From the local halloween parade

Love the attitude here as she sees us.
The above picture was taken when they walked by the judges' table and the video cameras. HERE she smiles and waves!

I walked to the end to be there when she finished the parade and when I caught up with them Leanna was marching with the sign.

Jacob, waving at the trucks going by. He was yelling (quite belligerently) "Hi truck!" at each one as they passed.

Amusing Halloween pictures

More Halloween pictures

Jacob's costume was of course the easiest, since I made it back in 2003 for Leanna. Each of our kids has worn it now.

Timothy's costume was also fairly easy, it was pulled together from things we had around the house-Justin's dress shirt, Timothy's sweat pants, Leanna's old boots, Justin's cape, Timothy's toy hospital parrot, and a hat from Timothy's party as a belt with a toy pirate hat I got on clearance last year after halloween. His facial hair was curtesy of an eye pencil.

Justin's costume was a sweat shirt and sweat pants (and they didn't even match-one was blue, one was black!) I printed out bones found on the internet-but I had quite a time finding a set the right size! and I simply pinned the bones to his clothes. The mask is a milk jug, it fit his face perfectly! And he didn't mind it at all. It helped that it was kinda cold out, but his head was just big enough for air to circulate but not so small that it flopped around. He's rather fascinated with skeletons right now, so this really was perfect for him. He really wanted to have bloody hands too, after seeing a skeleton like that in someone's yard, but I wasn't going to let him do that at five year old!

Leanna's costume was Laura Ingalls Wilder, or more generally, a prairie girl. I thought the bonnet and braids were a dead giveaway, but apparently that's only with people my age or older. I found the pattern and it fit perfectly with our studies and I know she looks adorable in braids. It was about three day's work, off and on of course. At least she can always use it as a nightgown!

Halloween posting

Claire was dressed as Velma, from Scooby Doo.

Happy Halloween

More later................

Busy Week

The award she won tonight for most funniest costume. Except that her costume wasn't supposed to be funny.

Rushed to get Leanna's costume done by Thurs. night for the Girl Scout halloween/Juliette Low birthday party. Plus gathering supplies and putting together Justin and Timothy's costumes. Everything that could go wrong did. The stupid tension on my sewing machine kept holding the thread too tight and I'd have to take it out and redo whatever I'd just sewn. The gathering strands broke off so I had to redo that. Jacob kept going after my sewing machine (because of all the lead on the third floor I had to bring the sewing machine down if I wanted to use it) and several times I had to rethread it or fix settings he'd changed on the machine. I must have pinned the yoke on wrong six times in a row! And the kids were all noisy and crabby and constantly needing me today, since I had to finish it. I thought this might never get done. I am likely the entire world's worst sewing machine operator.

Leanna did not want to wear her mermaid costume from last year (since she hadn't worn it at girl scouts I thought she might wear that if I didn't finish hers on time). "It's not that I don't like it. I just think other people might not!"

Right.

Then when she saw her costume she did say it was pretty. Justin kept telling me how nice it was. So she put it on with minutes to spare before she had to be at Brownies. It's a little long and big although it's a 7/8 and she's an 8. That would be fine with clothing underneath for trick or treating. But at an indoor party-not necesary, so it was a little big. The junior girls voted it the funniest costume and no one knew what she was supposed to be. Leanna said she's not wearing it again, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't hurt.

Today was generally just a very sucky day.