Halloween Costume Idea Squashed. Help.

I could have the kids just dress in their costumes from last year, because it's not like anyone locally has any clue we're reusing (and so what if they did anyway?).

BUT... they were putting chairs together from the dining table the other days and hauling every single pillow and blanket we own to construct a hot air balloon the other day and I sort of thought, why not that? 

I think Halloween should be fun and creative, but I don't play either of those things well. I'm sort of fun, but not at all creative when it comes to costumes. I just can't handle anymore Elsa costumes (no offense to the millions of children who will be dressed in shimmery light blue with blond braids). 

I took to Pinterest because that's what people my age do in a crisis of absentee creativity in oneself.

I fell in love. Like, head over heels. 

via

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I mean, it's relatively easy and super adorable. I mostly wanted to replicate the yellow balloon one to a T.

Then I visited the party supply store. FIFTEEN DOLLARS for just one balloon filled with helium. Maybe that's not a lot for some people, but this is a DIY project and also, I am literally paying for air in a rubber receptacle that will either deflate or be popped possibly immediately. And if you've ever raised small children, you know that a popped balloon basically means you have ruined their lives. Thirty dollars and the thought of all that stress...

Right then and there, my brilliant idea of creative costumes the kids could help with was immediately squashed. Deflated, if you will. (I know, I'm hilarious sometimes.) I've searched ebay and Amazon for some 36" balloons, but where do I find helium at an affordable price? Maybe I can convince my local dollar store to fill them for a couple bucks each. Hmmph. Totally open to accepting your brilliant ideas, but I'm probably just going to sit on the couch sulking about my brilliant failure of an idea that probably won't come to fruition. 

And so, you'll probably expect to see some re-used costumes this year. At least we have our decorations out and I'm fully stocked on Halloween candy. Snickers anyone?

Happy Halloweeeeeeen!

With cute kids like this, it makes me really wonder what our first boy would've been like at nearly 4 years old. I'm certain he would've picked an awesome costume and loved all the excitement. Andrew, you are missed, as big as this bumble bee mama can miss someone.

Maryland Grandparents Visit Chicago

Benjamin has seen so much grandparent love this past month. Lucky boy! Good thing, because when he opens the family photo album I made him of all the people who love him, he always stops at the pages with both his grandmas and does a little whiney grunt like where are they? It's adorably pathetic and totally sad. Benjamin wishes his grandparents were closer, too.

But, he is quite a lucky boy to see them as frequently as he does! Benjamin's Maryland grandparents were here for a long weekend and we not only got another date night without the bambino (praise JESUS and thank you Thai restaurant for some of the best Thai we've ever had!), but Benjamin got lots of quality time pulling his grandparents wherever he wanted all weekend long. Kid heaven.

We visited Fermilab out in Batavia, IL and an awesome pumpkin patch where we pet lots of animals, ate lots of delicious fried delicacies like cider and pumpkin donuts and funnel cake, went for B's third hayride on a "kuck" which is really a tractor (he loves them) and picked pumpkins that we later carved and made pumpkin seeds from. We also suited Benjamin up in his scarecrow costume for the first (of three) times for our church's trunk'n'treat and pumpkin drop where Benjamin (and his grandpa) scored some treats and checked out some cool decorated trunks.

At Abbey Farms. This child loves petting zoos and anything he can hang from.

At Fermilab and back at home carving pumpkins. His face says it all-- he was not sticking his hand in the gooey pumpkin and happily directed us to put the contents in a bowl. This kiddo is not a fan of getting his hands covered in anything.

More photos from the Farm. They had old Radio Flyers and Benjamin enjoyed being toted around in them.

A mix of park pictures and the trunk'n'treat. More hanging from things-- these ziplines are a serious favorite.

Our adorable scarecrow, his grandparents, and our friend's daughter in that last photo. She's part of a train that her brother chose and designed.

And here are photos of the seeds we made (soy sauce/olive oil & butter/cinnamon/sugar) and the pumpkins Benjamin's grandpa and dad carved out for him! He also discovered the treats Mom pulled out for the trick-or-treaters when he woke from his nap on Halloween and promptly figured a way to get himself one of those "deets" and repeated the word for HOURS. He was sad when the trick-or-treaters knocked on the door and then promptly left. He loves people and doesn't like it when people go "bye-bye".

...and with that... Halloween is complete. Now what to do with those two rotting pumpkins on our doorstep...

Our Little Scarecrow...

...wishes you a very safe {and apparently serious} Halloween.

This kid is very uncertain about Halloween in general. He has been around two years of the shenanigans and he's still not buying the whole process. Remember last year? We had ourselves an angry lion. He's quite the trooper with this year's costume, however. We've done two events while wearing the costume and he'll be wearing it this evening for a final wear before all the patches fall off. For $2 and a little naptime crafting, I'd say this one was a winner.

roar.

Let's just say that the costume was a tad too big and the B-man hated it. He doesn't even like it when we put on his clothes, so to think he'd want an enormously large costume on over his clothes and covering his face is pretty much laughable.

We got about 20 minutes out of it before the waterworks started. And then another 10 minutes when we went to Chipotle for dinner (hello $2 burritos).

For what it's worth, here is B's first attempt at celebrating Halloween.

I don't hate it yet, but don't you dare connect those two pieces of velcro. I will scream. 

shoe half off and the backside of a lion

Get. this. off. of. me. or you'll really hear me roar.

In true dork fashion, I tallied up how many trick or treaters we had this evening {98 between the hours of 3:30-6:30} and how many we had each hour. The 5-6 p.m. hour was a hot ticket and anything past 6 in our neighborhood was questionable. Also, my neighbor told me she hands out full candy bars, making me want to step up my game when B is finally reaping the benefits of trick-or-treating. Also, the older kids who wore lame costumes and were questionably too old to be going door-to-door got Mounds and Almond Joy candy bars. Because... um... those are the bottom of the candy barrel. Plus, they scared a little boy away and that made me sad. Punishment in the form of crappy candy.

Last year we didn't celebrate and went out to dinner instead. I couldn't deal with having trick-or-treaters and being pregnant with neighbors hounding me about the baby when all I wanted to do was crawl into a hole. We didn't buy pumpkins this year like we did when I was largely pregnant and anticipating our Andrew, but we did hang a little, blinking pumpkin on our door-- the only Halloween decoration we physically own. It's old school, circa my first apartment back in 2001.

We're celebrating this year, but only because of Benjamin. Holidays still suck the emotions out of me a bit.

Happy Halloween, everyone. Here's to hoping it's happy-ish wherever you're at.

New Trick {or Treat}

Almost Halloween and I'm seriously sucking at this mom business because I haven't even tried B's costume on him yet. I know, ridiculous, right? We're only going to be passing out candy for a few hours anyway, so whatever. I promise I'll be more enthusiastic next year. We are eating plenty of Halloween candy and cookies, so at least we've got that covered.

Here's a fun video of B's new trick. It's not crawling or walking, but it's something! Warning: bare baby bum.

Also, I introduced some yogurt into his diet and it appears that was a bad idea. Waiting until a year old. Lesson learned. Ick. In other news, B is rather uninterested in crawling, but can roll like a boss and turn 360 like a spinning top. I know it will happen before long, but it's rather entertaining watching him pitch a fit when he can't get to what he wants. Before long, the joke will be on me. You don't have to warn me. :)

I may or may not be back tomorrow to share B's costume if it fits. Happy Halloween!

Cookie Monster... er... Elephant?

Distribution at Ray's work had an excellent month's end. As a joke, they posted a sign on his office door stating that he promised to bake them cookies as a result of their progress. They even went as far to say that boxed cookies would not be acceptable. Haha. I love it. Of course... when Ray came home and told me, I insisted we he make cookies. I was insistent on only helping on the peripheral since this was a gift to his fellow employees. Since he would be distributing the cookies on Monday, he had to bake them the day before-- Sunday. Halloween. We had a good number of kidlets come by (tiny cool tidbit: our neighborhood has a strict policy of trick-or-treating during daylight from 3-7p.m. which is great for parents and great for the weather! It's warmer during sunlight hours!). So, Ray donned his elephant hat that we bought at Michael's a few months back and passed out candy as the little guys came by-- about 100+ kids!

Here's the beginning of the baking task.

I also have to acknowledge that my husband used our Kitchenaid (seen on the counter in the background) for the first time and loved it. Loved it I tell you! He has for years been making fun of the lovely, yet pretentious marriage symbol saying that it's simply a status symbol and has little value. Well, when it comes to baking, it has great value. He tested that out and was impressed. I smile.

Here are all 112 of the cookies baked that evening by my awesome husband.

The cookies were well-received by his colleagues and he was able to honestly say that he made them!