hallead family trick or treat '17

You guyyyyyyys! I officially have not blogged for a year. There are so many reasons for that. Our family is at a completely different place than we were 365 days ago. But I'm getting the itch again, and I'm ready to pick it back up.

For this year's family costume it was time to, "Take chances, make mistakes, and get messy!"

Jaina was Ms. Frizzle, complete with crazy hair, Fiona was Liz the lizard, and Zach and I were.... the bus. ;)

"Bus, do your stuff!"

  Image via Scholastic

Jaina watched Magic School Bus all summer, and I was not mad about it. It really holds up, as far as kid shows go. Lily Tomlin as Ms. Frizzle is the best.

Image via Netflix

Image via Netflix

The reboot, The Magic School Bus Rides Again, is pretty cute too. Fun fact, the new Ms. Frizzle (former Ms., now Prof. Frizzle's little sister) is voiced by Kate McKinnon, and her name is Fiona Felicity Frizzle. Love it!

Here are a few outfit details. I always wanna go all out, but I did my best to keep it simple. And cheap! All I bought were Jaina's star dress, which she will definitely wear again, and four adult tshirts to make the bus shirts, Fiona's lizard top, and her tail. I had enough felt scraps, notions, and fiber-fill to put everything else together. All in, I only spent $20 for four outfits. Pretty good, especially since Jaina got a new dress out of it. 

Saturn belt

Liz horn barrettes

Liz tail using pattern from Andrea's Notebook

I put these bus tshirts together a couple episodes of Frasier. ;)

It got the job done for just some felt and a Sharpie.

Jaina was so excited to wear her star "earrings" and shoe clips.

I French braided her hair the night before after a bath, and it was perfect by the next evening. Just like the "The Friz". And check out Fiona's tail!

We love trick or treating with our friends, the Kipes. Our neighborhood is a bit creepy for little kids. Thankfully the weather stayed mild!

The whole gang!

Having a nice mug of hot chocolate while the toddlers roll around in sugar spasms.

That tail!

No matter how "grown up" I am, dressing up is still one of my favorite things. Thank goodness, my girls are still up for my ideas. One more Hallead Family Costume for the books!

halloween '16

The Hallead Squad dressed up as sushi this year, and my mouth was watering all night.

Jaina was a little salmon avocado roll, Fiona and I were a piece of shrimp nigiri, and Zach was... a bottle of soy sauce.

I love coming up with family outfits where we can have fun, but still be comfortable and wear jeans. Zach already had the Kikkoman shirt, and the only hard part was convincing Jaina to be a sushi roll. ;) She quickly got into it. What kid doesn't want to dress up as food?

I used 1" foam for the circles on Jaina's front and back and glued pieces of thin kid's craft foam on for the salmon, avocado, and cucumbers. I cut strips of black trash bag to be the seaweed and crumpled it up before gluing it around the sides to give it more texture. Then I glued big orange beads to the top for masago (caviar). Finally, I cut strips of black felt and sewed two on for shoulder straps and a pair on each side to tie together near her waist.

 Little Stinker kept ripping the wasabi out of her hair, but later I tricked her.

For Fiona's outfit I completely covered her baby carrier (a Beco Gemini) with white felt tacked on with a million safety pins. Then I cut out a quick shrimp shape from pink felt, glued orange stripes to it, and pinned the shrimp onto the baby carrier as well.

I wore a white shirt to be the little blob of rice, and once she was settled in her carrier I wrapped a piece of "seaweed" (garbage bag) around us. Ta-daa! Cozy and snug. 

Jaina, Fiona, and I all had little hair pieces that were supposed to be wasabi and pickled ginger. I used spools of tulle for both. For the wasabi, I used my large pom-pom maker and just wound the tulle around like yarn. And for the ginger I made loose bunches of the pink tulle and tied them to a barrette.

Jaina with her good buddies, Waldo, and the cutest little lion!

This was the first year Zach actually got to trick-or-treat with us the whole time, and we had a lot of fun. I love dressing up as a family, and I hope I can keep convincing everyone to do it for a long time!

halloween '15

I loooooove dressing up. And dressing up my kiddos is one of my favorite "selfish perks" of having children (along with baby showers and knowing you can always leave uncomfortable social gatherings "because of the kids" - I mean, just kidding...).

And even though I couldn't get out the sewing machine to whip up anything fancy this year (Fiona's Pack 'n Play is taking up residence where my sewing table used to be) we dove into dress up season hard. The first was for a little photo shoot for my sister's birthday.

 Little Harry!

 Little Hermione!

James and Lily Potter in the Mirror of Erised!

This was super fun and took me just a few minutes to pull together. The only thing I made was the Gryffindor tie for Hermione that I also draped over Fiona's neck to be Harry's scarf. The robe for both Harry and Hermione is just my black turtleneck draped over their shoulders, but it looks pretty good! Happy Birthday, Aunt Beka!

Next was Hanover's official trick-or-treat night which is almost always way before Halloween. We were a Lumberjack and his woodland creatures. ;)

I made crochet fox and bear hats for Jaina and Fiona (the pattern is no longer available online). And I made fox and raccoon tails for Jaina and me. Did you know you can make these realistic tails with just regular yarn and a wire pet brush? Pretty nifty. I have nasty scars down my arm from the brush slipping out of my hands and scratching me, though.

Just these few pieces were totally doable - even with a colicky baby and a precocious 3-year-old underfoot. The nice thing about crochet is that if the conditions are just right you can actually work on it with a baby sleeping on you.

Look at that cute little bear cub. Last minute I realized I needed mittens for her, so I stuffed her little fists into socks. Her hat fit really well, Daddy just didn't have it pushed down all the way. ;)

Lastly, we did a daytime trick-or-treat at a local shopping center. Just for fun, I dug out last year's Red Riding Hood and wolf costumes and made Fiona the little old granny. Too cute!

I have my hair up, hence the cone head.

Jaina is having the time of her life organizing and rearranging all of her candy. Not even eating it, just putting it in piles, telling me how many of each kind she has, and explaining which 10 are her "favorite". She really doesn't grasp the concept of favorite meaning one right now, and it weirdly (and irrationally) drives me crazy. ;) So all hope of "sharing" some of her candy after she goes to bed or throwing out the really yucky stuff has gone out the window since she's taken a very careful inventory. She's one smart cookie.

If you want to see our other family costumes you can check out The Flintstones and the original Red Riding Hood crew.

Trick-or-Treat!

raspberries, flower crowns, and baby bumps

Today, I am 35 weeks pregnant. The fact that a living, wiggling, pooping, snuggling newborn will be in my arms soon is really sinking in. There is soooooo much left to do to get the house ready for her arrival, but since I'm not allowed to lift anything Jaina and I spend the days HAVING FUN. Which I think is a great use of the time before baby comes.

My grandma brought me the flowers that were in church last week for the anniversary of my grandpa's death two years ago. She was going to be out of town for a few days and brought them for us to enjoy while she was away.

They've been pretty, but reached their peak a few days ago. So during Jaina's nap today I thought I'd try my hand at a flower crown. These are all the rage on Pinterest, and it seemed easy enough. I didn't have any floral wire or tape, so I used regular wire and electrical tape to attach the flowers to a plastic headband.

What a fun project! I want to get a few more plastic headbands to have on hand so I can make crowns for all the Hallead girls whenever we have leftover flowers. Too bad it only lasts a day, though. I guess that's what makes it feel so special. 

 There's the neighbor's stalker cat being a creeper.

Also, the angle of this picture is deceptive. My belly is HUGE.

 This little girl was in RARE FORM today.

She's very into making "funny faces" right now, and was going through her whole repertoire.

It felt like a nice tribute to Pappap, somehow, to use his flowers to MAKE something and to HAVE FUN. He was all about having fun. ;)

The little thicket behind our house is full of raspberries every summer. There were finally a few ready today! 

None of them made it into the house. ;)

Once Daddy came home we had our very own photographer. 

"Baby" made it into a few shots. Can't wait till Jaina learns the art of actually naming her playpals. ;)

Life's about to change a lot, my love! Can't wait to go on this adventure with you.