Peacock Tutu

I figure, the first few years, I get to pick out my kids' Halloween costumes.  Before they really get into all those commercial characters.  I sort of have this thing for peacocks, and so that's what Maggie (age 2) agreed to be for me this year. 

I'd seen peacock tutus on Pinterest before.  I found a beautiful example in a picture, but it didn't link to anything, so I was on my own with instructions. I picked up tulle in three shades of blue and green, then cut and tied it on one half of a hair elastic.

For the feathers, I cut out ovals of brown felt, which I stitched with yellow thread.  I then layered on teardrop shapes of foam green and jade, and then a pac-man shape of royal blue.  I hot-glued all the felt together and then sewed the brown oval onto a jade-colored ribbon.

After I tied the ribbons to the skirt, I used a little hot glue to attach the felt feathers onto the tulle.  This kept the feathers from migrating to the underside of the tutu... sort of.  I still had to walk around adjusting Maggie's tutu all night.  :-) 

View from the back.  I looked all over town for a royal blue shirt and finally found this one at JC Penney.  The puffy shoulders are perfect for the costume.  And Miss Maggie is a perfect peacock!

Paper Bag Scarecrow Craft

I love the kids' crafts where you can use what you have on hand.  I try to keep certain supplies on hand for just such crafts.  I had the opportunity to help watch a group of kiddos the other morning and needed a good fall craft for them.  Pinterest led me to this post and the Paper Bag Scarecrow, and, as it turned out, I had everything I needed in my supply.  They turned out adorable, and it was the perfect craft for a small group of kids to complete in about half an hour.

Supplies needed: paper bags, construction paper, raffia, googly eyes, crumpled-up newspaper (I used shredded paper from the shredder), markers, scissors, scissors, and glue.

Directions: crumple up newspaper and stuff the bag, leaving a few inches at the top.  Fold the top over a couple times and staple.  Lay some raffia across the top and staple that down as well.  The more imperfect, the better, in my opinion!  From there, the kids can glue down googly eyes and design the rest of the face: nose, cheeks, and mouth.  We drew the mouths in as if it was a row of stitches... or "railroad tracks," as we told the kids.  And they can design a hat as well.

I love how one kid used a googly eye for the nose, and how another wanted a trick-or-treat bag for his scarecrow.  Kids are the BEST artists.

Our Halloween

 I loooove Halloween.  Mostly for the costumes.  I love seeing creativity at work.  I've taken pride, so far, in piecing together my kids' costumes each year, instead of just buying a complete costume at the store.  However, I've noticed that, with three kids, homemade costumes can cause a little stress.  I try to start planning a couple months in advance, but this year I was also a little easier on myself.  Heck, I didn't make any single piece of Maggie's whole costume.  I did find her dress at a consignment sale, though, so that satisfied my thrifty self.  And I tried to plan a few fun activities for the kids that afternoon, between naptime and trick-or-treating, so we didn't get too antsy. 

Jack putting together his jack o' lantern busy bag.  It was Crazy Hair Day at his school (thus the orange-striped hair).

This was a fun project!  Lay out wax paper, make a web with Elmer's glue, then sprinkle on silver glitter.  Let it dry for awhile, then peel off the wax paper and voila!  A sparkly spider web.  Fun for table decor.  I got the idea here. 

Here are the kiddos.  Dorothy, Hello Kitty, and Batman... what a group!  I made a scrap tutu for Kate's costume, along with her "ears."  For Jack, I appliqued the Batman logo onto his shirt and then whipped up a cape.

Trick-or-treating at Grandma Pat's house.  It was only after I took these pictures that I noticed Kate's headband was backward.  Ugh!

Here's a close-up of the bow turned the correct way.  It was a fun and easy project!  I found that Youtube tutorial here. 

Jack o' Lantern Busy Bag

Here's a fun idea for a Halloween-themed busy bag, taken from this blog post.  Cut a pumpkin out of orange felt, glue on a green stem, and make it into an interchangeable jack o' lantern with black felt pieces.  I made several pairs of eyes, a few noses, a couple mouths, some whiskers, and a scary-looking scar.  The blogger I read from made a little pocket for all the black pieces to attach to the back of the pumpkin, but I'm just putting the whole thing into a Ziploc and keeping it with the rest of our busy bags. 

Jack had fun putting a jack o' lantern face together. 

His finished creation

Halloween

It's getting more and more difficult each year to make my kids' Halloween costumes. I suppose most of the reason why is that I have THREE of them now. (Poor Maggie, by the way, hardly even got a costume;I just put her in a pair of overalls and topped her off with a hat and a handkerchief around the neck for a "farmer" look.) In the middle of my costume-making frenzy for the other two kids, after a few hours planning, shopping, measuring, cutting, and sewing, I wondered why exactly I was making their costumes. Especially after seeing kids' costumes advertised for as little as ten bucks. I spent more than that on my materials! And... well, there really is no answer. I've just always made my kids' costumes... so why stop now? For the record, I found ideas for Jack's fireman costume at this Coolest Homemade Firefighter Costume Ideas website, and for Kate's Little Red Riding Hood costume at this eHow page. And I took all three of them, and our red wagon, to a nearby pecan grove in hopes of capturing a few good photos.

Candy Corn Ruffle Onesie

Who doesn't love candy corn? At least once a year I need to have a handful. Maggie, of course, hasn't yet been introduced to the sugary treat, but she is lookin' adorable in her onesie. I found the tutorial at this Naptime Crafters post.