Showing posts with label halloween. Show all posts
Showing posts with label halloween. Show all posts

Thursday, October 31

Trick N' Treatin'

 The usual suspects.

Our tornado toddler MADE Halloween this year. He was utterly adorable and heart-melting. Totally dug every part of the process including trying to stick his entire head down into his pumpkin to check out his candy every once in awhile. :) Captain America was a hit! {Yes, E somehow managed to persuade switching costumes with T.}
Great evening with our friends.

Happy Halloween 2013

From the Avengers!

Seriously, these two were WAY too excited for gparent day and showing off their costumes at gymnasitcs. Not interested is keeping still for a civilian photo-opp. Gotta take what you can get with these heroes. ;)
We're doing our usual tricking-n-treating with our besties in the next town over this evening. And yes, this year no homemade costumes. The boys have continued to come home from gparent day with a different costume over the weeks and have been so excited about their dress-up clothes that I decided to KISS {Keep It Simple, Stupid.} ;) No need to stress about something if they're content with what they got. Looking forward to celebrating with our little gang this evening! 


Hope you enjoy yours with yours!! 

xoxo,
swenson gang

Thursday, November 1

Wizard of Oz

Last year, the boys were MacGyver and his side-kick, the Swiss Army knife. This year I decided we should all be involved in the fun..you know, make it a family event. This may be the last time I really get away with "picking" since E is already shouting out opinions for next year...which all include a sword and shield.

So for one girl {albeit quite pregnant} and three boys, I went with the Wizard of Oz gang. I had originally planned to make/piece together all of the costumes in some form or fashion. But when my mom gave me a toddler lion costume that she bought from Costco, I didn't turn her away. Here's a bit of the break down for the rest of the gang...

The tin {toddler} man
 Much of his ensemble he already owned: shoes, hoodie {we went with a gray long sleeve for the actual day}, and pants. I made a heart out of red felt, embroidered "if i only had a..." on the front, stuffed it, and safety-pinned it to his top. I bought a huge funnel at a local hardware store along with some chrome spray paint. It originally was tied with jute string but kept falling off so I switched it out to thin elastic. That did the trick and he kept the hat on for the entire night. 

The axe is made from gray and brown felt and stuffed. I free-handed a pattern which worked great. The biggest problem came with making it stand up straight..that's where W came in. He added some cardboard and a skewer to reinforce the structure. Perfect...well, enough to hold up to a wild toddler hacking at air.

 I added a bit of silver face paint to boot.
{this was pre-elastic..he was pretty bummed that it kept falling off}

Knocked-up Dorothy
 I found a really simple and easy tutorial here {she's not the most UN-annoying person ever} which I just sewed instead of using the fabric glue she did. It's basically a skirt and a bib piece tucked into the skirt. I also used her glitter shoe tute in the video too. Since my gingham fabric was really see-through, I added a white lining. And I had zero petticoat luck at the thrift stores so I added some lace trim. 

I really wanted to add that red tulle underneath too and have it just peek out a little. But I didn't find a tutorial that was workable enough and simply ran out of time {and energy}.

I made an over-sized red bow with felt and leftover gingham since pigtails & pregnant felt way too wrong. ;) Threw on some of W's long socks, a red cardi and I was ready to roll.

The scarecrow

W already had everything but the hat and corn cob pipe. Both of which I picked up at the party store while getting face paint. My MIL had made the brown pants over ten years ago for a Renaissance fair and his shirt was thrifted for the same event. His was the easiest!

After pictures with my parents, we headed over to our friends' neighborhood for trick-or-treating. We did much better than the three houses from last year although we were up way past the boys' bedtime.
 
It really felt like E's first year this time. We practiced what to say each time and that kid said "Happy Halloween" or "Thank You" with so much gusto at every house. As he trotted back, he'd give me his candy and announce how many pieces he got. If he got more than two, he'd say, "It's because I'm a lucky, lucky, lucky little boy." A movie reference we use often with him. Love that boy so.

the whole gang!

until next year...

Friday, October 19

Pumpkins

We ventured to the patch last weekend to grab our stash.
We are definitely quickly running out of room for pumpkins! Who knows what we'll do next year with THREE littles?!

We are very much into "If he does it, so do I" stage.
And they are pretty much inseparable. Fingers crossed that helps with moving them in together in a few months!




Our rule for pumpkin selection: have to get it to the wagon. This was E's solution.
We gave in due to creative thinking.


Monday, October 1

Gettin' Spooky! {decor}

A few weeks ago, the fall box came down and slowly but surely our house is turning a bit spooky! I've made a new front door wreath which I'm in absolute love with. Already scheming up Christmas ideas so I can keep it out!
{tutorial found here}

Our entryway inlet has a few added touches:
I got the print a few years back and added my mustache hoop art that wonders around downstairs without a permanent home. The beware sign was a dollar store score.

Our mantle:
At this point, just a hod-podge of what was already on it plus a few random additions. The candy corn garland I made out of felt and is hung on black ric rac. The witch print is found here. And the centerpiece pallet sign is incomplete {still need words} and will eventually go to another home. But it works there for now until I mail it off.  

The winning space thus far is our bat wall! It turned out so awesome. Amazing what 50 little card-stock bats can do! The flight of the bats:


{tutorial found here}

Happy harvest month! 

Monday, October 31

Pumpkin Guts

A first for both of them! Over the weekend we gutted our two medium pumpkins with the boys.

Well, one helped for a bit...


E did a great job de-seeding for like 10 minutes before he started playing with the ones on the tray. Or taste-testing them. Then that got boring so he went off to "mo" {play with his lawn mower}. Even with the short attention span, a great time was had by all. Another one of those awesome moments where I look over at W and think, "Man, we're really do this family thing!"

And the other little guy just hung out and watched all the action.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Wednesday, October 12

The Boys' Costumes

I've hit a road block for some time. Since like June, W has been dead-set on E being Macgyver/Macgruber for Halloween-- given E's long lustrous blonde mullet. But I really wanted the boys to "go together" since let's face it, I only have a very limited amount of years in which I can freely do this without their permission. 

I just couldn't think of something Theo could be that would go along with this theme. Until W suggested the best idea that I might actually be able to pull off!

I bought this:
and this online yesterday.
I only need to find some gray tights or just turn some kids' socks into leg warmers. Then it's off to Joann's to get materials for the main part. I'm still not sure how this will turn out since I have no template and not a whole lot of time to figure it out. Nothing like some pressure to get ya going!

For Ezra's costume, we pretty much already have everything...except for the khaki utility vest. I'm going to need to come up with something and haven't had any luck so far in finding one to purchase. 

So, here are my inspirations for this year's costumes:

E's...Macgyver/Macgruber...

T's...the quintessential Swiss Army Knife!...

Hysterical, right?! Now, let's hope I can pull this off in time! ;)

Monday, November 1

All Hallows Day

We got to spend Halloween with W's family! We were so looking forward to seeing everyone; the last time we had everyone together was back in January! We had a blast at the "Trunk-or-Treat" event hosted by Wes and Carolyn's church. Very cool idea. Families parked their cars on the grass and decorated their trunks with different themes. Kids could come up, take pictures, and get candy. 

Wes & Carolyn did the obvious: an owl trunk {complete with owl noises from an iphone app}...Josiah is obsessed with them!

Sweet Josiah

Adorable Charis

Ruth with  her cutie, Wyatt {4 days younger than E} & E

E was a little motorcycle dude. One of my dad's clients got him the faux-leather jacket and doo-rag before he was born. I remember opening it while in labor the night before he was born. Since both my parents are avid riders, it was such a thoughtful and apropos gift!
The biggest hit of the night was the baby bouncy house. E loved playing with his cousins, Allison and Shane. Oh, and Papa too.
{can you see the three top teeth that are coming in? Definitely have to get use to the new tooth-y grin.}

"You don't have a soul. You ARE a soul. You have a body."
-C.S. Lewis

Happy All Souls Day!