Scary Tarantula, Sweetie Kitty

Dear Henny and Hazel Pants, 
I'll keep this short because the pictures far out weight the text I could clack away.  Halloween! this year was a collaborative effort between me and you Henny and it was awesome.  The past three years we gave you choices of what you wanted to be... year 1 you were a hot dog, year 2 you were Chewbacca, and year 3 you were an impressive Yoda with a hand made light saber replica thanks to your dad and last year you were a lit up Robot.  Well, this year you wanted to be a tarantula.  You and I sat down in the kitchen with your notebook.  While I listened to your description I sketched and you made adjustments as needed.  We made a list of materials needed and upon review you wrote in "cursive" the parts we had forgotten.  We selected our fabric easily but the search for eyeballs proved more of a problem.  At the last minute, just after settling on google eyes you were searching through some discount Halloween bins and found some Styrofoam eyes on sticks and a bag of eyes and asked if I thought they would work. UH! Yeah!  They were perfect!  

I worked a couple of days cutting and sewing the parts and then we constructed the hat together.  It all turned out so spooky and hairy!  

You impressed your friends at school.  They gathered around you to poke and ask questions.  

The children's museum gave you lots of attention too.  You and Hazel did your first haunted house with us, Bahboo and cousin Tony.  

We were able to trick or treat with our buddies again this year, a fun tradition.  

Bahboo, Krispie and Currie joined us.  The weather was beautiful and Hazel looked cuddly sweet in the kitty cat outfit that Henry picked out. 
 
 Hazelita, you sat with Daddy and shook candy in both hands, got all yellow from a baggie of cheese balls and waved and said hi to random trick or treaters.  

I can't wait to see what you choose to be next year.  And...here are the pictures.

I love my little ghoulies!   Love, Mama

P.S.  I always have standards for the Halloween outfits. They must keep you warm, not cover your face and be comfortable and flexible...after this year, I have to add it must light weight.  The weight of all of those legs and the big back slowed you down and wore you out early.  haha

Trick or Tweet, Trick or Beep Depends on Who You Ask

Dear Kids, 
I was so looking forward to this Halloween! Henry you were a robot, we made your costume mostly out of recycled materials.  The front hatch opens for you to put candy in. 
Hazel you were a sweet duckling and slept the entire time.  We were not surprised, when I took your costume off at home you did not approve.  Love you babies and spending Halloween with ya.  More later.

Love, Mama

 So sorry that the yellow paint on your face made you look like you needed your Billy Rubens checked. 

For past Halloweens click these links.
2009 http://www.thethompsonbaby.blogspot.com/2009/11/twick-or-peep.html
2010 http://www.thethompsonbaby.blogspot.com/2010/11/twick-or-tweet-fank-ewe.html
2011 http://www.thethompsonbaby.blogspot.com/2011/11/trick-or-treat-it-is.html

Trick or Treat it is!

Dear Peep, 
You are a trick or treat champion.  You had the opportunity to wear your costume and ask for candy four times this year.  First you dressed for the IU Frat/Sorority trick or treat, then school, then the mall and finally Doug and Peter's neighborhood.  Continuing our Star Wars theme of last year's Chewbacca this year you were a very convincing Yoda!  We gathered the parts of your costume from garage sales, thrift stores, Walmart sweat pants and turtle neck, hardware stores and the fabric store.  I made the robes myself.  The hat came from a garage sale 2 years ago.  The feet came from a thrift store.  The belt I made and daddy made the custom to spec prop light saber to hang off of it.  The light saber was quite impressive.  

Complete with its own illuminated red button it looked pretty tuff hanging from your belt.  Of course, we also purchased a light saber that telescopes out and glows green!   You were great!  At the mall you and Devo really wanted to eat the candy more than collect it, and let me just publicly point out the worse mall candy came from the actually candy store. 

They handed out generic flavored tootsie rolls, the type you can't get the wrapper off of because it is hard, old and gooey.  On the street you followed with us great!  People loved your costume, exclaiming, "YODA!"  

You were gracious, minus one incident where a lady gave you a green piece of candy and you told her you wanted blue and threw yourself on her front steps screaming.  To be fair that was at the end of the evening and you were getting tired.  You came back around when it was time to hang out with the kids at Doug and Peter's house. 

While I was admiring their top notch, beautiful remodel you played with the other 4 toddlers.  Banging out on the piano (poor piano), feeding Etienne chex mix or stuffing your mouth with a brownie when it came time to go you didn't really want to.  

You hid in their coat closet.  It is wonderful experiencing Halloween all over again.  On the way home we stopped by Krispie and Curries and got some play doh and hugs. 

We love getting you together a costume, seeing you be a kid and watching all of our babies from the adoption group grow up together.  Perfect!

Twick or Tweet

Dear Chew-peepa, my sweet wookie, (please click on any image to make it larger)
Halloween had new life this year.  Is that an oxymoron? being that Halloween is about death and ghoulies.  Let me tell ya!  You got the hang of it getting candy quickly.  Mama and Dadoo were excited all day waiting for just the right moment to get you dressed up so you wouldn't start rippin' things off before gettin' a bag full of candy.  Last year you were a hot dog and this year you were Chewbacca from Star Wars.  First off we had a slight costume malfunction...let me just give you the bullet points...
* bought costume at a great local costume store, it seemed to fit when I tried it on you at the store but at home it was WAY TOO SMALL.  Took it back and they tried two of their suppliers but could NOT get your size, causing them to go against their policy of exchanges only they did give us our money back.  * Dadoo ordered the costume online.  It arrived a day or two later than it was supposed to and three days before Halloween.  Mama opened it when Dadoo got home and yes! the body fit perfectly! but the hat??? well who the heck knows how it fit because they forgot to send it.  Well, the hat makes the costume darn it!  So... Dadoo goes about trying to get the hat sent and a major fiasco ensued that ended up in a letter to the better business bureau and canceling the charge through Amazon.com.  We never got the hat so what were we to do?  Last minute the night before Halloween we traipsed to the fabric store and grabbed the last shreds of faux fur and teddy bear like fleece we could find.  I cut out a pattern based on a Yoda hat we had and made our own Wookie hat, and with some left over fabric I made some furry gloves too.  Crisis averted.

Halloween about 4:30 we get ya in your booster chair in your costume and get started on your face.  I mix up the brown paint and wait for you to freak and it never comes, instead you love it.  You sit still and stare at yourself in the mirror watching your face transform. You even wanted in on the painting and tried to make Dadoo's face brown too.  We put a little black on your nose, popped your hat on and made it out the door.  

Grandma P and Bahboo came to watch you and all the kids enjoy the fun.  We went to one house in our neighborhood.  Your first candy of the year was gummy brains!  

We choose this as the one house to go to in our neighborhood because she goes all out with the decorations.  The decorations don't scare you yet though, you tried to pick up and hold her scary baby positioned by the front door.  Then we abandoned the rest of our neighborhood for the very lucrative neighborhood of Doug and Peter.  They made homemade hot chocolate, rice crispy treats, brownies and soup! What a treat.  Their neighborhood was FULL of kids EVERYWHERE!  The most trick or treaters we have ever had at our house is 30, they had around 160 I think!  

A mecca for candy getters everywhere!  I kept saying how it looked like the scene in ET when they take ET out during Halloween, children in really great costumes wandering to and fro.  The rest of our wee friends skipped their neighborhoods too and we all met up at Doug and Peters.

There was Lily the Deviled Egg, Google Eyed monsters Sylvie and Etienne, and a Lobster in a Pot for Keegan.  It was a beautiful evening and a lot of fun to see you and Lily walk up and say, "Twick or Tweet!" and to leave with a, "Thank You!"  

After you acquired your candy I would sit you back on Dadoo's lap and you would hold on to it with a death grip and chew on the candy through the wrapper.  You know better than to allow us to get it from you.  I would then pry the smashed candy bar out of your jaws and throw it in your bag.  It started to get colder and late so we reconvened at Peter and Doug's to polish off their goodies.  

Sylvie had no problems pulling up to swipe Mommy Heather's abandoned brownie to stuff it into her mouth as quickly as possible.  Keegan and you sat on the couch together and in your sleepy sugar haze you gave him a couple of kisses.  While he was distracted by his glow in the dark bracelet you slipped into his pot and pulled out a sucker.  It was great to feel so excited about Halloween again.  Next year you may have something to say about what you masquerade around in but we enjoyed our little wookie this year. Sorry this is so delayed, as is the obligatory pumpkin patch post and all of the other great fall photo posts but the stomach bug has been playin' tricks on me.
Love, Mama