Halloween!

I'm feeling a bit scroogey...  I didn't let Hazel go trick-or-treating this year because she had a cold.  But I was really excited about a bee costume a friend loaned to us, so I got her all dressed up long enough to take a picture and go visit said friends when it was still too light out to go trick-or-treating, but still after dinner.

It took her some time to get used to the hood...

I confess... I also didn't let Peach go trick-or-treating because she wouldn't take a nap that day, which was weird because she always takes a nap!  I told both of the older kids that if they wanted to go trick-or-treating, they both had to take a nap (because there was no way they were going to make their 7pm bedtime...) and The Frog took one no-questions-asked, whereas Peach, all of a sudden was adamant that she would rather stay up and play over trick-or-treating that night.  "I already had enough candy last night" she said.

ok...

And she didn't fuss about not going either.  weird.

So, The Frog and I embarked, pillow-case in hand, on our trick-or-treating adventure.

Much to my surprise, he wasn't planning to go to every house, as I always did as a kid.
me: "ok, so should we go to so-and-so's next?" (pointing next door)
The Frog: "nooooooo, I want to go to the blah's house." (someone several houses away... even though we know everyone between here and there.)

So, even though we walked by 30 or 40 houses, he only came home with about 6 pieces of candy.  and was perfectly contented.

wow.

And he ate all of it (minus 1 sucker and a few m&ms he shared with Peach) the next day.
which was fine with me.

Something else!! Every year before this one, I would buy the monster bag of candy from Costco and we would hardly put a dent in it.  This year, however, I decided to just get 3 bags (my 3 favorite fun-sized candy bars) and call it good.  And guess what... we ran out! I couldn't believe it!!  It's my fault for telling Jay to give everyone 2 and for eating 3 almond joys and a reese's earlier that day.... **blushing**  luckily, we only had to apologize to one family, but I still feel quite guilty about it.  I should have given them an apple or something.

Anyway, all-in-all, I felt this Halloween had all the benefits (costumes, excitement, candy) with very minimal costs (sleep-deprived, cranky children, too much candy)!  Woo hoo!

Ward Halloween Party

So as I've mentioned before, I'm in the Young Women's organization at my church, and every Halloween, the youth put on a Halloween party for the kids.  Unfortunately, it didn't start until 6:30, which is after Hazel's bed time AND she was sick (and really close to our other kids' bedtime, but we decided to be nice and let them go.  Just this once, mind you...) so she didn't get to go.  BUT I really wanted to have her try on the tinkerbell costume I made for Peach 2 years ago since the only thing I made this year was:

What, you didn't see that a.ma.zing. tiara on Peach's head?  That's right... my pipecleaner sculpting skills even surpassed my own expectations.  Turns out, it was actually a good idea (and not just a cheap, use-what-you-have-on-hand idea like I had intended) because the pipecleaner kind of acts like velcro and stays put on the head really well.  I'll have to store that little nugget away for future use.

Yes.  I gave in and bought a muscle suit for The Frog.  It was just THERE at Costco.  He was begging... I knew I could never make anything that awesome.  I knew I wasn't really going to have time to make anything this year and the price was right, so I totally gave in.  And it was worth it because The Frog pretty much lived in this costume for most of September and all of October.

Here's Peach in her self-designed princess costume.  (more on her extreme independence later...)

Hazel being cute in the Tinkerbell costume.

Hazel getting attacked by the Tinkerbell costume...

Look at these cute kids!

Peach ended up not making it to the toilet in her princess costume before the party, and had to change into something else.  Luckily, we just so happen to have about a billion tutu-ish skirts.  (how else would she be able to don 3 every day?)

Now we're actually at the party.  She wanted a spider on her cheek.  Looks a bit smudged already...  She spent most of her time sitting on one of our neighbors laps at the dig-through-the-hay booth and didn't get very much candy.  (and i'm glad)

Turns out, we had all the avengers there, in toddler form.  Awesome, eh?

The Frog loved the "ghost busters" booth, where they shot at stacked cups with nerf guns.

donut on a string.  classic.

Peach, hoarding her cupcake from the cakewalk.

I dressed up as Mario, but I forgot to take a picture of myself...  But you can probably imagine what I looked like if you just picture a face swap here.  (if only I knew how to use Photoshop, I could recreate it for you.)

We're not done with costumes and Halloween fun just yet...

Happy Halloween!

This year, The Frog requested his costume months ago.  I was a bit worried because I knew I was going to have to go low-key this year, with Hazel's birthday being expected so close to Halloween... Luckily, he wanted to be a dog.

The Frog thinks it's soooo funny to try and frown for pictures.  It's pretty hard to frown and laugh at the same time...

 Once Peach heard this, she knew she wanted to be a cat.  (This girl LOVES cats.  LOVES them.)

 So I made an executive decision and made Hazel follow suit and be a bird.  (Well, a half-hatched bird.  I said low-key, remember?)  I had visions of my cute new infant peaking her head out of an adorable feathery blue hat, getting sighs and "awwwwww"s from everyone she passes.  Unfortunately, as construction began, I soon realized my plan was either going to look like cookie-monster with a beak, or blue Homer Simpson.  Jay and I decided Homer was funnier and so this is what she got:

 Poor poor girl...
The Frog wore his costume with face paint to preschool yesterday and Peach wanted some too.  I should have taken pictures of them then (but I could get all three of them because I didn't finish Hazel's hat until last night), because today they were uninterested in the makeup and actually, as you can see below, The Frog is planning to wear his skeleton pajamas instead and be a skeleton.

Kids!

This group shot took WAY to long to get.  I think Hazel was the most willing one in the group.

As for Jay and I... we didn't end up going to my brother's awesome party this year, since it was the same night I got home from the hospital.  Which is okay.  Jay's costume was only half done, and I was going to rewear my Princess Peach one (if it would fit... which I see now that it totally would not have...) so he's going to the ward "Trunk or Treat" at our church tonight as a tiger.  (Remember Tigg'r from two years ago?) And if I decide I'm not scared of Hazel getting sick, I might throw on my rabbit, so we'll all be animals :) (Bonus: that rabbit costume is mucho forgiving for someone who looks pregnant, but isn't.)

I was excited for carving pumpkins this year because I thought that The Frog would finally be old enough to draw his own and we'd have one really really awesome pumpkin from him.  But no.  Pumpkin carving this year turned into, "mom does everything while we tell her what to do."  I'm glad I decided to start early in the day because it literally took. all. day.

Can you guess who's is for whom?

I feel like I've got so much to say about how everything else going on at the McCarthy's, but for now I only have time for: Happy Halloween!

Halloween Decorations

One morning, The Frog requested a craft, so I tried to think of something easy.  How about construction paper pumpkins?

One thing led to another and The Frog wanted to do more and more.

This is in the window by our kitchen table now.  I just love looking at it, and I love how proud The Frog is of it.

Notice the ghost has a belly-button :)

Halloween in August?

The Frog LOVES Halloween.  We read Halloween books from the library year-round at our house...  

He got a hold of a ball of string and mummified himself:

Here are some other cute pics of a Sunday morning dress-up session:

Notice the "super hero socks".  He will wear only these right now...

Halloween!

The kids must have been antsy because it was impossible for me to get them to pose together.  

Or separately.

This was the best I could get:

Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin Carving!

Iris's first time carving pumpkins

The Frog thought he should document the moment thoroughly

The final products:

Ward Halloween Party

We had a trunk-or-treat this year with our ward.  (and I live in Provo, so they're all of our neighbors too :D)  We had chili and cornbread beforehand in the gym at the church.

Witch Iris with Tinkerbell Peach

cutest. Tink. Ever.

the spooky ghost

I realized once I got home that I never got a pic of myself, so Jay obliged.  Sadly, you can't see my purple tights and pointy witch shoes in this pic.  Know they are there :)

witchy me

When Jay showed up with the wig on, Peach started crying initially, and wanted me to hold her.  This is once she's had a bit of time to get used to it, but she is still very unsure of what is going on.  As you can see, I couldn't find the right hook hat, so this is why Jay is only half-hearted Hook.

And here's the group- thanks to a friend taking pictures of everyone at the event! :)

Costumes Unveiled and Freaky Spider

So.

This year was a bit of a let-down for costumes.  Because my brother makes such a  big deal about his Halloween party, and goes to such extent to make it well-planned and intricate, I enjoy thinking about themed costumes for our family.  I had decided pretty soon after Halloween last year that this year we would all be Peter Pan characters.  It was perfect, Hook, Wendy, Peter Pan & Tinkerbell.  Then when we decided to have Iris along, she would have been a great Tiger Lily.  However, there were two pieces of information I didn't have:

1) The Frog is now old enough to be opinionated about his costume

2)  My brother decided not to throw a party this year :(

Sadly, I didn't know about either of these things until after I had already started buying materials for Hook and Tinkerbell.  SO Jay ended up being a half-hearted pirate and Peach was Tinkerbell.  (as well as every other girl under 5...)

So, my unveiling is very anticlimactic for me this year.  le sigh.

Luckily, I did get a fantastic deal on the fabric for this dress, since it was the end of the bolt.  The tulle was from a 6" roll at Zurcher's.

I was excited to see that I just happened to have this button in my stash of extra buttons from clothes you buy.  (this particular one is from a sparkly green 3/4 sleeve bolero, in case you were wondering)

After trying her in wings and seeing how much she HATED them, I debated trying to attach small wings to the back of her dress somehow.  BUT when I noticed the Halloween store I bought the wings from didn't take returns (lame) I realized if I bent the top of the wings to a curve slightly, they no longer hit her head and Peach would tolerate them.  (phew)

This awesome little thing is the puff for her toes.  Sadly, the gold dress shoes I ordered online, didn't make it here in time, so we just had her wear sneakers.

I have to thank Iris for doing an excellent job on them.  And to think she had never made pompoms before!

As soon as The Frog told me he wanted to be a ghost, I had visions of tantrums and trodden and discarded white fabric since those darn eye holes are so hard to see through.  (plus, how do you eat?)  So this was my solution:

Ghost costume

I used some silky fabric I got for free a few years ago and bought something sheer  to go over his head.  I basically cut a hole in the middle of a rounded rectangle and put in some elastic.  As you can see below, I sewed an elastic strap to go under his chin to keep the "veil" on.  Then if he wanted to get rid of it to eat, etc. it could just hang behind him from his neck.  It worked pretty well!  I like that this is pretty gender neutral and could be used for a fairly wide range of ages.

Here's the hideous women's jacket I found at the DI that just screamed "Captain Hook" when I saw it.  I removed the collar and buttons and cut off about 6 inches from the bottom.  Then I rehemmed, added gold and used the bottom to make big cuffs.  Then I sewed two big decorative buttons to the cuffs.

Before:

After

The shirt underneath was just a white collared shirt from Savers and I also removed the collar and sewed 3 pieces of gathered lace to the front, and added some gathered lace around the cuffs.

I decided not to dress up this year and go as a witch.  (hehe)  It was high time I bought me a witch's hat anyway- I feel like it is an answering-the-door staple. I found an awesome one at Halloween city for about $6.  I pulled out some orange ribbon from some wedding shower gift of long ago and cute-ified my hat.  I'm not fully dressed yet- this pic was taken before going to a little kids party.

scary witch- eee eee eeee

And finally, the season wouldn't be complete without a picture of this HUGE spider hanging out on our porch.

Yeah.
The Frog caught it for me in a jar and we brought it to our Mother's Group Halloween party.  (why I was dressed up)

A lot of people were sick and I was enjoying myself too much to remember to take too many pictures, but I did snap a shot.

Tinkerbell and the only non-Tinkerbell girl there.  Serious.

Ah yes, so The Frog decided at the last minute that he wanted to be Spiderman instead.

The kids made these little spider cookies.  I thought they were really cute!