Monday, November 3, 2014

Costume Week: A beautiful day in the neighborhood

It's been a whirlwind of a week. Yes, I know it's only Monday...but today is the conclusion of this year's #costumeweekspooktacular, so I'm counting as part of the total. And the past few (8+) days have been jam packed with fun. We had a Trick or Treat event last weekend, the girls were dedicated at church on Sunday (like baptism for us less-denominational folks), plus we had a Fall Festival that afternoon at my parent's church (Dustin won the chili cookoff!) On Monday, I tried a new workout class (non related, but still noteworthy), Tuesday was our regular life group with church friends, and Thursday was Trick or Treat in my parent's neighborhood. We passed out candy at our house on Friday, and taught the neighbors to play spades. And then after a full day of preparation, we threw a 3rd birthday bash for Piper last night.

Whew.

I think we managed to pack in some old episodes of Parenthood in there (just made it to season 4. no spoilers!), but other than that, we have been running (one time almost literally, as I finally dragged myself onto the elliptical again). Oh, plus there's work of course, and Dustin has been busy here on the homefront: raising some babies, painting a couple rooms, cleaning out the garage AND the basement, and even landing some freelance work that required him to pull an all nighter. (He sleeps while I blog, and I don't blame him one bit.)

So that's the impromptu life update. But we all know you're really here for some Trick or Treat pictures. As you should be.
Well...Prepare to be NOT DISAPPOINTED.

(But first, some background, because I'm wordy like that):
Because the kids are still so little, I fully exercised my parental right to force them into costumes I deemed adorable, rather than letting them pick whatever cheesy princess garb they might have otherwise landed on. But, because I'm not dumb, I knew I'd be a lot more successful in getting my toddler to actually wear the costume if I also played to her tastes. And so- we landed on what our entire family agreed would be the most precious costumes in the whole wide world:

Daniel Tiger and Katerina Kitty Cat. 

If you don't know what I'm talking about....well, you probably don't have a pre-schooler, because Daniel Tiger is pretty much it for the under 4 set. I could go on forever, but bottom line- Pipes loves the show (It's the only thing she watches, and I don't even mean that in an obnoxious "we really believe in limiting screen time" humble brag kind of way. She just loves the guy...) and we think it's adorable with some really good (and catchy) lessons.

Blah blah blah, show us the costumes!!

 Rawr.

I told you Piper loves a Tiger, so getting to be her specific striped hero was pretty much a dream come true. She's been talking about her costume for weeks, and had even done a trial run with the tiger suite a few weeks ago (begging me to let her sleep in it...) And since Fin can't yet articulate her wishes, we went with the DT theme, and made her into the perfect little sidekick from the show. I mean...can you even?

I tired to not get my hopes up too high for participation, lest I spend hours on their costumes only to be met with screaming fits and refusal to let anything touch their heads. But they seriously ate it up. I have more trouble getting them into jammies every night...they climbed into these getups without a peep. Fin even wore mittens! I don't know what I did to deserve this tiny costume-lovin' mama win but I will take it.

You want to squish their faces. I know.

For those interested in the costume details, here's the rundown.
You can actually buy official Daniel Tiger costumes, but you know that's not my style. I also found a bunch of semi-complicated tutorials to fully fashion some from scratch, but that was a little more than I could manage at this point (see paragraphs 1/2). So I went the semi-homemade route..what I fully believe is the sweet spot of costuming.

Piper/Daniel:
  • Tiger costume- Craigslist
  • Red Hoodie- Once Upon a Child
  • Trolley patch- printed from a google image search, applied with packing tape
  • Watch- borrowed from Daddy
  • Shoes- Converse
  • Bucket- Target $1 Spot
Fin/Katerina:
  • White hoodie with ears- Old Navy (it actually had little round bear ears, so I just sewed them a bit to look more like pointy cat ears, and added a teal bow)
  • Green dress- Carters (Not a dead ringer for Katerina's frock, but super close, and can be worn again later. I sized up a touch to fit it over her hoodie, so it'll be perfect for Spring/Summer).
  • Tail- homemade with fur from Joann's, safety-pinned to the dress
  • Fur mittens- hand-me-downs from Piper
  • Tights- already owned
  • Shoes- Converse with yellow ribbons added
  • Bucket- Target $1 Spot
I don't want to pat myself on the back too much, but it was awesome that these costumes were incredibly warm (maybe even too much, as it was unseasonable nice out that evening), comfy, and easy to move in. Fin couldn't pick up a thing with her mittens, but she didn't want to take them off, so we compromised and had her wear one so she could still grab some treats. Piper had tiger mitts, which she loved earlier, but decided not to bother with the night of. Fine by me!

They were just the two sweetest trick or treaters you've ever seen. Piper enthusiastically said "Trick or Treating!" at each house, happily telling everyone who she was dressed as. Fin was quiet, taking things in as she tagged along, and she held a death grip on a bag of fruit snacks the whole time. She actually figured out a way to hold that bag while leaving her pointer finger free- so she could use that as a claw to grab additional candy without letting go of the fruit snacks.

 We hit up about six houses before they had their fill of walking and doorbell pushing...and since little legs move sllllloooooooowwwwwly, that was fine with us, because it was getting close to bedtime anyway. We headed back to G'mi and Papa's house to eat a treat or two, and see the rest of the trick or treaters.

Piper- keeping an eye out the window while munching on a Twix. 


Fin finally let go of the fruit snacks, but doesn't quite understand the concept of a lollipop.

I held out a little hope that we would get them gussied up the next night too, as our neighborhood held Trick or Treating on actual Halloween (for some reason as a kid we never had ours on Friday...or on Halloween. Something about football games, or vandalism rates...who knows...). But the forecast was calling for rain, and it ended up being a pretty miserable evening of cold drizzle. So we stayed inside (sans costumes) and played while giving out candy. We had 49 trick or treaters (you never know what to expect in a new neighborhood, but now I have it recorded for reference next year) and Piper greeted every last one. She proudly held out the gigantic candy bin, and repeated all of her practiced phrases, "Happy Halloween!" "You're Welcome!" (ok, nothing hard, but she was so excited to be a part of the action). She was a little wary of the whole thing at first, because she was worried we were giving out her candy, but I finally convinced her that no one was taking her precious stash. (Though even only going to a few houses, she still has more candy than a toddler needs for a year, so we'll have to figure out how to "lose" some of it over time. Kind of a bad time for Dustin and I to be limiting our sugar intake...

So there you have it. One for the books. (Literally, as this is the only form of baby book I do, so the documenting is for me as much as anything else.) Piper's birthday is tomorrow, and I'm all sorts of conflicted about it. But we'll save that pride-gushing, sentimental-weeping for another day.

Happy Halloween from our Neighborhood to yours.

1 comment :

  1. okay okay okay. enough. they're so ridiculously adorable and I LOVE the costumes. You're so darn crafty!!! you actually make me look forward to halloween just a tee tiny bit.

    ps. I'm on the lookout for a wolf costume for Luke next year. I've already started thinking about it and have the perfect pairing for Sophia to go with it. very "fairy tale" themed. Maybe I can get my boys on board????

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