Just when I thought Halloween was over.......

Alternate title: "Costume surprise! "or "Surprise, I need a costume!"

Brielle's costume

A while ago, Brielle mentioned to me that the Drama teacher and the Science teacher were teaming up for their class and were going to have the students be in a play. They chose the subject of the solar system for the play, and Brielle was chosen to be Mars.

"I need a Mars costume." she told me hesitantly, "Just don't make it very big, I don't want to attract too much attention."

I got excited "COOL! I don't need to make it big, I can just make you a red unitard, and I can airbrush the geographical features of Mars all over it, then I can make you a special headband with the moons attached so that they rotate and then........"

"MOM! NO! I don't want anything like that! The drama teacher said that it didn't need to be anything elaborate, just something that we put a little bit of thought into. She said that we could just wear our regular clothes with some sort of SMALL costume, just so they could tell what planet we are. We're only going to be performing the play to our class, it's really not that big of a deal."

I was disappointed because really, costumes are my thing.

Brielle didn't say any more about the costume and I actually forgot about it until the other night when she said "The play is tomorrow, and I don't know what I'm going to wear, do you have any ideas?"

Naturally, she had asked me this on a night when I was too busy with my own work to help her, so I told her that she would need to figure it out on her own.

The next morning, I asked her if she found something to wear. She assured me that she had, then left for school.

When she came home that afternoon, I asked her what she came up with for her costume and how the play went.

"Well, I wore my red shirt and taped a bunch of blue milk caps all over it. When I got up to introduce myself, I said "I am Mars. I have ice caps." then the drama teacher looked down, covered her face with her hands and started shaking her head. Mr. Andrews just started laughing. They both laughed through the rest of my presentation, I don't think either one of them listened to anything else I said."

CJ's costume

A few weeks ago, CJ informed me that he needed to do a book report on a biography of someone. They were going to give oral reports, and needed to dress up as the person.

I asked him what kind of a costume he needed. He said that the book he read was about a rocket scientist.

"COOL!" I yelled "I can make you a really neat rocket costume! I can make it all white, and put a big pointy hat on your head, we can use a couple of empty oatmeal containers to make you some rocket boosters, then I can make some flames coming out of the back of them........."

CJ looked at me like I was crazy and said "No Mom, I won't wear that. We're supposed to dress like the person, not what they invented."

Seriously, these kids are really cramping my style.

"OK, then what kind of a costume do you want?"

CJ thought for a moment then said "What about a lab coat? That would make me look like a scientist."

I said "I can make you a lab coat. Can I at least make a great big sequined rocket on the back of it?"

"No Mom. I don't want a big sequined rocked on it."

"What about a small sequined rocket?"

"No rocket."

I told him that he was a party pooper.

I completely forgot about the costume until last night when he reminded me that he had his report today.

"No problem" I thought "I can whip up a simple lab coat pretty quick, I wouldn't even need to put a pocket on it, plus I was pretty sure that a while ago when we were cleaning out the storage room, I saw a big piece of white fabric in my 20 year emergency fabric supply that would be perfect for a lab coat.

I tried one more time to talk CJ into the sequined rocket, but he was really against it, so I went to get the white fabric.

I looked where I thought I saw it.

I looked in the logical places that I was sure I would have put it.

I looked in the illogical places that it might have been stashed.

I couldn't find the fabric.

I knew it wouldn't take me long to make the stupid lab coat once I had the fabric, only I couldn't find it anywhere. I was even beginning to wonder if I had really seen the fabric or if it was a figment of my imagination.

As I was looking, I ran across the Nativity costumes I had made for our Ward Christmas party quite a few years ago.

I had an idea!

I got the largest angel costume and held it up. Maybe, if I cut it straight down the front and put a collar on it, it could sort of resemble a lab coat! Sure, it would be a little snug on CJ, but hey, it's a costume!

As I was walking out of the storage room, I decided to look through one more box for the fabric. I got to the bottom of the box and was excited to find a large piece of white fabric! I cheered and was about to do the happy dance until I pulled the fabric out of the box only to discover that it was bridal satin.

So I tucked it under my arm and took it upstairs to give CJ the choice between wearing a too small converted angel costume, or a lovely lab coat made of bridal satin.

He didn't really seem to like either choice. I even offered to put some lace and pearls on the satin coat, but that just made him grouchy.

I decided to go put the two fabrics away in the storage room and look for another fabric that might work. Maybe I could use a different color of fabric.

Then, almost as if it was a miracle, I found the white fabric I had been looking for in the first place, it wasn't even in the storage room!

I brought the fabric upstairs and went ahead and made the lab coat. (It wasn't attractive, but it was functional)

CJ was working on his report on the computer in my sewing room, and when I was nearly finished with the coat I had him try it on to check the sleeve length He said it was perfect, then added "Now I just need a prop."

A prop?

great.

"What about a small rocket?" I asked, "you could make it out of a paper towel roll and make a cone on the end of it."

I could tell by the look on CJ's face that he liked the idea, but something was wrong.

"Do you want me to make you a rocket?" I finally asked.

He looked relieved and said "Yeah, that would be great if you could."

So even though it was getting late, when I finished the lab coat, I taped together some paper to make a rocket. It took me like 3 minutes. It was not pretty, but it did somewhat resemble a rocket, and CJ said it would work for the prop.

Then he thanked me for helping him with his costume.

I informed him that he would now be my personal servant for the rest of the week.

What do you think I should have him do for me first?

More Halloween, just in case you haven't had enough

For two whole weeks before Halloween, I was swamped with my regular work, so I wasn't able to start making costumes until Wednesday night. I won't go into details, but two days and not much sleep later, I finished costumes for my nieces and for Brielle and Max. Aaron wore his tornado costume from last year, I just added some small farm animals on it to make it more realistic.

Here are my nieces, the Queen of Hearts and Oscar the grouch.

I can't believe my brother wanted his sweet little two year old daughter to dress up as Oscar the grouch. He says that she's grouchy. I don't believe him, whenever she's at my house, she is a sweet little angel. I told him he was full of it, and he said "You don't live with her."

I haven't been able to get the pictures of my kids in their costumes into the computer. I have to have the teenager do it for me because when I try to load them into the computer, I just can't seem to get them to work, and no amount of yelling at the computer will make it work.

It's just nicer for everyone involved if I don't need to be bothered with all this technical stuff.

We had a great Halloween. When we got up Halloween morning, we carved our pumpkins. This was Max's first year to really get into this pumpkin carving thing.

I cut open his pumpkin and he got to scoop the guts out himself, then he drew the face on his pumpkin, and I helped him cut out the pieces. He decided to make his a surprised face.

I got this brilliant idea that this would be the year that I actually roasted the pumpkin seeds. After we were done carving, Max helped me pick out the seeds from the pumpkin guts. After we got all of the seeds out (which took forever) he ended up playing with the pumpkin guts for over an hour.

Sometimes it just doesn't take much to entertain that kid.

Just so you know, I will not be roasting pumpkin seeds again, it was way too much work and as it turns out, nobody in the house will eat them.

A family down the street always hosts a "pre trick or treating" dinner. It's always a great way to start the night. This year we had spaghetti, everyone brings part of the dinner and the kids have a short parade around the block.

CJ didn't go trick or treating this year, he stayed home to hand out candy so me and DH were able to go together to take the other kids out to collect candy.

CJ did a great job with the handing out of the candy. He layered the big bowl of candy with all my favorite candy in the bottom, then the next favorite until my least favorite candy was on top so it was handed out first, so when the night was over, my favorite candy was left!

The kid is a genius. And I'm sure his method had nothing to do with the fact that his favorite candy is the same as mine.

Max was dressed as "SUPER MAX!" and yes, you must yell when you say that. I taught him to show his muscles when he said that and then point to the sky and do a little hop/jump to the side, kind of like he was about to fly away. He practiced this for several days before Halloween, and it really paid off. Whenever someone would ask him who he was, he would immediately drop his candy bucket, show his muscles, yell "SUPER MAX!" and hop/jump away.

He was hilarious.

Until the time that he hopped on the wrong foot, tripped and fell and hurt his knee. He immediately came running over to me to kiss his knee, I guess even superheroes sometimes need their mommies.

We lucked out because the weather wasn't very cold. Even though he protested, I made Max wear his warm pajamas under his super suit. I carried his warm jacket and kept asking him if he wanted to wear it and he just said "No, I'm not really really really cold yet." Apparently, he was only really really cold.

He was really excited about the trick or treating until we nearly got to the end of the block when Max announced that he wanted to go home because he had enough candy. The real reason was that his bucket was too heavy to carry. I offered to carry the candy for him, then he was fine.

Really, I feel that I earned the stuff that I got from the Candy Tax.

I couldn't believe how many people came to trick or treat in our neighborhood that don't live here. There were many carloads of people bringing their kids to get candy, and in a way, I don't blame them, some of our neighbors really get into Halloween and many of them give out really good candy. I didn't recognize probably 90% of the people roaming our neighborhood on Halloween night.

However, they didn't get the good stuff from our house, it was all in the bottom of the candy bowl.

So far, the kids have all paid their "candy tax" to me. I caught Brielle trading Max a tootsie roll for a Hershey bar, and all of her tootsie pops for all of his Twix. Someday he will catch on to this.

I've been making a list of things I need to do tomorrow. For some reason, when I have a ton of work to do and have been concentrating on finishing the work for my business, things around the house seem to fall apart, and I now have a bunch of stuff to clean up. I have several loads of laundry and dishes just waiting for my attention, and that is in addition to the Halloween costume making mess that is still overtaking several rooms in our house. I did get the pumpkin carving mess cleaned up, so I should get some sort of credit for that.

My big goal for the week is to get the refrigerator cleaned out.

I will not be posting pictures.

Now that Halloween is over...............

Dear children,
It has come to my attention that you received quite a bit of candy from trick or treating last night. It is now time for you to pay your "candy tax" for this year.

Taxes will be as follows:
ALL of the Three Musketeers.
1/2 of all Reese's peanut butter cups
1/2 of Hershey bars, or if you wish, you may substitute Milky Way bars.
In addition, any Butterfingers or Almond Joys donated to me will receive a tax credit.
If you do not like nuts, I will just assume that you will be handing over the peanut M&Ms. No tax credit will be given for these, however, they most likely will put me in a better mood, which is always beneficial to you.

You may feel that these taxes are unfair, but let me point out that I did sacrifice many hours of my own sleep to make your costumes, and the cuteness of said costumes most likely earned you extra candy at certain houses. (I know this to be true after one neighbor gave Max three big handfuls of candy while saying "You're just so cute that I think you should have extra candy!)

Thank you,
Mom


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Yes, I'm still here. Miraculously enough, Brielle was the only one in our house to get sick with the flu. I've been so busy with work that I kept saying that I didn't have time to get sick until November 1st. (which would be today.........)

So far I'm feeling OK. Except for this stupid cough that I have developed over the last few hours.

I have signed up for NaBloPoMo, so I will be back tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day..........


Also, last night, one of my kids received a candy bar "Snickers CHARGED"
It has caffeine in it.
:0D
I've never been a big fan of the Snickers bar, however, I may just have to rethink this.

A bunch of random stuff because I can't organize my thoughts well enough to write an actual post.

This week we decided that Max has a brilliant career ahead of him as a personal trainer.

Why, do you ask?

Friday, Max asked CJ to do some pull-ups on the Iron Gym. CJ humored him and did one chin up, then started to walk away.

Max ran after him and yelled "NO! Come back! I wanted you to keep doing them FOREVER!"

Max has spent the last two weeks begging me to walk on the treadmill. Each day when he reminds me, I tell him that I'm too busy right now but I'll try to do it later. (and yes, blogging counts as being busy)

Later in the evening, he will come up to me and say "Mom, you didn't walk on the treadmill today, and I wanted you to walk on the treadmill! You need to go walk on the treadmill!"

And I will tell him that it's too late because it's bedtime and maybe I'll walk on the treadmill tomorrow.

Then he cries.

I have to tell you, having Jillian from Biggest Loser yell at you in the gym would be bad, however, it's nothing compared to the guilt felt knowing that you've just caused Max's big brown eyes to fill with tears.

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I really love the smell of my new Scentsy pomegranate/orange wax melting thingy.

I also really love the smell of a roast and vegetables in the crockpot.

The two smells together..............not so much.

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Speaking of smells, has anyone noticed that the April fresh scent of Downy has been changed? I really liked the old scent, the new one doesn't do much for me.

Why did they change it?

Why hasn't there been a huge outcry with email petitions circulating to change it back?

Why can't these people at Procter and Gamble just leave well enough alone?

Why can't they understand that IF IT AIN'T BROKE, DON'T FIX IT?

As far as I'm concerned, this should be bigger than the whole "Old Coke, New Coke" fiasco.

I am currently looking for a new brand of fabric softener.

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If I seem a bit testy today, it might have to do with the weather.

It's getting cold, and I don't like being cold. Plus, I now have to make sure that all of the offspring are wearing coats and shoes and socks before they leave the house.

That's a whole lot more clothing to keep track of.

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Max can't decide what costume he wants for Halloween. At first he said he wanted to wear his crab costume from last year, causing me great happiness due to the fact that I wouldn't need to make him a new costume, however, in the last week, he has changed his mind several times.

First he said he wanted to be a puppy, then he said he wanted to be "Super Max" then he said he wanted to be Snoopy, then he said he wanted to be Jay from Men in Black, then he said he wanted to be a spider. Once he even said he wanted to be Inigo Montoya from The Princess Bride. (Seriously, he does the cutest impression "My name is Inigo Montoya, you keeel my father now PREPARE TO DIE!")

Aaron will be wearing his costume from last year, and Brielle has a really cute costume idea that will be unveiled at her school Halloween party. (sorry, I've been sworn to secrecy)

CJ will be staying home handing out candy. I told him that he would be dressed as a vampire to do this, but instead, he will be dressed as a teenager who refuses to dress up for Halloween. I'm pretty sure he will eat all of the Reese's out of the candy bucket while we're gone Trick-or-treating with Max.

I suggested that CJ and Max dress up as the Jolly Green Giant and Little Sprout. CJ refused to do this, even before he found out that there would be tights involved.

Actually, he has never even heard of The Jolly Green Giant, I had to show him some of the old commercials on YouTube. (yes, this makes me feel incredibly old)

I will be dressed as a really tired mom who stayed up the entire night before making her kids costumes. I wear this costume every year.

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Speaking of feeling incredibly old, does anyone remember that television commercial for Imperial Margarine where someone would eat the margarine and a crown would appear on their head?

I can't tell you how disappointed I was when that never happened to me.

What ever happened to truth in advertising?

I'm sure some advertising executive, somewhere, thought that this would be a really great marketing campaign that would sell a ton of buttery spread, however, they obviously didn't realize that somewhere a little three year old kid would be devastated that she never got the stupid crown...............

On a related note, one of my main goals in life at age three was to find a way to fool Mother Nature. (seriously, it was!)

Also, there was also a few times where I might have tried to start an argument with the tub of margarine.

I'm beginning to wonder if I watched too much TV when I was three.

I think I'm also beginning to understand why I only buy real butter?

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Kid quote of the week

"You really know you're famous when they start putting your face on underwear."

Another reason why I really should pay more attention to the things going on around me

Today is Max's last day of pre school. At this school, on the last day they have the kids dress up in costumes and have a small program where each class performs.
Since today was Max's last day of school (as I pointed out in the first paragraph) we planned on dressing him up as a cowboy, only we couldn't find the cowboy costume, so, I went through my huge stash of fabric and (with very little time before he needed to be at school) I pulled out a piece of red sequined fabric and quickly made a simple vest and bow tie for our little buckaroo.
(Now if you are feeling the need to be impressed that I made a vest and bow tie in 30 minutes, DON'T, because you didn't see it. It was functional, not impressive)
We got him dressed and got him to school only 15 minutes late.
Brielle and Aaron are out of school now, so I made them come with us. I was prepared with my camera, and a little worried that we might have missed the class performance. As we were walking in, I thought it strange that there weren't more cars in the parking lot, but didn't think much of it.
(you can see where this is going, can't you?)
I signed Max in at the front office and walked him to his classroom. As Max walked in, one of his teachers said "Wow Max, you look cute today!"
It was then that I noticed that none of the other kids were dressed up. My first thought was that all the other parents were kind of lame for not having their kids dress up, and then I noticed that none of the parents were even there! (No, I still didn't get it. It's OK, you can give me a virtual smack upside the head)
Then it dawned on me........................
and I asked the teacher "Isn't today the last day of school?"

"Um, no, that's next week."


Oops.

I asked Max if he wanted me to take his costume home and he said he would like to keep it on for the day, so he is now at school wearing a red sequined vest and bow tie. (I'm just glad I didn't draw the mustache on him like I wanted to)

And I feel stupid.

On the other hand, not only was I actually not late for something, but I was early! An entire week early!!

A WHOLE WEEK PEOPLE!!!

That is most definitely a record for me. I'm thinking that if you add up the number of minutes that I was early (# of minutes in a week = 10,080) It most likely makes up for all the minutes that Max might have been late for school during the year.

Don't you think?

Aaron just pointed out that today, Max was 15 minutes late, so that means he was only 10, 065 minutes early today. I wish he would apply this math genius to his school assignments.

Day after Halloween - sugar withdrawls

Halloween is now officially over, and I actually got some sleep last night so I can now type coherently.

First, I will describe the steps of my Halloween costume making process.

#1. Spend the entire year before Halloween trying to come up with really great ideas for a costume.

#2. Spend about three months before Halloween designing the costume and trying to figure out the best way to put the costume together.

#3. Spend the day before Halloween running around to different fabric stores to get the necessary materials to make the Halloween costume. Be sure to go to the grocery store and buy an entire case of Diet Dr. Pepper.

#4. Stay up all night making the costume.

#5. Move your kitchen table next to the wall so you can have more room on the floor to make the costume.

#6. Leave tons of fabric scraps all over the floor of the family room, bringing the total numbers of rooms covered in costume making crap stuff to three.

#7. About 4:00 in the morning begin wondering why you're doing this in the first place.

#8. Notice that the burns on your fingers from the hot glue are really starting to hurt.

#9. Decide that you are indeed crazy and should probably be committed. Preferably someplace quiet where you can relax and get some sleep.

#10. Finish the costume just in time to wake up the kids for school. When one complains that they think it's too early to get up and that they are very tired, say to them very sweetly...........








"DON'T EVEN TALK TO ME ABOUT BEING TIRED!!! YOU HAVE NO CLUE WHAT IT MEANS TO BE REALLY TIRED!! NOW GET YOUR BUTT OUT OF BED AND GET READY FOR SCHOOL!!!!"

#11. Notice that you might be getting a tad bit crabby and decide that it's probably a good time to drink another can of Diet Dr. Pepper.

#12. Notice the huge pile of empty cans of DDP on your counter and wonder if it's bad that you drank that much.

#13. Notice for the first time just what an incredibly huge mess you made all over the house while making the costume.

#14. Ignore the mess and take a nap.

#15 go to the school costume parade and get there just in time to see your kids run past you before you get your camera out of the bag.


I managed to get a picture of the costumes before the kids went trick or treating.



These are not my children in the costumes. They are paid actors.

The costume on the left is a tornado. It is not dryer lint. It's hard to see, but I glued little cars all over it. I wanted to put some little plastic cows on it too but all I could find were some little plastic lizards. I decided they could look like alligators. Brielle has a flying monkey doll (from the wizard of OZ) that I was going to use, but she couldn't find it. Next year I'm adding some small telephone poles and fences to it.
CJ wouldn't let me get a picture of him in his costume. He decided at the last minute that he would go trick or treating and threw a costume together himself. He combined his iPod costume from last year with his alien costume from the year before and went as an iAlien.

These are my darling little nieces.

Random things about this Halloween.

I noticed a big drop in the amount of Three Musketeer bars being handed out this year. What's up with that???
My kids know that the Three Musketeers are the ones that they are required allowed to give me.

We have a rule in our home that the kids aren't to eat candy out of their siblings buckets. However, if they leave the candy laying around it's pretty much understood that I'm allowed to eat as much as I want.

It really bugs me when my kids eat the candy and don't throw away the wrappers. Especially when I'm looking through their bag start to grab a peanut butter cup only to discover that it's an empty wrapper.

Last year, Max really surprised me when I took him trick or treating. I thought he would get tired and want to go home early, but after every house he would look at me and say "MORE CANDY! I GET MORE CANDY!" and on to the next house we would go.
This year after three houses he wanted to go home. He said "Why we are also going so long way from our house?" (we were one street away) I forced him to finish the street. When we got home he sat down to eat his candy and fell asleep. I guess it was really tiring to walk around in a crab suit.


In the last post, I wrote about how fascinated Max was with the moldy pumpkin. What I didn't mention was how he was making this annoying siren sound every time he lifted the lid.

WEEEEEOOOOOO WEEEEEEEOOOOOOOO WEEEEEEEEOOOOOO

And then he would run around the kitchen making the siren sound and then would stop for a moment to tell me that "THE PUMPKIN DID ALSO POOP IN IT'S PANTS AND IT NEEDS IT'S CARS TAKED AWAY BECAUSE IT DID ALSO POOP IN IT'S PANTS!!!! WWWEEEEEEEOOOOOO WEEEEEEEOOOO WEEEEEOOOOOO..........
In retrospect, I probably should have put him to bed earlier.

Here are the kid's Jack-o-lanterns. Left to right CJ, Aaron, Max and Brielle. Max drew the design and I cut it out. He says it's a mad pumpkin.

This morning, DH told the kids that he would take them swimming today if they cleaned up the costume making mess I made all over the house.
And the regular mess they made in the family room.

They are at the pool right now.

And every one of them have left their Halloween candy on the kitchen table;0)