

I love this.

When I realized that cute pictures weren't going to happen, I got out the costumes.

First, we have Darth Vader: 

The light saber was the gift that started our whole costume plan.

I ordered the cape and mask online for $6, then modified the cape to be shorter and hooded.

I found the bodysuit at Goodwill for $1.50. Score!

Next we have Chewbacca: 

I think I spent $8 on a yard of faux fur, $1 on 1/4  yard of silver material, and $2 on a men's XL polo shirt to create this ensemble. I hot-glued fur to some brown pants Daisy already owned and to the sleeves of a brown shirt she had outgrown. Then I created a fur vest and used part of the polo shirt to make the hood. The bag is one of the polo sleeves, plus a strap.

Daisy's opinion?

She loves it!

(Remember last Halloween? I still think one of the best pictures ever was Daisy's face after she looked in the mirror and saw her costume for the first time. The fact that she's making a similar face here tells me that I got it right.)

I think I wrote here about how I initially wanted Daisy to be Princess Leia, because her costume was easy. But from the get-go, Daisy said, "No, Mommy. I Chewbacca." I'm just glad that her costume turned out alright!

Can you tell how happy they are? I love it!

But we're missing one key piece:

Yoda! 

Lily's Yoda outfit is a $1 pair of pants from Goodwill, a $2 green fleece from Goodwill that I crafted into a Yoda hat, a $2 piece of new fleece for her jacket, a white onesie, and some hand-me-down Uggs. It's actually the perfect Halloween outfit for a baby - warm and comfy.

I love Lily's face in this one. It's like she knows how ridiculous the whole thing is. Or she's being Yoda and using the force to get me to stop taking pictures.

There - now you can see our happy Darth Vader!

Chris and I have costumes, too: at Caleb's request, Chris is Luke Skywalker and I am Princess Leia. Hopefully we'll get a family photo tomorrow.

After photos, we explored, played, and visited my mom because she works nearby. I brought a picnic lunch for us, and we sat down in a gazebo to eat... until Caleb noticed the ice cream shop nearby. I had noticed it, too, and was planning to get the kids ice cream after lunch. But it was late, and they were being slow, so I just decided to let them have ice cream for lunch.

I don't do things like that often. Ever, really. But it was really fun.

Then the kids turned into little monsters because it was past naptime and I'd just fed them ice cream for lunch. Lesson learned. I got them home and to bed, and breathed a sigh of relief. When they woke up, we headed out to the front porch to attempt to carve pumpkins.

After I cut the "hat" off the first pumpkin, Caleb and Daisy were very curious about what they'd find inside.

Caleb tried to scoop the guts out on his own, but he thought the spoon was too hard and the guts were too slimy to hold, so he lost interest pretty quickly.

After dinner, we headed out to our very first Trunk-or-Treat at the nearby high school. I'll probably give away most of the candy the kids got, but it was fun to give them another chance to wear the costumes I worked so hard on.

We got lots of comments. Everyone seemed to like the family theme, and Yoda was a big hit. Caleb loved telling knock-knock jokes to get his candy. The two he used were:

Knock-knock.

Who's there?

Boo.

Boo who?

You don't have to cry about it; it's only a knock-knock joke!

and

Knock-knock.

Who's there?

Oink oink.

Oink oink who?

What are you, a pig or an owl?!?!

Then home to watch the Cardinals lose the World Series and eat two pieces of candy each.

I let Caleb eat a Blow-Pop unsupervised, and Chris was pretty annoyed that I let him have candy with gum in it. Oops. Caleb chose that and a fun-sized Snickers bar.

Daisy chose a Dum-dum and some crazy new Butterfinger/Snickers hybrid? I don't know, but she loved both of them.

I never did finish carving the pumpkins; I only managed to hollow out all three. Perhaps tomorrow. i knnow for sure we'll be doing trick-or-treating at a local  business area, then our neighborhood Halloween party, and maybe trick-or-treating at a few of our neighbors' homes. And I will be so glad when it's all over!