Costume - Wreck-it Ralph

This costume gave me the most grief - and it's all because I'm a perfectionist and I HAD to have brown overalls. I have never dyed anything before, so I made some mistakes. To get overalls in Cam's size, I found blue ones on ebay. I didn't know there was such a thing as color remover, so I just bought some dark brown dye and hoped for the best. It barely changed the color. So I did some research online and found out about the color remover. I did about three rounds of it. Keep in mind that I'm doing empty loads in between to rinse the washer, and I'm washing the pants in between to prep them for the next step. I dyed them with one bottle of brown and they were perfect. And then I had the chore of trying to rinse them out in the shower. My 2 1/2 year old thought it was hilarious that I was showering daddy's pants.

The rest of the costume was fairly simple. I happened to have a circle cutout from pickyourplum. I put a paper star on top of it and then spray painted gold. The different textures caused the star to stand out, so it looked great! For his shirts, I couldn't find orange plaid shirts anywhere, so I just bought an orange t-shirt, made a cut at the collar and sewed back the rough edges and added buttons. Then I tore up the sleeves a bit.

I didn't want him to, but he shaved off his goatee for authenticity. He looked pretty good, but when you pair him with Emmett it's perfect!

Costume - Fix-It Felix Jr.

The hardest part about E's Fix-It Felix Jr. costume was finding all the little parts.

For the hat, I ordered the plain blue hat from Amazon and made the logo from yellow vinyl. I just free handed the logo.

I found the shirt on walmart.com, and the name badge on etsy from this etsy store.


I found his work gloves and the hammer on Amazon, and then spray painted the hammer gold. It didn't stick to the plastic hammer well, and he walked around hammering things. So we kept reapplying the coats of paint after every Halloween event we went to!

Throw in some new jeans with a belt and his brown shoes, and we came pretty darn close to the real thing. It's the details that make a difference! The best was when we saw him with Camron's Wreck-it Ralph. Perfect!

Costume - Momma and Baby Kangaroos

I had a really hard time deciding what Susie and I should be for Halloween. The boys had their costumes, but there wasn't really anything from the movie for us to do. I browsed on Pinterest a lot, and saw a momma/baby kangaroo costume. I found a costume for Susie on ebay, added a pink bow so everyone would know she's a GIRL, and then pieced together my costume. My costume was the last one made, and I was tired and not thinking clearly. There was probably a better way to do it, but I sure couldn't think of one. It made it impossible to ride in the car because of the tail, and I couldn't get Susie in and out easily. But, it was cute, and Emmett loved that I had a tail that I could swing around and whack him with! I hate that I didn't get a better picture of the tail!

 

November - Gratitude Leaves

I wanted to do something to display the things we are thankful for, and I saw this one on Pinterest. I had tons of scrapbook paper in fall colors, and I had some brown, orange, yellow, and cream ribbon from a grab box from pickyourplum.com, so I didn't have to buy anything!

The best part has been that Emmett has been involved. When I was tracing and cutting leaves, he was matching them and sorting them (hello OCD child of mine!). Every night we decide what to put on our leaf. The first few nights I did it, drew the picture and then we practiced saying what they were. The last week, he has chosen what goes on there, and they're actually things we are grateful for (friends, grandparents, the dogs, the cat, etc.). He loves helping to hang up the leaf and we spend a lot of time looking at them all. I'm hoping I can save the bows and repeat this next year!

Baby Barefoot Sandals

I just noticed this draft in my list of posts.... oops! It's from August.

For Susie's blessing, I decided that she would wear barefoot sandals. I didn't want to buy shoes for just one occasion. They were easy to make! I didn't really use a tutorial, I just looked at a few different websites to find a sizing guide and then figured them out.

Halloween Crafts

On my day off, I really wanted to have fun with the kids. So we baked, crafted, and played all day. Here are the handprint crafts we did that day:

Homemade Laundry Soap

I saw this on Pinterest, and I thought it sounded crazy. But then I heard of more and more people doing it. So I read up on a lot of different blogs, and decided to give it a go. I was in Walmart, getting all the supplies and a woman was getting all the same supplies and I asked her if she was making her own laundry soap.  So I figured this was meant to be and I picked her brain. It was easy peasy, and I am LOVING the soap so far. I don't have to use much at all, and it's just the right amount of fresh scent.