Happy Halloween from Far-Far Away, as we dressed up as the Shrek characters this year! The kids decided earlier this year (summer time) and never wavered. It's one of their favorite movies, and we love the book. One of the first dates Dave and I went on was a double date my friend Katie and I planned with a Shrek theme. We saw Shrek 2 at the dollar theatre, read the book, ate green food and fenced. Good times!
Though we love dressing up at Halloween, feels like the kids are always dressing up! Dance party? Time to dress up. Dinner time? Let's make up a crazy combination. Play time? Let's dress up and pretend. They crack me up!
The kids really got into decorating this year! Covey liked all the scary stuff, Sydnie liked finding candy in our decorations and eating it (even the hot glued ones, ew!), Lucy liked dressing our skeleton, Cal and Emma played with the face makeup a lot and even put "bloody" handprints on the mirror. We also all pitched in and made a skeleton string art craft. Cal picked it and helped cut the wood, paint, and the kids all helped hammer nails, and Emma finished things off with the string wrapping. It turned out really cool! We made lots of creepy food, of course. Too much spooky fun in the kitchen going on!
We made some vampire cards with Sydnie's hand to send to our family members and our ministering families. The kids helped put the finishing touches on, and Emma wrote the cutest cards to them all. Blah blah blah!
Pumpkin carving was fun! Emma made a creepy scarecrow, Cal did a fun scary face with stitches, Lucy created a cat, and Cov did a face which he later cut the bottom out of so he could put it on his head, Sydnie colored all over hers and put some foam shapes on hers, and I made a green Shrek S logo pumpkin. Carving pumpkins is always such fun!
We read some ghost stories in the More Haunted Montana book by Karen Stevens that we got from the library and went to some of the places in Billings to check things out. We hit up the old Rex Hotel which now houses Buffalo Block steak house and drove around the Dude Rancher and while we didn't stay there, some of the kids were still creeped out. Some of our littles wanted us to stop reading but some asked us to keep on reading and that they were ready for some more! They had fun jump scaring each other and one had troubles falling asleep that night. No ghosts, but a spooky fun way to spend a Saturday afternoon in October.
We had our preschool Halloween party, that was super fun. Carol and I dressed up like Pete the Cats, since that is our classroom theme. We did short centers, played games, went over to the nursing home and did a parade from outside the windows and went up to the doors and wished them a happy Halloween, made some snacks, watched a quick movie. The kids loved it! Sydnie got to play in pumpkins, play some fun games, had some cute snacks, and they came over with us to the nursing home. The elderly residents loved it as no visitors can go over right now. So we stayed safe but were still able to spread some cheer. Sydnie chose to wear her "Cinderella" dress (it was actually an Elphaba dress Emma wore from when we were the cast from Wicked one year but same color as Cinderella). She had a blast!
It was kind of great having Halloween on Saturday this year as we got two celebrations. Friday, Sydnie and I passed out candy at the Middle/High School for the kindness campaign. Then we went over to the kids' Halloween costume parade around the block of the school. It was a beautiful day, which is in contrast to the last couple of weeks where it was super cold and snowy. I didn't get great shots of the kids, but they had a good time, and Sydnie loved all of the costumes! That afternoon, they had our down town trick-or-treat, so we went over to that after school. Callahan brought a couple of his good buddies. Afterwards, we came to our house and the kids all played outside. We made qute a scene but some were confused how a sniper (what Nolan was dressed as) and Marty McFly (what Logan was dressed as) fit into the Shrek scene.
Saturday, we woke up and Lucy helped me make spooky breakfast burritos. Then we played around indoors and out, it was such a nice day! Cov carved out his pumpkin to fit on his head. Lucy had Lauren over, and they had a blast! We had a traditional chili dinner we make as a joke now since we won with our famous recipe while in college (a few cans of chili and corn mixed in the slow cooker with some fresh cracked pepper). Then we just went trick-or-treating, around to neighbors and friends. Some places and people cancelled Halloween, but our town came out big. There were some awesome decorations! Some left out bowls of candy, while most opted to just hand it out. A few had masks on, but I'm glad our kids could just be kids and forget about the Covid thing for a while. Emma went to Alyssa's house with Emily and Carlie for a party. They played games, watched movies, ate food, and did teenage girl things. I am glad she went! Cal went to Nolans to hang with he and Logan, and some other buddies. They had dinner there, went trick-or-treating a little bit, scared kids who came and helped pass out candy a bit. Lucy went with Lauren. So it was me who took the two youngers. Pam and Jeff spoiled all our kids, and Callie dumped half their candy bowl into our kids bags! Our neighbors are great. What a fun holiday!
So we started making costumes around the first of October. Dave was Shrek and his costume was pretty easy. All we made was the headband and painted his bald cap and made the vest. Everything else was stuff we had or thrifted. He really only dressed up for pictures because the face paint wasn't great quality and was so itchy he couldn't stand it. "Just trust who you are."
I was Fiona. I sewed my dress and it wasn't too hard. The trim I used for the neckline made it bow out a little, but we made it work. We got a wig off of Amazon, I spray painted and jeweled a cheap dress up crown, and wore some sparkly shoes I already had. "I want what any princess wants. To live happily ever after with the ogre I married."
Emma wanted to the the Fairy Godmother. She helped me make her dress out of two types of blue special occasion fabrics. She is getting really good! Then we got a trolls wig and toned it down with some temporary hair spray, got her a fairy star wand, she bedazzled some dollar store glasses and added a chain, and practiced her signature classic faces. "Remember, happiness is just a teardrop away!"
Callahan had the idea originally and loves the movies. He chose Prince Charming and has been growing out his hair since March for this role, ha! We sewed the pants together, just a simple pattern with an elastic waist. Then I made the shirt. I made some homemade frogs out of gold cording, and printed off a fleur de lis pattern, cut it out, and painted some gold fabric paint on the front of his shirt. We got some boot covers too that we added some gold accents too. "This was supposed to be *my* Happily Ever After!"
Lucy knew right away she wanted to be Puss in Boots. We got some yellowish orange pajamas, pulled out some boots, cape, and belt we already had, bought a sword, and she helped me make the hat. We glued one side up, added some ribbon and gold decorative trim. Then we topped her off with cat face painting. Cute kitty! "Fear me!...if you dare!"
Coverton volunteered himself to be Donkey, because as he said "Well, i am the annoying one!" What a funny kid! But he's got a good sense of humor like Donkey so it worked. We got a gray sweat suit, put some black faux fur down the middle of his hoodie, made a white fuzzy tummy, got a donkey nose and ears headband to put on him. So easy peasy! "And in the morning, I'm making waffles!"
Sydnie was Gingy, of course, She's sugar and spice (and sass), and loves all things sugar. We used her footie pajamas as a guide to cut her out a gingerbread costume, cutting out the mouth area so she could see. She even helped sew it a bit. We used felt for the eyes, mouth outline, and eyebrows. We used giant white ric rac to make the "icing" trim. Then we made her gumdrop buttons out of purple plastic Easter eggs, modge podging glitter on it to look like sugar. Topped off her costume with a large sucker, which was a cute touch, and a good lesson in self control for her. "Not my gumdrop buttons!"
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