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“The Best Halloween Ever” (And Costume Tutorials)
BabiesCrafty!School Age DaysToddlers

“The Best Halloween Ever” (And Costume Tutorials)

by Jill
written by Jill

IMG_7222Well, we pulled it off! This Halloween was basically the best ever. And I’m not just saying that because my first ever large scale paper mache project did not wind up a ball of mushy, glue-covered newspaper.

IMG_7099Or because this guy. Although, really, everything is even better with him to round out the craziness.

Warning! Bumbo not used as directed! Danger!!1

IMG_7247-2It was just one of those picturesque, mostly everything went right, minimally frustrating nights. With candy.

And yes, that is s stroller with a skateboard attached to the side that Leyna’s riding on! Orbit Baby sent us a G2 to try out, and so far, it’s pretty amazing. And the Sidekick is a huge hit.

IMG_7245At least, that’s what I’m choosing to remember, and not the way our house looked for 24 hours after the costume-candy-chaos bomb went off.

So let’s just get right to it. That Skylanders Eye Brawl costume we made for Kendall? NAILED. IT.

EyeBrawlCostume“Mom, this was the best Halloween ever.”

He literally said that exact thing to me as I tucked him in that night. TOTALLY made the searing pain in my shoulder from all the time spent working on that giant eyeball worth it.

I’ve had some people ask for a tutorial on how to make this thing. This is the best I can do for you:

Basically, I made that eyeball head by putting 6 layers of newspaper on a giant ball (that I first covered in Saran Wrap) with regular ol’ Mod Podge (slightly watered down). I let each layer dry for about 12 hours, so it took a long time to finish. The ball rested on a bucket, and left a hole big enough to fit his head in at the bottom.

Screen Shot 2013-11-03 at 11.41.45 PMWhen it was completely dry, I traced a circle onto the front of the ball (big enough for him to see/breathe out of) and cut it out with a knife. This caused the ball to pop and I was able to easily pull it and the plastic wrap out the bottom. We spray painted it white.

Then I reinforced the bottom and the edges of the hole in front with a couple layers of black Duck Tape. I bought a roll of screen from the Home Depot ($7), cut out a square and hot glued it to the inside of the head, turing the hole into a “pupil” that he could still see/breathe out of. Finally, I added a blue ring of paint.

Screen Shot 2013-10-30 at 7.16.21 PMThe rest of the costume came together with the help of a lot of cardboard, a can of silver spray paint, and some more black Duck Tape. We also hit up Play It Again sports for used (and relatively inexpensive) football pads that he wore under a very large shirt, and some hockey gloves that we made completely black with (you guessed it!) more black tape.

IMG_7206If you’re asking, “How did you get that to stay in place? And what about that?” The answer you are looking for is Duck Tape. To all of it.

IMG_7198I’m am still patting myself on the back for having the wisdom to not do anything elaborate with Leyna’s costume this year. Ever since Leyna went with us to the 20 week ultrasound we had with Lowell, and the tech let her listen to my belly with a stethoscope, she’s liked to play “Doctor Leyna.” I briefly contemplated trying to get her excited about a Little Red Riding Hood costume, and having Lowell go as the Big Bad Wolf. Then I had a lovely moment of clarity when I realized what a disaster that would be.

I bought her a personalized pair of tiny scrubs and a coordinating stethoscope from MyKidsScrubs.com. IMG_7186Bonus for them doubling as pajams now!

Minutes before we were about to head out, I realized I didn’t have a bucket or bag for her to collect candy in. Then I remembered the old Doctor Kit bag at the bottom of the toy bin. Absolutely perfect.

IMG_7255Since I nixed the Little Red and Big Bad Wolf idea, I was stumped when it came to Lowell.

It wasn’t until about a week before Halloween that I had the idea to pay a friend of mine make a beard beanie for him, and dress him as a tiny lumberjack.

IMG_7130I’m going to give you a minute to finish dying.

….

..

.

But what about me? I always try to do something for Halloween, and my favorite witch hat was destroyed last year. Then I remembered a babywearing costume I saw floating around a couple years ago of a mom dressed as a tree, wearing a baby in an owl beanie. 

I could be a tree! Ergobaby happened to have just sent me an olive colored Stowaway carrier. I found a lovely green sweater at Target. It was meant to be!

BabyLumberjackCostumeI put this costume of mine together in 30 minutes on Halloween. So easy. All I needed (other than the carrier and my sweater) was a branch of silk fall leaves from the craft store, a little tulle, a hair clip, some hot glue, and wire cutters to clip the leaves from the wire stem.

BabyWearingLumberjackCostume

Granted, I only wore him just long enough for him to pass out. Then he napped in his stroller (still rocking the beard beanie, which was a champ at holding his paci in his mouth) while I chased the bigs around with the camera before the sun set.

Happy Halloween, indeed! How did yours go?

 

 

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Easy DIY Halloween Costumes: LEGO & Ladybug
Crafty!

Easy DIY Halloween Costumes: LEGO & Ladybug

by Jill
written by Jill

If you’re like a lot of parents out there, it’s the weekend before Halloween and you still don’t have a costume for your kid yet.

I’m usually one of those people, but I had to bust them out late into the night a couple of days ago because the kids had their first costume festival last night. Once I rounded up all the materials I needed to make each of them – a Ladybug and a LEGO- they came together really quick.  Thought I’d go ahead and post them both tonight just in case someone out there is in need of an idea or 2.

I’m not saying these are going to win any prizes for originality, as they’ve both been done before, but they’re cute and they’re easy, so there’s that.

First up, Kendall’s Lego costume.

I followed this super easy tutorial from Country Living. All the supplies (not including the pants and shirt he wore under it) were around $17. I was able to get the box, spray paint (2 cans) and duck tape at Walmart. I picked up the 8 round cardboard boxes to use as the “bumps” at Hobby Lobby after I had no luck finding them at Michaels.

I “winged” (heh) Leyna’s Ladybug costume.

I cut 2 half circles of red felt out and hot glued them to the back of a black turtleneck I got at Walmart. (I wonder how many Halloween costumes come together with the help of Garanimals?) Then I hot glued black circles of felt onto the wings.

 Then I paired the top with a red pettiskirt from TheHairbowCompany.com (and I *think* I saw some at Target last week, too, since you won’t have time for shipping at this point), some black leggings and some furry black Crocs she already had. A little ladybug hair clip and a ladybug bag I painted for her complete the ensemble.

My Leyna Bug the Ladybug.

The hardest part was tracking down everything we needed for Kendall’s costume, but once I was home with all the supplies, it took Scott and I about an hour to finish both of these. Of course, they had to dry overnight. So leave yourself some time for that.

And here’s a link to a more detailed tutorial for Leyna’s costume last year- a Parrot.

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No-Sew Infant Parrot Costume Tutorial
Crafty!

No-Sew Infant Parrot Costume Tutorial

by Jill
written by Jill

My years are numbered. I won’t be able to dictate what Kendall is for Halloween much longer, and I won’t be able to coordinate him and Leyna in costumes for more than a year or two if I’m lucky. My top two choices this year were either a magician and his white rabbit or a pirate and a parrot. I let Kendall think he had some say in the whole thing and asked if he’d rather be a magician or a pirate.

“I wanna be Jake the Nevuhland Piwate!” he declared, and so we went with that.

Honestly, I have no clue what I’m going to do for his costume yet, but I thought all summer how I would put Leyna’s parrot costume together. I decided I would finish it today so I could forget that it’s ONE HUNDRED AND SIX DEGREES (stab, stab, stab TX summers)and pretend fall is here.

Believe it or not, this is the first Halloween costume I’ve ever made. ZOMG. I die from the cute.

What you’ll need:

Not a sewing machine!! Or a thread or needle of any sort. Don’t you just love me right now?!

A onesie you’ll use for the body-Leyna’s is a boys red turtleneck onesie from Carters. Bought it yesterday for $8. It is important to note that at Carters (and maybe elsewhere) the snaps for the girls turtlenecks are down the back and the boys are on the side. Do not get one with snaps down the back.

3 colors of felt– I used about 1/4 yard of each color for Leyna’s wings, but I’d suggest getting at least a 1/2 a yard so you have extra to work with, unless your wing span is going to be really tiny (more if your wings are much bigger).

2 feather boas– These are of the craft variety, with very fine feathers. I got them at Hancock Fabrics yesterday for about $5 each.

Scissors, hot glue gun + glue sticks, measuring tape, pen

Put the onesie on your baby and use a pen to mark where the top of the feathers on their butt should go and where they should end. I started Leyna’s just above the top of her diaper.

Measure the wingspan, from the seam of one wrist cuff to the next. Since the sleeves will naturally point down a bit, place your measuring tape across the back at the neck and measure a little above each sleeve if you need to.

Then measure from the top of the shirt (below the neck if it’s a turtleneck) down the middle of the back to determine how long you want the wings to be. I made Leyna’s stop 2 inches above where I wanted to start the feathers on her butt.

I determined Leyna’s wings would be 29″ by 9″ on her 24 month onesie. (Yes, she will only be 10 months at Halloween.)

Cut the first color of felt, the color you want at the bottom of the wings, the width of the wingspan you’ve determined. Then fold that in half and mark the length on the fold.

Starting at that point on the fold, cut up to the top corner, rounding it as you go.

Notch the edges to create “feathers.”

Do the same thing for the other 2 colors, but subtract 10″ from the width for the 2nd color and 20″ from the width for the 3rd color. Also, subtract 2″ from the length for the 2nd color and 4″ from the length for the 3rd color. For example:

Leyna’s final wing measurements
Blue- 29″ by 9″
Green- 19″ by 7″
Red- 9″ by 5″

If you’re making wings that are much bigger or much smaller, you might need to tweak these measurements. Do what you think will look best. This is why I suggest having extra felt. 

Laid out on top of each other, they should look like this:

Hot glue the top edges together by flipping each one up and running a bead of hot glue between the 2 layers.

I made sure they were really secure by applying another row of hot glue just below the first, but I didn’t glue the entirety of each layer of felt to the next so that it would look more like feathers and move better with her.

Place the wings, top (layered side… the one you want showing from the back) down, then place your onesie, belly side up, on top of it. Take a look at what the wings will look like from the front. I wanted there to be a little color peeking through from that view, too, so I cut a layer for each side that was about 10″ by 8″.

Again, I just hot glued under the straight edges and let the “feathers” be free. It looks like this from the front. (Keep in mind, at this point, you still haven’t glued the wings onto the shirt.)

To glue the wings onto the onesie, you may want to start by putting a piece of cardboard inside. I didn’t have any issues with the hot glue seeping through, but I’d hate for that to happen to anyone. This will be pretty important to do if you’re using fabric glue instead of hot glue.

Flip everything back over, make sure the back of your onesie is facing up, then line up the center of the wings and run a bead of hot glue from right below the neck to about an inch above where your wings will stop.

To attach the top of the wings, start at the middle and work out toward each end, a few inches at a time, one side at a time. Stretch the arms to meet the top of the wings until you get toward the end.

It will start to get difficult to get everything to line up around this point, so just go ahead and glue the sleeve down to the wings and trim the excess off the top.

Now you’re ready for the feathers on the butt. You may need to trim a string off the end of your feather boa. If you do this, put a dot of hot glue on the raw edge to keep it from… molting.

Start at the mark you made at the top of the butt. Glue your first color boa across the top of the butt, then back the other way. Again, when you cut it off, add another big dot of hot glue to the raw edge.

 Do the same thing for the second color feather boa right below that. You’ll end up with something that looks like this from the back:

And if you put it on a chubby baby, you’ll end up with something that looks like this:

Now, I can’t take credit for this next part, but the cherry on top of this whole getup is this FABULOUS feather headband made custom by Bella’s Bowtique. 

This photo shoot wouldn’t have happened without Aunt Kelly’s watch. I tried like hell to get a picture of her without that freaking watch in her mouth. This was the result.

She literally screamed, “DADA!”  as I shot this, as if she was telling on me and Aunt Kelly for torturing her and not even letting her chew on a little ol’ watch while we did so.

So she won. The watch was promptly returned to her chubby hands.

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BabiesStuff

I must be getting old (Random Halloween Observations)

by Jill
written by Jill

Not only was it Kendall’s first Halloween, but, in a sense, it was ours too.  It was our first Halloween in a house in a neighborhood with trick or treaters.  Since we moved in together nearly 6 years ago, we’ve lived in apartments and maybe had a combined total of 5 trick or treaters all those years.  So we were stoked!  Scott stocked up on Smarties (which I think is a totally lame candy, but he swore the kids would love them… and, to his credit, many of them did), we carved our pumpkins and set up some chairs on our front porch.  I thought we had a general idea of what to expect.  It hasn’t been THAT long since I was of age to trick or treat.  How much could have changed? Ha!

1. WTF is up with kids old enough to drive trick or treating?  Seriously.  Are you that hard up for sugar that you need to be pushing past the cute 6 year old ladybug only to shove your bigger than an F-150 pillowcase full of candy, undoubtedly stolen from those weaker and cuter than you, in my face?  And then you can’t even muster up the balls to say TRICK OR TREAT?!  Get off my porch you punk.  Oh, and get a better costume.  If you show up here next year, you better work harder for my candy than throwing on a Jack Daniels t-shirt with your baggy jeans and pointing out to me that you are a bottle of liquor.

2.  How is it that mass quantities of kids have missed the memo that in order to get candy while trick or treating one must actually say, “trick or treat” not, “give me some candy” or nothing at all.   I can’t tell you how many kids (and we’re talking ones old enough to text message, so you bet your ass I think they are old enough to talk) stood on my porch, bag wide open, blank face staring at me.  The first couple of times I just stared back, hoping they would remember what they were supposed to do, but the mutes were clogging up my porch so I had to just throw some candy at them so they would leave and keep the line moving.  One little brat had the nerve to not say anything until after he had received his candy.  Then he paused halfway down my driveway, looked back at me and screamed, “TRICK OR TREAT SMELL MY FEEEEEETTT!!!”  And of course, his mom did not stop him and perhaps remind him to say thank you  or correct him for being such a little turd.  She laughed at him.  Yes.  You’re child is such an adorable little shithead. Let us all laugh.

3.  Big props to the parents who actually paid attention to their kids, encouraged them to be polite and reminded them to say thank you!  Sadly, it was the exception, but I would say 25% of the trick or treaters were accompanied by some pretty kick ass parents who not only insured their kid wasn’t being a little punk, but most of them dressed up and seemed to be having a lot of fun.  When I grow up I want to be a parent like that.

4.  Halfway through the evening I saw a middle aged couple walking their dogs down the street.  They were cute dogs, some small breed that tolerates being dressed like a human, dressed up in doggie Halloween costumes.  They made me smile – good for them for getting into the spirit! – then they made me think, huh?  Seriously? with this –   As they made their way up past our driveway the woman shouts, “We’re trick or treating for doggie treats!  Do you have any?”  I, visibly perplexed, cocked my head to the side and said, “Urrrrr….uhhmmm…  I don’t think we even have any for our own dogs right now…. sorry!”  Weird, but at least they put for the effort to dress their dogs up, I guess?  It’s more than I can say for some parents, which leads me to…

5.   Lazy parents suck.  If you let your kid go out trick or treating with out any sort of costume, you are lazy and you suck.  Now,  before you try to defend these lazy sucky parents by saying, “maybe they are poor!”  let me just say this.  You do not NEED $$ to make a Halloween costume.  You need a little imagination, a dash of creativity, an ounce of thought, half a brain, and maybe a paper bag and/or a sheet.  I felt so bad for these kids, and there were more than a few 🙁  I hope your parents suck less next year.

6.   Now, if the alternative to showing up in no costume is coming out in something you stole from your mother’s lingerie collection, perhaps you just need to stay home.  Pedophiles must delight in what Halloween has turned into – a chance for girls as young as nine (yes, I swear to sweet tiny baby Jesus there was a nine year old dressed as a “sexy bumblebee” parading up and down our street) to dress up in shit that I couldn’t even muster up the courage to wear in college.  The last two trick or treaters of the night were girls no older than 12 (I don’t know why I’m bothering with the ages… if you are young enough to trick or treat, you are too young to dress like this).  One was dressed as a Playboy bunny, complete with platform stripper stilettos and fishnets and the other was a French Maid, complete with (as I saw them in all their glory when she bent down to pick up the candy she dropped) frilly lace underwear.  Unbelievable.  Disgusting.  Most of all, sad.

6.  The scariest thing I saw or heard all night was a 14-15 ish girl who, after seeing Kendall sitting out there with us, proclaimed to her girlfriends, “Awwww y’all!  I REALLY want a little boy… a little baby boy…. like, now.”  To which one replied, “No way.  You’re too young.”  She responded, “No.  I’m serious.  I really think it would be cool.  I’m ready.  I want one.” AGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

Don’t get me wrong.  There were lots of cute trick or treaters that were of the appropriate age and well behaved.  Overall, it was a really fun night.  It just, more than anything, solidified that I’m officially an adult and getting a little set in my old ways already.

Kendall is 6 months old today!!

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BabiesThe Story

Happy Halloween!

by Jill
written by Jill

Kendall is the most happy Halloween is finally here because that means I will stop dressing him up in this cumbersome get up.  We started the festivities this week at the neighborhood Fall Fest where he seemed to at least tolerate the costume.  The next time he sported it was at Gymboree and he was starting to get visibly annoyed by it.  By the time I slipped it on him at our mom’s group, he was completely and utterly disgusted with me.  He reminded me of our dog when we have to put the lamp shade thing around his head to keep him from chewing his ass sometimes.  He just sat there, wouldn’t move a muscle.  Honestly, it was pretty freaking funny.  However, since he’s been such a good sport this week and clearly is not loving the costume, I don’t think we will be subjecting him to the embarrasing ensemble again tonight.  Hopefully he will love me just enough for that to not bite my nipple again.  I hope you and all your little monsters have a safe and happy Halloween!

Kendall will be 6 months old in 2 days!

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