A Dozen Family-themed Costumes

My friend Aubrey over at the Mother Huddle asked me if we had any fun family Halloween traditions.  The only one we really have, is that we like to go all out and dress up as a family theme for Halloween. (More honestly, I come up w/ a theme and coerce the rest of the family into costumes and I wear a black t-shirt) 

Her question inspired me to take a nostalgic stroll down memory lane.

 Here's a look back over the years.  (the first few are pre-digital cameras, so you'll have to put up w/ my scanned-in scrapbook pages).

2000 Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker 

Luke is just barely a month old (he was such a chunk) in the picture, and this was his first big night out and debut into society.  I love my little blonde girl w/ her yarn hair buns.

2001 Princess and the Frog 

This is my very favorite costume I ever made my daughter, and she's obviously loving the attention.  There has also never been a frog that I've wanted to kiss more.

(I made up the frog as I went along, but the Princess is Simplicity 9383)

2002

My kid's loved Disney's animated Robin Hood that year.   

My daughter suggested that I go as the "fat chicken lady".  I declined and wore my usual black t-shirt. Everyone thought my husband was Obi Wan Kenobi.

Friar Tuck McCalls 2853, Maid Marian and Robin Hood Butterick 5673

2003

Kinda skipped Halloween due to the flu

2004

I just had a baby, and so I think I just dug up something from the dress-up box.

2005 Witch, Cauldron, and Book of Spells

(This might have been a little too abstract.)

witch-McCalls 2856

Napolean and Deb

2006-2007

Knight, Dragon, and Evil Enchantress.

We moved so we could repeat our costumes.  The dragon needed a bigger size, so he got a new one.

Butter Cup
My daughter insisted on wearing the blue dress instead of the iconic white one, so people weren't quite sure who she was supposed to be.  (It's based on McCalls 5414)

The Dread Pirate Robert

 

Inigo Montoya
Little Inigo Montoya was so cute, I just wanted to gobble him up, he was furious that I sprayed his hair black and wouldn't talk to me all night.
I added the "Hello my name is" tag for fun.

2008 The Princess Bride

2009 Beauty and the Beast

We were invited to go trick-or-treating at the White House (read about it here), so I went all out. To make Bell's costume, I just removed Buttercup's sleeves and added an apron.  The Beast's costume is from the Disney Store and the rest I kind of made up as I went along. Lumiere was my favorite and my husband was a really good sport.

People were confused who I was, here's a hint:

 

2010

My husband had a convention in Hawaii and so I think the kids just fended for themselves out of the dress-up box.  

 2011 The Blue Man Group
If you have a few blue swim caps and some face paint, you can spend the evening telling everyone you aren't a Smurf too. 

 Zombies (after being called Smurfs all night at our church party, they abandoned the Blue Man look and became zombies instead)

Mary Poppins
I told her that she should show up to all her babysitting jobs like this.

  This Peacock and Bird Watcher costumes got us picked to be on Let's Make a Deal (read about it here).

My daughter is going to be a peacock this year, but the boys are still undecided. What are you going to be?

To see where I link up or to add your party, please click here.

Knock-off Mondays: Cuffed Crop Tutorial

I bought a yard  (60 wide) of this cute chiffon in LA for $1.99.  We did a little online window shopping for inspiration and found this on Piperlime.  I made the neck a little narrower, b/c I hate it when my shirt is always falling off my shoulder showing my bra strap.

Source $78

I started w/ the same way as my Sheer Crop Shirt (tutorial here).

 Step 1: Measure the opening of your sleeve.  Mine was 20 inches so I cut a strip 20  5/8 (to allow for seam allowance) inches long and 4 inches wide.

 Step 2: Sew ends together.

 Step 3: Fold cuff in half so the seam is hidden.  Serge unfinished edge (Optional).

 Step 4:  Pin to right side of shirt.  Stitch.  Fold the stitched edged under and tack in place.  I also tacked the cuff in place on the outside of the shirt as well at the top of the sleeve.  

She love it so much, she wore it to a dance!  I snapped a few pics as she was heading out the door.  

TADAAA!!

It took me about an hour and I save $76.01 on the original. 

To see where I link up or to add your party, please click here.

Hanging out with Jay Leno

 #36 on my 40 by 40 list is to be a member of a live studio audience.  My husband had a conference in LA last week so I tagged along. 

 We got tickets to the Jay Leno show.  We drove straight to Burbank  from the airport thinking that we would do an NBC studio tour before the taping or at least grab some food.  We didn't know that they discontinued the tours a few months ago and there is nothing nearby to see or do.  

It was actually fun waiting for the show to start and nothing like sitting in an airport or a doctor's office for 2 hours.  They even had water and lemonade for us.  I was super impressed how well they treated us.  Jay came out and talked to the audience before the show and let people take pictures with him and ask him questions.  He treated us exactly the same as the celebrities.

 Jay's car-of-the-day.  He has over 300 of them, which he parks at a hanger at the Burbank Airport.

Getting there 2 hours early paid off.  We were the first and second in line and so we got amazing seats!

Since we were sitting near the front, we got to go up and shake his hand and give him a high-five.  (I am wearing an orange sweater and my husband is in a black polo-ish shirt.

Here's the episode:

I was talking to my dad the next day.  He said he could only see my husband.  I told him I was the girl standing next to him in bright orange and he replied, "I thought it might be you, but your hair was weird and you look really heavy." nice.

It was a really fun way to spend the afternoon, and if you're ever in LA, you should check it out.

Not really Martha's Butternut Squash and Sweet Corn Chowder

The night before we left on our trip, I was driving my son home from football practice, when something HUGE ran across the road.  It felt like we hit a brick wall and my son screamed "We hit a monster!"  

Turns out it was a feral hog. It was dark, so I don't have any good pictures, but the thing was easily over 5 feet long and we guess over 500 lbs.   He looked kinda like this guy, but bigger w/ longer tusks.

source

I've lived here 10 years and have never seen one alive.  (If you're keeping track, then yes that it the third wreck I've been in in the past six months.)

 We are both unharmed. The pig didn't make it and my van is in the shop.  

Sorry for the tangent.  The short story, was that I was hungry and had no way to get to the grocery store and so I needed to use what I had on hand.  My MIL always buys weird random food, when she's here and so we had carton of butternut squash in the fridge. I found Martha's original recipe here, but I adapted it to items I had on hand.

14 ounces cubed butternut squash
1 large onion-chopped
1 can of quality can corn -drained(I used sweet nibblets)
EVOO
1 Tb boulion
2 cups H2O
1 tsp curry
2 shakes of cayenne pepper
1 cup half and half
salt and pepper to taste

Saute squash and onion in EVOO until tender (5-6 minutes).  Add the rest of the ingredients (except cream) and cook for 25 minutes on medium. Optional: Blend soup until smooth in a blender.  Add half and half and heat through.


I thought it was really tasty and a perfect fall meal. Sweet, savory, and creamy with a touch of heat.  My kids all hated it.  My husband loved it and even went for seconds which really surprised me since he hates curry.  


To see where I link up or to add your party, please click here.

#31 Hollywood Walk of Fame

 #31 on my 40 by 40 list was to visit the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Done.

 Can you spot the Hollywood sign?

(You can take your pic w/ a various assortment of fake characters)

 Love me some Harry Potter...

 ...and some Star Wars!!!!

This particular star just made everyone laugh as they walked by. Who knew he could bring so much joy to the streets of Hollywood? Guess he's "winning".

We ended the day w/ a tour of celebrity homes-it just seemed like the touristy thing to do.  

Let's Make A Deal! Peacock costume

 My husband had a conference in LA last week so I tagged along. #36 on my 40 by 40 list is to be a member of a live studio audience and so I got us tickets to Let's Make a Deal. 

While he was in his conference, I sat in our hotel room, watched bad Lifetime movies, and cut out and hot-glued a million peacock feathers. (I can not imagine what housekeeping thought I was doing).

I was inspired by this baby peacock costume from Shwin and Shwin
 In case you ever want to make one yourself you'll need:
5 yards of black tulle
5 yards of blue tulle
1/4 yards of blue and purple felt
1/2 yard of green felt. 

I just gathered the tulle into a tutu and then used green ribbon to tie each feather on.  

 It all cost well under $20 but was a little more time consuming than I thought it would be.  I got fake eyelashes for $4 at Target, which was everyone's favorite part of the costume.

We parked down the street from the studio and got to walk through a neighborhood by two schools.  I was a little embarrassed, but I figured people were used to it and several girls yelled out that they loved my eyelashes. Which is much nicer than most things teenagers could yell at you dressed like this.

 All those hot-glue burns paid off- we did manage to get on stage, which I am dying to tell everyone about, but we had to sign a confidentiality agreement.  It airs December 6, and then I will post all the juicy details.

My daughter wants to use it for Halloween, so now I just need to come up w/ something for the boys.

Click HERE to see 12 years of crazy costumes.

Update:  Here's some pics from Halloween night:

You can read all about our Let's Make A Deal experience here.
To see where I link up or to add your party, please click here.

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