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!

Superhero Training Camp

This past week was spring break for LCPS, and as always, I needed something for my kids to do.  My friends with the Las Cruces Playgroup and I put together a three-day camp.  And not just any camp, but a Superhero Training Camp!  With about 18 kids participating, we split them up into two groups (big kids and little kids) and then had moms (and at least a couple dads) walk them through different stations: obstacle course, a "skills training" activity, craft, and snack.  Super fun for our super kids.  Jack and Kate had their capes already from an AWANA superhero night last fall.  I found a quick tutorial for that here.  Seriously, I whipped up a last-minute one for Maggie in about half an hour. 

Back detail on the cape of "Super K"

Miss Maggie would NOT stand still for a good cape pic.  Ergh.

We set up the obstacle course every day so the kids could supposedly improve on their time each day.  It included:

Kicking a soccer ball around some cones

Crawling through several tunnels

Tossing a frisbee into a hula hoop

Climbing up a rock wall to save a baby at the top, then bringing the baby down the slide. Wheee!  I just love this picture of Miss Maggie.

Of course, wind wreaked havoc on our tunnel set-up.  And kids will be kids.

 

Every day, we planned a "skill-building activity" that would strengthen kids and give them the tools they needed to become a true superhero.  Day 1's activity was knocking over a wall (made with shoeboxes wrapped in butcher paper). 

And each day we had a craft that would help the kids pull their superhero identity together.  Day 1's craft was a mask.  I found a tutorial here and just simplified the craft a bit for our day camp by just using one layer of felt.  Although, as it turned out, the mask wasn't so durable, so in the future, following the tutorial would probably be a good idea.  The kids decorated them with buttons and little baubles and puffy paint (in some cases, waaaay too much puffy paint!). 

Kate's mask; I sewed the elastic on later

Our activity for Day 2 was throwing green ping-pong balls (which were supposed to represent Kryptonite) from one bucket into another. 

And Day 2's craft was super cool wrist cuffs.  Tutorial found here.  We had every mom bring a toilet paper roll, which we just cut into a cuff size and covered with felt (and, again, more buttons and baubles and puffy paint).  Then, we punched two holes on each of the cuff's ends and threaded some elastic string through to tie it up.

Of course, we had snack time every day.  Who can forget that?!?  Here's an actual picture of me with my girls!

Fueling up

Our craft for Day 3 was the BEST: Superhero Control Panels!  You know, so our little heroes would be able to activate their force field, or call their sidekick, or kick into high gear.  I found this tutorial here.  We had each mom bring an empty Jello box.  I spray-painted them and some straws and little styrofoam balls metallic silver.  I used scissors to poke a hole in the balls, then attached them to the straws with a little hot glue.  And then I duct-taped the straw-and-ball "antenna" onto the Jello box. 

A box of  control panels pre-craft time

Here's a better look.

We used adhesive craft foam to decorate them.

Our Day 3 snack mom was super-ambitious and brought all sort of fun (and accessorized!) treats.

Star-shaped Rice Krispies treats with fun labels

Snacks were enjoyed immensely. 

And, with that, our three days of superhero training were over.  We sent each kid home with a certificate (found here) that could be personalized with their real name, superhero name, and special powers.  All in all, the kids had a blast!

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. 

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.