Hobo Zombie vs. Frankie's chic

Since we changed schools this year, costumes were no longer pre-determined by the school's social studies unit.  In the charter school, Halloween was celebrated as The History Fair, and the kids of each grade would wear costumes from the time period their class was studying.  That's why Savannah was a Southern Belle and Irelynd an Egyptian last year.  I kind of miss that; it made costumes much easier than having to choose from such a wide array, and I thought it was more interesting and fun.  That said, Savannah had decided weeks earlier that she wanted to be a zombie this year, but Irelynd really couldn't decide.  The night before the school Halloween party found us still without costumes.  Using some of my old, torn up clothes, Scott helped Savannah with hers, and I adapted the dress-up clothes into Bride of Frankenstein for Irelynd.  Neither costume cost us a penny.  I was really happy with Irelynd's; I'm not usually so resourceful!  I even spray-painted some black roses for her to carry.  What a marvelous invention was spray paint!

I used a paper cup to hold her hair up, and we had some black hair spray paint on hand.  Voila! 

Savannah tried to be scary, but couldn't keep a dead face. 

She was offended, though, because a lot of the kids at school wanted to know if she was a hobo.  Or a dirty hippie.  She did have twigs in her hair. 

The dramatics were Irelynd's idea.  That girl cracks me up. 

Happy Halloween!

We had another full day of Halloween fun, like every year, so pardon the number the pictures. Like every year, the girls' school did their History Fair where each grade dresses from the time period they are studying. The 5th grade did Civil War and 1st grade did Ancient Egypt. I had grand plans of making Savannah a fancy, full belle dress, but took the easy way out and found one on Ebay. I figured I saved myself money, and money talks, right? Does she look like a tavern girl, or what, in her red silk and black lace? No matter, she loved it, and it suits her red hair, right? I loved the ringlets we put in her hair. Why did that go out of style??? So adorable! Just a great change from the 70's style, parted in the middle and straight down she usually insists on wearing. Doesn't she look so feminine?

I had to get the back, of course!

Both of my girls. Funny story about Savannah's costume. When I first proposed that she go as a belle, I got this blank, dumb stare from her. Slowly she looked at me like I had just told her to remove her head and walk backwards. "a bell? You want me to go as a bell?" she kept saying. Finally it dawned on me that she thought I meant a bell, like ding dong bell.

Doesn't Irelynd look fantastic? I did make her costume. I thought, how hard can it be, just a basic, straight dress with some embellishment. It was hard. Mostly because the sizing was off and I had to cut it down 3+ times. But I loved how it turned out. Before the gold stuff went on, she looked like a cross between a BOM angel and Princess Leah. I made the embellishments removable, just in case she gets into Star Wars later. Don't the pink flip flops totally complete the look?

During the morning, the school does a costume parade in the gym. Here's my cute Egyptian waltzing by. I was impressed with some of the costumes. I thought the best one was a kid dressed as a pyramid. Creative! Does she walk like an Egyptian?:)

Savannah, Lily and Chloe.

Trick-or-treating later that night. I put the twins in the wagon to make our rounds around the ward. Waverly was a lamb, Keaton was a bat, and Brighton was Bob the Builder. Grandma and Grandpa gave him the perfect shirt for his birthday to be Bob the Builder. I couldn't have picked a better shirt myself. Thanks, guys!

The twins wouldn't stay seated in the wagon. I nearly dumped Keaton out the back side more than once. They weren't too excited to come along like I thought they were. I had to stuff them with Smarties every time we stopped to keep them both happy. Waverly learned a new word this night from Brighton and repeated it all through our walk. "Creepy" was the word of the day, though it came out "peepy" from her, "keepy" from Brighton. Don't they look so cute? I had high plans of a family costume theme from Harry Potter, since we had half the costumes already from Savannah's party. But, like always, I ran out of time. So they got hand-me-down, mismatched costumes. Maybe next year. I wonder if Waverly will have enough hair to pull off Leah, and Keaton can be Luke?... Brighton's perfect for Darth Vader, the little despot. Savannah spent most of the day with Lily and her sisters and Grammy. Here's the two of them as they head out to do their activities. Lily had an awesom gypsy costume her grammy had made.

Can he keep the hat on all day? Yes he can! I love Halloween--all kids look so cute in their costumes! Except for the ones dripping blood or gore. That's just ew!

Mommy had a little lamb... We went to the school's Halloween Fair before trick-or-treating, and this is the costume contest part. Waverly stood right up there on the dais and held the mike like she was going to break into song. Or braying, maybe. (Would a kid with less fat cheeks look as cute in this costume? I think not.)

This was my favorite costume. Savannah and Irelynd both were supposed to go as Hogwarts students, Hermione and Ginny Weasley, but only Irelynd wore hers, and went as Ginny. I ended up turning Savannah's cloak into a fur-lined evening cloak for her to wear over her Southern belle dress. It did look pretty great after the alteration, but I liked Irelynd's better. Again, notice the flip flops:)

Keaton was less-than-thrilled with his costume, and being strapped into a stroller during naptime.

Irelynd got her face painted at the fair.

Brighton jumped in the bouncehouse. This picture was too cute to leave out.

This is our house decorated for the holiday. Scott loves to go all out for Halloween, and has started sitting outside in various places and costumes. His goal is to make someone pee their pants every year. Everybody's gotta have goals!

He made these fences for the "cemetary." They looked awesom! Halloween is our holiday of choice in our house.

Done for the night.

Waverly loves this holiday. When else can one attain two suckers for such a small effort?

Had to get a picture of the back. Isn't the tail cute??? Even better when she walked and it moved.

We made our way to Grandma's house, and met cousin Wrigley there as Eeyore. These 2 are only 11 days apart. They were due 6 weeks apart, but Wrigley came late and Waverly early.

We went to a party at a neighbor's house a few days before Halloween. I tried to get us to coordinate, but Scott wouldn't cooperate and be Professor Snape, and I wasn't going in tights as Wonder Girl, or a brassiere as Wonder Woman, so we went as the odd couple: Professor McGonagall and Prince Charming. I guess every girl dreams of finding a prince, right?