un-drafted: Halloween 2011

(yet another post that's been sitting in drafted stages for nearly 2 weeks. There just aren't enough hours left in the day when you have sick kids (croup included), regular headaches (one coming in as I type, ugh), and a baby (still refuse to call her a toddler) who all of the sudden decided that going to bed at night is no fun, so it takes us nearly an hour to get her to sleep...)

I can hardly believe we are almost half-way through November. Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and Christmas might be coming even sooner than that, judging by how badly stores and businesses are wanting us to shop (was I the only one confused by that shiny gigantic snowman lawn figure at Costco in August?). I am still recovering from Halloween preparations, and now I'm supposed to decorate for Thanksgiving? Just so I can replace all the orange, yellow and brown stuff with red and green the day after that? I think we'll just stick to more versatile decor - shreds of paper from cutting out shapes or folding origami creatures. We never run out of that stuff, it's cheap, comes in variety of colors, takes no time to create and virtually impossible to get rid of. Might as well pretend like it's part of our interior design, right?

Speaking of Halloween, as much as we don't look forward to it, we always get a chuckle out of our ability to put together cute costumes for kids without hardly spending any time or money on them. This year was no exception. I know I'm probably the only person posting Halloween photos 2 weeks later, but why not? Just doing my best to record stories and events that I would want my children to be able to read about 15 years from now. (Children! Remember that unforgettable vacation in August 2011? Yes, I'm still planning to write about it some day, but the memory of it is still painfully fresh.)

Ok, on to the costumes... The only *thing* we bought just for the costumes was wire to hold hold Maya's braids. Everything else was 100% reused, borrowed (between siblings) or recycled.


is there such thing as Halloween miracle? Because I don't know how else I'd call the fact that I got a decent picture of all 4 kids looking cute and standing together for a few seconds. Elijah even tried to smile.

Pippi Longstocking:

old corduroy pants from 3 years ago with old knee patches
Mismatched knee high socks
old 4t dress over t-shirt
small-ish jacket with patches sewn on by Maya
Anya's rainbow gnome skirt (from 2 years ago) used as neckwarmer
vintage pillowcase for candy


Cowboy (I know, very original):

his every-day jeans and shirt
Maya's hat (bought before last year's Halloween for Maya)
Maya's boots
my head-kerchief
vintage pillowcase for candy


Rainbow fairy/princess/ladybug without a mask, anything really:

dress up dress - from consignment store (bought months ago)
flower crown - my mom sent them for the girls and they've been wearing them all summer)
rainbow cape - from her old rainbow gnome costume
re-used Christmas gift bag (so much easier that wrapping oddly shaped gifts in paper)


Lamb (which is so not her personality)

Hat - from Elijah's old clothes
Jacket - same

We tried to minimize the damage to their immune system from all the sugar, as they were still recovering from the first round of sickness. A couple of them managed to get sick again (and then pass it on to Mark and I). So I have to say, I'm glad Halloween is only once a year, and that we survived it, again.