As with most years, our 2017 Halloween theme was inspired by Ben. He announced that he wanted to be Waluigi, Luigi's arch rival and a little-known member of the Mario universe. He likes to pick the obscure ones, our Ben.
Anyway, once we were on a Mario theme, the ideas came fast and furious and we were set on a Princess Peach, a Yoshi, a Mario, and a Waluigi.
We hit the fabric store and were shocked to discover a Princess Peach pattern! Delighted, I picked it up and we selected our satin and started cutting.
I had no idea what I was in for.
This was a full on prom dress. Fully lined (that means you basically get to make two dresses), integrated crinoline, puff sleeves, and I swear the full thing weighs five pounds. It definitely put my seamstressing to the test.
We persevered. So much fabric. So much thread. But I overcame! And it was on to the jewelry and accoutrements and Princess Peach was complete.
And we moved on to Yoshi. I got wise with this one and purchased green sweats and hit the applique.
I cannot overemphasize how easy Yoshi was in comparison to Princess Peach.
Tah Dah!!!
The whole crew looked fantastic. And I'm one grateful mama that we still get to do family theme costumes :)
Our Pokemon Halloween is ready to go! We have Vulpix, Pikachu, Ash Ketchum, and a poke stop.
Ladies and gentlemen, we proudly present The Making of Halloween 2016:
Step 1: The Inspiration
Our house has been fairly Pokemon-heavy for the last few months. A daughter in upper elementary and a son in middle school who has a phone make us the definition of the target demographic for Pokemon Go and the entire Pokemon franchise. The Pokemon theme was an early decision.
Step 2: Which Pokemon?
We looked through pages of images of Gen 1 Pokemon to find critters that met our stringent qualifications of:
Vaguely bunny or bear-shaped for ease of sewing (Mom's rule)
Completely adorable (girls' rule)
We decided on:
Pikachu
Vulpix. It turns out that this color scheme is for a "shiny Vulpix" but, whatever, it matched the fleece colors available at the fabric store.
And we started sewing! (necklaces by WanYing)
Step 3: Assembly
For weeks our dining room table has looked like this - some combination of fabric, sewing machine, solder, and LEDs. I think it's a happy sort of strange equilibrium state for us.
I attacked the Vulpix first because I was intimidated by the six tales situation. I think it turned out pretty well, except that Sasha can only sit if perched at the end of a chair. A small price to pay for fabulous.
Vulpix - check!
And so we began Pikachu
Final steps- eye and ear placement
Tah dah! The Pokemon are complete!
Step 4: Programming and lots of swearing
But the saga was not over, no, not by a longshot. There were still 217 LEDs to get moving into poke stop-like colors configurations, attached to a Raspberry Pi, strapped to a kid, and attached to a three-wheeled unicycle.
Hours... and hours... and hours of programming later, the poke stop was complete!
The whole ensemble!
Here's a video of the poke stop during the daytime:
But it's all so much more spectacular at night with the rotating poke ball and transition from blue to magenta!
Our work here is done. And now there is only candy.
We had the perfect Halloween this year! The weather was warm, the costumes were perfect, the kids had nigh-unceasing trick-or-treating energy, and, my favorite thing of all, the kids were totally hip to a family theme - we went Back to the Future!
We had a great looking Doc, Marty, and two 50s sock hop girls. Everybody looked fabulous!
Yes, that's a legit Casio calculator watch
Skirts by Grammy - aren't they cute?
We got even more candy at the Qualtrics Halloween party
And we even got to drop by Grammy's house for some trick-or-treat fun
Good fun, good friends, good weather, good haul. I think we'll have candy to last through Easter!
Costumes are assembled, pumpkins are carved, candy is sitting on our counter mocking me. Yep, we're ready for Halloween.
It all started with a Sundance Halloween lift ride. It's always a blast (the only haunted house I can handle is one where I'm dangling 30 feet above it) and with our unseasonably warm temperatures we had the pleasure of not freezing this year.
The next step in Halloween readiness was pumpkin carving. We try not to carve too early so that we don't end up with a pile of rotted pumpkin goo on our doorstep by the time Halloween comes - hopefully carving within a week of Halloween will prove good timing.
And, yes, the costumes are ready and we have a family theme again, but you'll just have to wait until Halloween to see those!
Transporting the pumpkins home... we don't do anything the easy way around here.
Time to carve! WanYing was a huge fan of the gutting
Ben survived only by wearing gloves
And Grammy helped a ton
An artist at work
Sasha's impression of her Jack Skellington pumpkin (a keen likeness)
Tah dah! We were very happy with how Ying's Minnie pumpkin turned out
The finished masterpieces
Come on by on Halloween! You can see 'em in person and this year we have full-size candy bars so we're well worth the visit!
Halloween 2014 was a different kind of holiday for us - instead of our usual party at home, we were in St. Louis hanging out with family at my cousin's wedding. While a Halloween wedding is admittedly unusual, we had a blast checking out a new city (photos to come), hanging out with family, and looking awesome for my cousin's wedding.
And here we are, presto chango, looking even awesomer for the wedding. Trust us, the kids changed out of their photo clothes in record time. And we like to think we brought a little sparkle to the bride and groom's day - how could you not feel awesome walking down the aisle with all of your favorite (and creatively contrived) Star Wars characters greeting you?!?
Episode 4 Luke Skywalker
Episode 4 Luke is always ready for a battle (plus he hates smiling for photos)
Compare the original - we are slaves to the detail!
Han is always too cool for school
Episode 4 Han Solo strikes a pose
Sam may rival Mr. Ford for the coolest space smuggler award
Sasha was determined to be something cute and cuddly this Halloween, so of course she's an Ewok!
Cutest Ewok around!
And Miss Ying makes an appearance as Princess Darth Vadar
(We're pretty sure she's an upcoming character in Episode 7)
