A long time ago in a galaxy far away, we celebrated Halloween and loved it!

Another Ryerse Halloween is in the books, and this year it was intergalactic!  We decided the end of September to be the characters from Star Wars for Halloween this year.  We are starting to loose the olders in our family halloween costume tradition (which is fine..I know soon enough it will just be me and Dave wanting to match), but they really wanted to do Star Wars with everyone.  It's kind of cliche since everyone dresses up as these characters, but we're kind of Star Wars geeks, so it works.  We started making costumes right at the end of that month.  I'll have to admit, I was a little daunted by the idea of doing costumes for 7 but knew it would come together!

Dave was Darth Vader.  "I am your father!"  We used a mask and we already had in our dress up box, Dave's black shirt and pants, and then used foam,card board, spray painted bottle caps, straws and black tape to make the chest box and belt.  Probably the easiest costume to put together.  Dave made his box and I made the belt.  He buckled up his riding boots.  We ordered a $5 light saber and welcome to the Dark side.

I was C3PO.  "I don't understand why I was programmed to act so motherly."  I got a gold cosplay suit from Amazon (I was not about to sew with that stuff...it's hard to work with) for the base.  Cut up an old black shirt to use around my waist and attached some pipe cleaners for the wires.  I made a chest plate out of cardboard and all kinds of plastic lids I glued together and spray painted.  Spray painted some old boots and taped up pop bottles to go on my arms and legs.  I also made a belt, but forgot to put that on until after we took pictures.  We ordered the mask online for a couple of bucks.  I got a kick out of walking or running like my favorite droid, but the kids will tell you I don't do a good C3PO impersonation.

Emma was Princess Leia Organa.  "Help me...you're my only hope!"  This is fun because Em's always loved her!  I have pictures when she was little dressing up like Leia.  I didn't have to make the dress, my mom made it for me when I was in college.  Luckily, it fit Emma perfectly.  Emma and I did make the belt together out of foam, button covers, and shiny silver material and lots of hot glue!  We got her some new white boots for the gig, which she's loved wearing all over.  We also did her hair using sock buns, that was fun to figure that out.  She had fun dressing up for school during her party and her friends loved her costume.

Callahan was Luke Skywalker. "Never.  I'll never turn to the dark side...I am a Jedi like my father before me."  We used some khakis and undershirt we already had.  I sewed the Jedi shirt using a karate pattern as a guide.  We used some elastic wrap bandage to create his shoes.  He wore one of his belts, stuck in his light saber and the force was with him!

Lucy was R2D2.  "Beep bloop blop bleep boop."  I initially thought of doing her costume out of a large white garbage can, but she wanted something pretty.  So I used a white warm dress I found online and the silver material and blue and red felt we ordered and made this dress.  She loved it!  I made the hat out of scraps I had.  I thought it turned out pretty fun, cutest little R2D2!

Coverton wanted to be Han Solo.  "I take orders from just one person.  ME!"  We used some navy pants he already had and put red electrical tape along the sides.  Then I used some old maternity clothes and re purposed some pants to sew his vest and cut down one of my old shirts.  I made his belt and holster out of tape and cardboard and some t fabric.  We ordered him a Han Solo blaster super soaker so he can have more fun with it then just on Halloween.  He had a ball pulling it out and pretending to shoot everything and everyone!

Sydnie had to be Yoda. "Do, or do not.  There is no try." I used some scrap fabric and a few different picture examples online to make the hat.  And I just made up the booties for the cute Yoda feet.  Used leftover fabric from last Halloween to make the Jedi robe, and then purchased a brown outfit to go underneath it all.  Mmmm..good! I can't tell you how many times the kids sang "Seagulls, stop it now!" (Bad Lip Reading) to the little girl.

Emma also made a little costume for Jazzy...an Ewok one.  Not that Jazzy really wanted to wear it but Em has fun with it.  She sure loves her furry friend!

We had some fun traditions leading up to Halloween night.

It was our branch's trunk or treat and chili cook off the weekend before.  Great food, cute decorations (in our fancy little garage), fun dancing and more!  We decorated our car using the force.  We painted letters that said "May the Force Be With You" and Emma made this great BB8.  Black tablecloth and string lights in the background, a few Star Wars toys...it really turned out fun.  The kids got a bunch of great candy and went into immediate "Sugar Rush!" they would go around saying as they stuffed their mouths, crazy kids!  Then we had a dance, which was a blast! Love our little branch family!

We had our Sunday before Halloween pumpkin carving night.  Dave painted his pumpkin black and was going to make the Death Star, but our silver sharpie was out of ink. :(  I did the Star Wars logo, Emma made a Pusheen kitty and wrote "Hi" on hers, Cal carved a silly face, Lucy and Cov wanted to make Emoji pumpkins - the kissy face and starry eyes, and I painted Sydnie's foot white, printed it on the pumpkin and added a face to make a cute ghost.  The kids actually did pretty well and Dave and I had less pumpkins to carve.  Score!  And, we tried some new recipes for the pumpkin seeds - one with coconut oil, cocoa powder, sugar and vanilla and the other with olive oil, paprika, onion and garlic powder and a little brown sugar.  Yum!

We made some festive food leading up to Halloween.  I didn't get pics of most of the stuff.  I did a "Boo-reakfast in bed" date with Dave and we had this.  But we ended eating at the table and catching up after his work trip and watching football instead of a scary movie.  Haha! Fun after school snacks and of course, the Halloween lunch box!

We had an awesome Halloween carnival for Cub Scouts, the Bears were in charge of it.  The boys came up with great ideas and we enjoyed putting it all on with the help of the other leaders!

The kids loved their class parties.  Everyone but Lucy got to dress up.  I wasn't in charge of helping with any, but we got to do the Preschool Halloween party over here, it was a blast!  We did spider hand print pictures, eyeball relay, bat-sketball, spin a pumpkin, boo-ling, and bug skee ball, haunted musical chairs, rubber ducky pond, and fun snacks.  Cov got a kick out of all of his friends being dressed up.  They enjoyed trying to scare each other with the plastic spiders and tackling their buddy's giant dinosaur tail, haha!

For dinner on the big day, we made stuffed jack-o-lantern peppers with peppers from our garden and spider bread (Cov's idea).    But the kid's weren't really hungry (too much sugar!) until later and we all pretty much ate at different times.

We got in our costumes, took some pictures (thanks, Ivy & Roxi) and headed to the Nursing Home at the hospital for trick or treating there.  The residents are so sweet!  Then, Cal met up with his buddies and Emma headed off with her friends.  This was their first year going off on their own and they had so much fun!  Emma was with Ivy, Roxi, and Brielle and Cal went with Kolten, Carter, and Torsten (with Kolten's mom surpervising).  We took the youngest three around to the Senior Center and then a few fun friends and neighbors.  But I think Lucy had more fun passing out treats!  This year we handed out packaged chocolate chip cookies, which were a hit!  We had probably 40 trick-or-treaters this year.  We got back and watched Hocus Pocus and the kids did a little trading and then Cov passed out and we go to bed as the kids had school the next day (though Emma said SO many kids were missing that day).