Halloween 2014

Once again, it is fall...my favorite time of the year! And in just a few weeks, it will be my favorite holiday... Halloween!!

This past summer my son turned seven, and I can almost tear up just thinking about what amazingly sweet, kind, smart, and fun boys they are growing up to be. I just keep commenting on how much they are maturing and becoming more and more independent. And this year, almost as if to prove my point, for the first time ever they have chosen two separate Halloween costumes. (Did you hear that? That was the sound of my heart breaking just a little.) Since they were babies, they've worn coordinating twins costumes, but this year, they are really letting their growing independent personalities and interests show! I'm simultaneously proud and a bit sad.

Before I reveal their costume choices for this year, let's take a moment to review their costumes from Halloweens past:

2007: Thing 1 and Thing 2

2008: Bert & Ernie

(Kinda plain...they wouldn't wear the wigs or face paint)

2009: Rock stars! (complete with black nail polish, eye liner, and pleather pants!!)

2010: Thomas the Tank Engineers

2011: Ketchup and mustard (what for Thing 1's picture on the French's Facbook page on Oct 30!)

2012: Red dog and rainbow dog*:

2013: R2-D2 and R2-Q5 (aka "the darkside R2")

And for this year, Halloween 2014....
Thing 1 chose to be... Sky Does Minecraft

And Thing 2 chose to be... Yoshi

 *While the dogs were not *my* favorite costumes, they boys LOVED them! In fact, they loved them so much, they STILL dress up in them at home and occasionally wear them out. In fact, red dog made an appearance last fall when the boys had to dress up as a book character for a class book report (Thing 1 went as Pete the Cat and Thing 2 went as Clifford the Big Red Dog)

And this past weekend, we took the kids to the local Zoo Boo and Thing 1 opted not to wear his Sky Does Minecraft costume because it would "be too hard to sit in" when riding the train, roller coaster, etc. So he opted to wear his Rainbow dog costume instead and keep the Sky Does Minecraft costume for Halloween night.

So it just goes to show...sometimes it's not the most complicated or "original" costumes that the kids love best. Sometimes it's just the simple ones that allow them to use their imaginations!!

Hope you have a Happy Halloween!

Fall!

School started this week, which can only mean one thing: Fall is on its way!

I love fall! It is my absolute favorite season!

I love the light jacket weather, the falling leaves, the cool nights, wearing scarfs, drinking hot chocolate, going to football games (don't even like football, I just like going to the games)...and I LOVE Halloween!

Halloween is still 75 days away, but my mind is already racing with ideas for Thing 1 and Thing 2's costumes!

(An aside: My sewing machine is currently in the shop. Quelle dommage! But, it should be ready sometimes in September, so I should (knock on wood!) still have plenty of time!)

Before I think about the coming costume, I would like to review their costumes of past:

2007: Thing 1 and Thing 2

2008: Bert & Ernie
(This is definitely my least favorite costume, but they were 1.5 and really wouldn't have worn a wig, a hat, makeup etc...so we went very simple)

2009: Rock stars!

2010: Thomas the Tank Engineers

2011: Ketchup and mustard

So what do you think they'll choose to be this year?

They love playing Angry Birds on my phone...so maybe:

We could even get our new puppy into the fun...

They love Cars 2...so maybe: 

Or

They loved watching the Olympics, so maybe...

Or on second thought, maybe I could get Superman to do this one! ;)

Whatever we choose, I feel like nothing can beat the ketchup and mustard. We got sooooo many people staring and complementing us on that one. It was so simple, yet original, and everyone loved it! (Props to Thing 1 and Thing 2, because they came up with the idea all on their own!)

Hmmm...about 60 days left to decide!

Update:

The boys decided they wanted to be dogs. Thing 2 wanted to be a "red dog" and Thing 1 wanted to be a "rainbow dog." Not my favorite costumes ever, but the boys loved them!

Halloween is coming!

Halloween is just 26 days away! Which, seems like a lot of time, but if you saw our family's calendar for this month, you'd understand why I already feel like I'm running behind making Thing 1 and Thing 2's Halloween costumes.

As I've discussed before, I come from the school of make-your-own-costumes. And as a mother of twins, I like to dress my boys in coordinating themes. So this year, we decided to do Ketchup and Mustard. Superman actually came up with the original idea, after seeing ketchup and mustard costumes at Menards. It seemed like a perfect fit for them because we are going through a phase right now where they want "sauce" on everything. And wouldn't you know it, Thing 1 only wants mustard. Lots and lots of mustard: on hotdogs, on french fries, on chicken nuggets, on Ritz crackers. You name it. Thing 2, the same thing except he wants ketchup on everything. I even saw him dipping his apples and grapes in ketchup. And he ate them!!

Of course my boys can't wear any regular old generic ketchup and mustard costume :), so I hit the internet and searched for inspiration.  Basically, I decided to model their costumes after the old fashioned Heinz ketchup bottle and French's mustard bottle.

Last night I measured the boys and then drafted a costume based on their proportions. Then, using felt, I designed the Heinz ketchup label. I used my spring loaded snippers to cut out the intricate letters out of adhesive backed black felt.  I started cutting out the red lettering too, but it came out too fat, so I settled on using red fabric paint instead.

I replaced the original "Est" date with 2007, since that is the year Thing 1 and Thing 2 were born.  And I changed the "Net Wt" to their weight in ounces.  For the label under the cap (not shown) I used 04 instead of 57, since the boys are 4 years old.

Now, I just need to figure out how I'm going to create the bottle itself. I can't decide if I should do all one piece with a face hole cut out or break it into two parts, with the neck as a hat.

Oh, and remember the Thomas the Tank engine we made from a wagon last year? We liked having the wagon so much for practical and logistical purposes that this year we are repurposing it as a hot dog stand.

Now if only we had a dog to stick in a hot dog costume.

I love fall

School started this week, which can only mean one thing: Fall is on its way!

I love fall!

I love the light jacket weather, the falling leaves, the cool nights, wearing scarfs, drinking hot chocolate...and I LOVE Halloween.

Right about this time every year, my mind starts racing with possibilities of how to dress up Thing 1 and Thing 2 that will make them even cuter than they are everyday (if that is possible, right?!).

For their first Halloween, they were, what else...Thing 1 and Thing 2.

For their second Halloween, they were Bert & Ernie.

For their third, they were rock stars.

And last Halloween, they were train engineers (complete with their very own ride in Thomas the tank engine).

What will they be this year?  Hmmm....  the possibilities are endless!

They like firetrucks.  And dogs.  Maybe I can make them a fireman and dalmatian.

They love acting like animals.  Maybe I could make them a puppy and a kitten.

They are really in to space and astronauts.  Maybe I could make them an astronaut and an alien.

But then again... a lot can change in two months, and by then, the boys may have all new favorite things!  So unlike last year, I resolve not to begin buying costume parts off of ebay in August!  (Although, those purchases will come in handy if the boys do decide to be firemen this year!)

Patience never was my strong suit.