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When October rolls around it is crunch time for costumes. The boys are always VERY specific about what they want to be. I am talking color specific...like that is the wrong shade of red for Mario and her wears black shoes I need black shoes only! I love hearing what they come up to be each year and I try to make it happen for them.
This year I pulled together 9 costumes total. I came up with the ones for our family and some for some friends. It is something I LOVE to do.
Below:
Josef 14 is Dr. Who #10 (David Tennant)
Ian 11 is Mario and he has a Toad Stool
Kaleb 8 is a Mad Scientist
Oliver 6 is a Toy Story Alien again
The boys carved the pumpkins they found at Linder Farms into some adorable Jack-O-Lanterns. This year they all did about 85% of the work. In past years we have done most of the actual work involved while they were just project managers. We told them to keep the designs simple so they would be successful. The finished faces have a cartoon quality to them. They turned out great!!
Levi and I came up with another fun couples costume this year. Everyone has wanted to be a superhero at one time or another. Why not in your 30's? Here we are as Wonder Woman and Superman. These are not costumes though...in our real lives we really do have to have super human abilities to survive raising 4 boys, homeschool, and endure12 years of marriage.
Ian got some small gourds and created this guard guy. He is so proud of it. He is a vampire gourd so we named him Count Gourdula.
Mitchell Boys @ Homeschool Day at Linder Farms, Kuna, ID Oct 2011
The first frost was today. All my pumpkin leaves died and I can see what our harvest will be.
I am going to start warming up the oven for some baking.
The boys Halloween costumes are almost finished.
All the Halloween decorations are hung up.
Tree leaves are turning colors.
Hot Chocolate sounds yummy.
I broke out my boots and sweaters and put them in my closet.
I am looking forward to my favorite season!
I just love Halloween candy!!
I dress my kids up all cute and walk them door to door letting them beg for candy from our neighbors.
Then we come home and I get to raid their buckets for my favorites.
Hey, I am owed!
If I have to put up with thir sugar high and then low.I better be sugared up too.
I don't take all their candy, just a few favorites.
Number one confiscated candy being the chocolates, like mini Snickers bars and tootsie rolls.
I also am fond of those little cinnamon bears, which are really too hot for kids anyway, mine always spit them out...so really I'm rescuing them. Its a charitable act.
I enjoy red licorice too, especially Twizzlers which are SO 1980 something.
Two of my very favorites are the Green Apple Blowpops and Apple Jolly Ranchers, because they taste like 6th grade. One taste and it's spring one more month till schools out, I am on the bus ( which smells like rubber, exhaust fumes, and stinky feet) riding home from middle school my window half rolled down, whispering with a friend about some cute boy.
My all time favorite candy to find in my kids Halloween buckets would have to be Banana Laffy Taffy. It is king of taffy flavors and you just can't beat the bonus joke on your wrapper. My sister and I used to read these jokes aloud and just roll on the floor laughing, not because they were all that funny, but it was just fun to laugh.
Unfortunately it is November now and all that's left of the Halloween candy are the stuff no one wants to eat. I'll have to wait till next October for a bite of nostalgia for my sweet tooth.
I picked up this fun candy mold while we we are Jo-Ann Fabrics looking for costume supplies. We made them for a Family Home Evening activity when Levi was home. They were pretty yummy!
Like every year the boys had some specific request for costumes. I am not a professional, but I do the best I can to make the costumes. This year Josef wanted to be a Skeleton Knight (no such costume avaiable for sale in our area). I painted a black sweat suit with bones, using an anatomy diagram for help, and added some crafted armor and store bought sword. Ian asked to be a lion, since we could not find one for those older than 4, I made this one from a thrift store tan hooded sweat suit and a brown chenille scarf. Kaleb was easy-we had this Shadow Ninja costume already he just needs a sword. Olive has been living in this caterpillar costume from our dress up trunk all year...so guess what he wanted to be? They all looked great. Wonder what challenges I will face next Halloween?
We host a Homeschool Trunk or Treat for the local area homeschoolers every year. This was our third year and we had an amazing turn out compared to previous years. The weather was a little rainy so I worried no one would show, but boy was I surprised with we had 25 families. I love to see all the fun costumes. I hope all the families had a great time.
