October 31

Halloween was different this year.

Somehow we managed to get no pictures of the kids together.

Jake took awhile to decide if he was even going.
So we threw together a "costume" at the last minute.

Our daughter.
Our oldest.
Our most...ahem...mature.
Decided to have a major and ridiculous meltdown.

She composed herself enough for a pic with her cousin.They were little girls.
My husband might have asked her.
In the middle of her meltdown.
If she was just acting out her costume character.
As you can imagine, that was well-received.
Good times with the Entz's.

Our boys and nephew.Jake was a KU fan.
Real clever, huh?
Ha!
It was the best I could come up with in 10 minutes.

Ezra was a pirate.
The wig did not stay on too long.
Jobie saw his costume at a consignment sale.
And had to have it.
It was $4.
I indulged.
He calls it: Monster Cookie.Oh, my heart.
I don't want him to grow up.

Our Motley Crew

Lara: kitty kat/tiger
Brookelynn: fashion disaster
(she threw it together in 5 minutes)
Jake: I'll explain in a moment
Ezra: Spiderman
Jobe: Batman

Jake's was my favorite this year.
And I think he actually liked it too.
(last year, I mentioned Jake's bad luck with halloween)

Friday night.
What should Jake be for halloween?
Both Ryan and I sitting with computers on our lap.
Looking for ideas.

Saturday night.
What should Jake be for halloween?
(with a little more urgency)
Ryan: Napoleon Dynomite
Run to Walmart.
All they have are black curly wigs.
No blonde.
Except for a Donald Trump one.
Ummm...no.

So I bought the black.
Not Napoleon.
But you take what you can get sometimes.

Since the wig was different,
we figured we might as well switch other things up a bit too.
Napoleon Dynomite.
Jake style. Ryan printed "Vote for Jake" from the computer.
Then Brookie traced it onto a plain white t-shirt we had.
And colored the the arm and neck bands.

Hilarious.
I love it!

Dressin' Up

Halloween was a bit different this year.

Brookelynn got ready early.

She went downtown to help pass out candy

to the hoardes of kids who come for the "Safe Walk".

We went one year.

And never went again.

Absolute craziness.

1,500 kids.

Walking up and down three blocks of Main Street.

So that left us with the three boys

to get ready a couple of hours later.

We picked up Brookie

and stopped at Grandpa and Grandma's.

The plan was for Jakie to be Albert Einstein.

But most people just thought he was a mad scientist.

That works.

Then we returned to our neighborhood.

And let this motley crew head out on their own.

With LOTS of instructions, boundaries and a deadline.

Ryan and I headed out with the little two.

Even though Ezzie was convinced

he was old enough to go with the posse.
No, no, no.

I missed my older kids.

Stop growing up, I say.

Happy Halloween

Bwahhhh!

More Costumes

If anyone is like me.
Who waits until the last minute to come up with costumes.
Here's a few ideas that I've used over the years.

Brookelynn's first halloween.
I always try to have the basket match the costume.

Jake's first halloween.
He's a Royal's baseball player.
Jakie screamed most of the night.
His little face is all red from crying so much.

Brookie was a flower.
Her hat and skirt were made out of crepe paper.

Brookie is a Care Bear.
Just sweats and felt.
I glued felt ears to a headband.
Ryan drew the moon on felt.
Which I then glued to the sweats.

Jakie was a ghost.
Poor guy.
It kept shifting.
He couldn't see.
We finally made it to my parents.
It was dark.
And cold.
I wimped out and didn't want to go out anymore.
My brother took his kids and my kids
around our parents' neighborhood.
Jakie ran into a mailbox at one point.

Brookie the chef.
She already had the apron.
Made by Ryan's very creative aunt.
The chef's hat I made out of poster board
and white fabric and fabric spray glue.
I told you I don't sew.

Jakie the robot.
He looked so cute.
But he was very uncomfortable.
Poor guy.
Again.
Yes.
There's a pattern here.
Jakie and halloween are not the best combo.

And here's Ezzie as a scarecrow.
He liked it a lot better than Brookie did.
My very favorite costume?
I cannot find a picture of.
I have looked thru ALL our pictures.
It was before the days of our digital camera.
As all of these others are.
Hoping my mom has a good one.
That post might have to wait until next year, though.

Lady Liberty

I don't sew.
But I also don't like to spend much on halloween costumes.
I don't have a problem borrowing costumes from people.
Who have clearly spent money.
I just don't want to spend the money myself.
I'm cheap that way.

Three years ago Brookie wanted to be the Statue of Liberty.
Here's what we came up with.

It was super easy.

I found the flat sheet at a discount store.

Just wrapped it around her

and safety pinned it in a few places.

The torch is a paper towel tube,

and a paper bowl with a hole cut thru the bottom

and some orange and yellow tissue paper stuffed in the tube.

The crown was a paper plate cut out big enough

to fit her head like a headband.

And spikes cut out of posterboard and stapled to the paper plate.

The tablet was a big hunk of styrofoam.

I etched the date July IV MDCCLXXVI on it.

The torch, crown and tablet were spray painted to match the sheet.

Warning: the spray paint does eat the styrofoam a little.

We found some witchy/monster face paint.

It was the perfect color to paint her face.

By the way, we don't do scary, gory, evil costumes.

Yucky, I say.

And there you have it.

A cheap, fun, cute, easy costume.

She LOVED it.