DIY Vampire & Skeleton Costumes

It's days before Halloween and I'm not scrambling to find a costume.  Hurray!!!  This year was relatively easier than last year.  How?  I mixed and matched this year to get a costume that worked for both kids.

#1 wanted to be a vampire and I already had the shirt, amulet, and pants.  All I had to do was buy some Halloween Satin at Fabricland for his vampire cape ($8).  #2 wanted to be a skeleton again like last year.  Unfortunately, his shirt was too small.  So I went to H&M to buy a basic black shirt and found a skeleton shirt for $6.  I was able to re-use the pants. Yay!!!

We went to two Halloween events this weekend. On Saturday, we went to the safety village.  It was chilly, so their costumes were covered by hats, gloves, jackets and rain boots.  Kinda ruins the effect but I'd rather have a covered skeleton than a sick skeleton.

The village has the right about of "spookiness".  It is an event designed for little kids so you won't find people hiding in corners just to scare you. 

I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't excited to see the McDonald's truck.  I'll take a double double please!

On Sunday, we went to the museum and trick or treated amongst the historic homes.  Swoosh goes the cape!

Love seeing olden time tools

My favourite is the general store.  It's so cute!

The kids liked the Blacksmith the best... something about the horns and fire.

After the weekend, #2 asked, "are we going to go trick or treating for a third time tomorrow?".   It's so fun to be a kid!!

Happy Halloween!

DIY: Play-doh Halloween Loot Bags for Times when you can't Give away Candy...

Our school has a policy of "no food sharing".  So when it comes time for special events like Halloween and Birthdays, it's a little more challenging than bringing in a birthday cake or buying mini chocolates.  We, like other parents, have been giving out pencils and erasers.  By now, we have given and received enough pencils to last for years.

The other day, hubby and I were at the store and we saw the perfect little non-food treat. Play-doh!

While it should be enough to just hand it out at school, hubby and I like to go the extra mile.  Or as some might say, "we've got too much time on our hands".   Hence, we did a little extra work to try to make the play-doh a little more "halloweeny".

Supplies:

• Play-doh
• Small clear plastic bags 
• A hubby with photoshop knowledge

Here's what we did:

Measure the width of your plastic bags and design a graphic that will fit the width.  The height is up to you.  We wanted ours printed as a 4" x 6" photo so our graphic was approx 2" tall.  This allowed us to squeeze 2 graphics onto the 4" x 6".

Once the graphic is done, have it printed at a photo lab.  At $0.15 a photo, it's affordable and nice!    This is is what it looked like before it was folded.

Here's what it looks like when folded.  The words are the front and the graveyard is the back.  Make sure you orient the back properly when you design the bag label so that it is right side up when folded.

Line up your supplies.  Then place the play-doh into the plastic bag and seal it.

Staple on your label and you're done!

Make sure you have enough for all the kids. 

 
Ta da!  Put them in a bag to take to school.  Done and done!  No candy and no pencils!

Happy Halloween!

Local Paper Feature, Halloween, Birthday and Good Times

This past week has been a busy one!  First off, Joshie turned 4 and we had a nice family party for him.  My mom made him this cake to match his knight costume.



Hurricane Sandy blew her way through the North East and Monday night was a bit scary so we kept Joshie at home the next day until the winds were calmer.  I had saved some birthday presents so we could play "find your present".  Ever since Joshie was little, we played the Find the Heart game.   He loved searching for the presents almost as much as the presents themselves.  His favourite was Uno.  Check out that smile! 

I made caramel apples

Joshie wore his knight costume to school and wore it under his jacket for Trick or Treating.  He told me that next year he wants to be a Power Ranger like all the other kids.  Sigh... I guess that's the end of Halloween sewing for me. 

Last but not least, when I opened up my local community paper, our Scary Well inspired by the movie "The Ring" was featured.   Hubby was really excited and so was I!!

Looking forward to next week!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone!  Today was such a nice day.  The kids napped so they'd be awake for the big event.  The weather was perfect for trick or treating.

By 6:30pm, we were ready to go!

In their matching capes

Our Jack O' Lantern

Trick or Treat!  Thank you!  Happy Halloween!  Bye!

Some scary homes along the way. Monkey said... "Let's go to the next one!"

Look at this loot!! Batman is watching over Monkey's stash. 

 Until next year!!!

Pumpkin Surprise

Today we had a little surprise waiting for us on our doorstep.  The pumpkin fairies dropped off one carving pumpkin and two little baby ones.  Thank you Nonna and Nonno!

What a nice way to cheer us up... especially since both kiddies are sick and the weatherman was wrong again.  No sun today.

Baby Bunny has a fake pumpkin in the toy room.  He can't say pumpkin yet but we know his word for pumpkin is "bum bum ba".  He also same "bum bum ba" when he wants us to read Hop on Pop.  It sounds slightly different so only we know what he's trying to say.  He's really trying to catch up to big brother.  He can say ball, spoon, socks, ma, da and understands so much.

Practicing for Halloween

We love Halloween and even more so now that we have kids.
Cheeky Monkey was Superman/baby for his first Halloween and a Toronto Police Officer last year.   

We picked up this scary guy at our local Walmart.  

Practicing for the big day.  This is the first year that he'll be big enough to climb the stairs on his own and say "Trick or Treat!".
 

I guess I better hurry up and start sewing his costume