Halloween and More

Hello! How are you? Sorry I've taken such a long time to come back. I really wasn't planning to take a month away. Things just happen and I haven't really been crocheting or sewing a whole lot so I didn't have much to talk about without repeating myself. But now that Halloween is over I'll have more time to devote to Christmas presents and other crafts.


How was your Halloween? Safe I hope! Halloween seems to be our busiest holiday, there's so much going on and we just love Halloween so we want to do it all! We missed our town's downtown trick or treat because it was too cold for Alyssa, I think Amelia and I would have been fine but I didn't want Alyssa to suffer because we wanted to go so we stayed home. Then the next day we went to the trick or treat at the barn at our Ag Hall.


This is the third time we've gone but arrived later because Alyssa took a really long nap. We normally get there right when the start.


Alyssa and Elliott rode the train together after Amelia and I rode it. Elliott said Alyssa cooed the whole time. She did that when she saw the tractors too. My guess is she's going to like tractors and trucks and things that go. But I also thought Amelia would too, she's a little afraid of tractors now.


But she actually sat on one this year at Ag Hall! Normally she won't even let Elliott touch it but this year she wouldn't even let Alyssa share the seat with her!


Oh, if you're wondering, I made Amelia's costume again this year. I made her one last year too. This year is my best work yet I believe. But I'll get to that later.


And Alyssa was the same ladybug Amelia was her first Halloween. But back to our running around:


After Ag Hall we took the girls to the Howl-O-ween our local PBS was sponsoring at Union Station. P.T. the owl was there and Amelia loves giant animals like this.


Alyssa was in the carrier so she didn't get a chance to give P.T. a hug.


Then daddy and Amelia played with all sorts of things at the place. I had never been there before but there was so much to do! We got to this kinda early so it was still pretty controlled among the kids. By the time we were leaving, about two hours after it started, things were getting fresh with so many kids. Everyone was getting tired and hungry so we left before anyone had a meltdown. Elliott and I both get a little overwhelmed with huge crowds like that and I get really snippy and bite-y when that happens. So any bystander who accidentally, or purposely, gets in my way might receive a rude comment or me running into them on purpose to make them get outta my way! I'm an angry mama bear sometimes. But we left before any of that happened.


On Tuesday we had a bonfire with my in laws. Food, candy, 80s Halloween specials on VHS, and of course Papa gives all the babies tractor rides. Alyssa cooed the whole time again and Amelia kept asking me "what's that?"


Then Wednesday was the big day! Amelia's third Halloween and Alyssa's first. We decided we should finally take Amelia trick or treating because we felt she was old enough to understand now. All day she kept asking when we would go, she was so excited.


We just went around our block because we knew she wouldn't last long. And we were right, we didn't get half way around and she was already starting to drag. Once we made it back to the house we pulled out our own candy and sat out in the driveway. I don't know about your weather, but our's was perfect! Then Alyssa had a meltdown and I put her to bed and Amelia got her second wind. She helped Elliott pass out candy and said, "happy Halloween guys!" after every pass.


The camera didn't capture the real glow of the sunset but it was really pretty. We ran out of candy this year. Last year we had quiet a bit left over but the year before we ran out too. It always seems to happen right when we want to go in and that's ok with me! Elliott's parents stopped by for a bit and Amelia got to stay up way later, which resulted in a meltdown followed by a mommy meltdown to match. Once she finally got into bed Elliott and I made a snack and watches Halloween. Elliott has a funny sense of humor, nothing I could ever compete with, he's really a funny guy! I heard a noise outside and asked him, as if he would know sitting right next to me, what it was. He told me it was Mike Myers sitting on the back deck playing a banjo trying to sell me insurance. I said I wasn't interested. Then we heard another noise and he said, "now that's Mike Myers smashing his banjo because he's pissed off you won't buy insurance from him and now he has to go back to banjo repair." I still get tickled when I think about that.


We're all pretty well recovered from that night now. Except Amelia who keeps reopening the wounds by finding and eating candy in odd places. She's been talking a lot about squirrels lately, maybe she's taken a page from their book about stashing.


On to the costume(s)! I asked Amelia repeatedly what she wanted to be for Halloween over the whole month of September and finally it came to us. Daisy duck! She's totally into Mickey mouse clubhouse and talks about it all the time, so it was perfect. I measured her and drew up my own pattern, dreaming big the entire time. It took me threw days to draft the pattern.


An afternoon to cut.


Two days to sew. And two hours to finish the hood equaling to three different attempts.


The sleeves were a happy accident. I'm not an accomplished seamstress by any means, I love quilting, so I had no idea how to measure for the sleeves. I looked all over the Internet and on pinterest, found several tutorial but still ended up making a guess. I wanted the sleeves to puff like this but assumed I had measured wrong and had made the sleeves measure to fit like a t shirt sleeve. But I measured wrong and had to gather the tops to make it fit. Yay! The legs were an accident too, but they fit just amazingly with the body around the leg hole.


The butt and front bottom are stuffed to make her look bottom heavy. The inside is lined with a knit fabric to hold the stuffing in.



The back has a zipper excluding the hood, it's all one piece.


Here's the hood without the beak. She didn't care for it at the house when I made her try it own several times. She kept telling me, "mama, I don't like this." But once we were outside and around people she loved it.


Alyssa was actually going to be Minnie mouse in the carrier, I made a cover for the carrier to look like Minnie's dress and I was going to make a hat with a bow and ears but I messed up the hat so bad. I broke two needles and countless thread. I even ran over a pin head with a needle and the needle stabbed and stayed in the head, that was the first one I broke and it all went down hill from there. So I just abandoned the mission.


But I'm very proud of what I accomplished with Amelia's costume. Would you believe my vision of the costume is exactly what you see? Well, it is. I love when things fall into place like that.


We had to go to the pumpkin patch twice this year because the first time Alyssa was asleep and it was cold and rainy. This time was windy but warm and so much more fun.


Took a lot of pictures too. I love hanging out with my fam. They're the coolest people I know! I do have some other stuff to show you but I'll save that for another day. Happy November everyone! Be thankful! :-)