Friday, October 24, 2014

costumes 2014

Still don't know what to be for Halloween this year?  Classic, silly, or valiant, take your pick.

Carmen and Isabela are both little red riding hoods this year.  Isabela chose this because of a favorite series of hers, called Ever After High.  Cerise Hood, with her short skirt and tall boots, is little cooler than the classic little red riding hood.


Chosing for Carmen was harder...she's only one once.  I actually bought supplies to make her into one of those cute scarecrows with organza dresses on pinterest, but she loved trying on Isabela's hood as I was making her cape.  There were enough scraps left over to make a tiny cape, so why not?


Let's see how long that hood stays up.


So far so good.


 I'm most proud of Diego's costume this year.  And it only cost me a grand total of $3.00.


The helmet is made out of cereal boxes hot glued and spray painted with some silver I just happened to have on hand.  I made up the design based on this cute helmet.  The chainmail is a dishcloth I happened upon at the dollar store!  I bought two and JP sewed a little strap across the shoulders so Diego could just slip it on over his head.


The shoulder armor is made of cardboard along with the shield.  I used a fun technique to add detail to the cardboard....just squirt elmer's glue in swirly designs and let it dry.  When it is spray painted, the designs show up!  

The last dollar was spent on tinfoil cooking pans for his leg armor.


But about that sword.  Diego and I found that buried in our yard a year ago...we were traipsing through the forest and something caught my eye.  "Hey, what's this?"  And we started digging.... a few minutes later, Diego pulled out this amazing sword just like King Arthur's sword, Excalibur.  And it still lights up and makes clanking armor noises!

He takes his costume roles very seriously.


And then there's Joaquin.


He is a lover of anything with a big head.  (Hmmm?)  He decided to be a bobble head of his favorite soccer player, Cristiano Ronaldo.  And I think his costume only cost $4.00...some poster board and craft foam for a giant number one finger.



We made a base out of cardboard for the school costume contest.  It was cut down the middle so he was able to shuffle along as they paraded around the gym.  But, as the saying goes...all good things must come to an end.  There were no trophies this year.  And I, for one, am relieved.  The only thing bad about winning each year is this:  there's only one place left to go after you win...down.  I felt this crazy pressure to win.  Even though I love being creative, I don't like being judged on my creativity.  Now that we've lost, I breath a sigh of relief.  I even said out loud, "Poor Carmen...she's never going to know the feeling of wearing some goofy homemade costume that her mom made from cardboard and hot glue...store-bought from here on out."


I'm sure I'll be taking that back next year.


Thursday, October 16, 2014

october-busy

October-busy.   That's my new adjective to describe the state of being very busy.   Making costumes, soccer games, school gardens, the annual Pansy Day planting...while I love it all, I'm so looking forward to November and peaceful, quiet Thanksgiving.

But in my spare minute, I thought I'd play around with some of PicMonkeys new effects.  If I had a dollar to my name, I'd join and become a royale user.  But the free is good, too.

Isabela is going to be Little Red Riding Hood this year...that cape and hood took maybe ten minutes to make.  We used this video and it was so.very.easy.  (although we're skipping all that makeup she puts on in the beginning of it. ) I just had to make one for Carmen, too...so we're going to have two red riding hoods this year.  A big one...


...and a tiny one.  But I didn't want to give it away yet, so here's the little spell caster.  She's definitely got ME wrapped around her finger.


Those bats and moon aren't really on our wall...just some more cool effects.  The cat is real though.


My house overflows with cardboard right now.  Cardboard for costumes, cardboard for games.  I love cardboard.  Our garden club at school is going to have a booth this year.  Two tickets to feed the monsters...one eats compostable stuff and the other recycling.  Fun and educational!


I've got two more costumes to finish by tomorrow night!  Gotta run!

Anyone dressing up this month?  What will you be?





Saturday, October 11, 2014

library love

My most favorite place to go is......the public library!

Here are six great reasons off of the top of my head:

1.  I can literally get out of the car with just my keys (no purse!) and come out with a giant bag full of books.  It's free, as long as you return your stuff on time.

2.  It's normally quiet.  It's nice to escape from the constant noise at my house and go somewhere I know it will be quiet.

3.  They have awesome events.  Free events.  We've learned how to crochet, attended bilingual story times, pet snakes, bats and hedgehogs, done weird science experiments and a lot more.

4.  You can request your books online!  The library notifies you when the books are in, and if you're in a hurry, you can send your big kid in while you idle in the loading zone, and they come back with all those books in a few minutes.

5.  It's free!  But I think I said that already.

6.  Books on CD.  Each summer, we check out books on CD to listen to in the car as we drive here and there.  The kids really enjoy it and it's fun to all 'read' the same book together.  Our most favorite book this summer was The False Prince.  I say 'our' because it was most definitely my favorite book, possibly ever.  The kids really liked Michael Vey: the Prisoner of Cell 25, too.  Other books we listened to last summer included Flora and Ulysses (boring to us), The Ghosts of Tupelo Landing (boring, but Izzy liked it), Gregor the Overlander (another great one!), and The Hatchet (excellent!).

Today, Diego, Carmen and I stopped in to pick up some books I had requested, and they were having a huge StarWars party.  They had costumes for the kids, balloon lightsabers, crafts, games, and giveaways....although it was probably obvious that we're not big StarWars fans--there were three years olds that knew more trivia than I did.


We have great libraries.  I love the library!

Where is your favorite place to go?




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