Halloween 2015

I am not a big Halloween fan. It's a scary, creepy sugar filled time of year. I do however love dress up so that is where we put our focus. I think it's a lot of fun AND a lot of work to think up costumes for my family and put them together as inexpensive and homemade/creative as possible. I also really like to do themes or coordinating costumes. Now that we have a family of 7 we have to split us up and do a couple of different themes. McKay is in LOVE with Zorro. So that is who he wanted to be. None of the other kids had an opinion so I got to choose. McKay was Zorro, Gensie was a spanish dancer/Zorro's girl, Quinn was a Spanish soldier that Zorro sword fights,  Avonlea was Little Bo Peep who had two sheep.

McKay LOVED his costume but he might have loved his mustache even more. He was so thrilled that I drew that on him.

Mckay draws Z's everywhere now. He'll fill a piece of paper with Z's then put it somewhere in the house and come to me and says "Mom, I think there is a message for you somewhere. I think it might be from Zorro." He will then lead me to the message and when we discover together that the message is covered in Z's he'll say "Mom, I think Zorro has been in our house hiding somewhere."

McKay also loved his Dadddy's costume. He loved having him fit the part of who Zorro was supposed to fight.

Gensie Lou loves dress up so she was thrilled when I brought home this $8 Spanish dancer dress. It fit great and the colors were wonderful. Her favorite part might have been that she got to wear some of my knee high nylons.

Isn't this the scene in the movie where Zorro cuts the straps to her dress and it falls to the ground? Luckily my kids have only seen Disney's Zorro.

In the end, the hero always gets the girl!  Lucky hero.  Lucky girl.

Quinn's costume might be my favorite because it's the most homemade and if you've ever seen the Walt Disney Zorro TV shows he looks just like the soldiers. He already had the boots, and the pants are just some Sunday khakis he already had. We bought the blue blazer at goodwill and I had to alter it in the collar to look the part. I added the white buttons and made more button holes. I also made the white and red sashes. I also drew on his mustache and made his entire hat.

His hat is made completely of cardboard, card stock, a white strip of fabric, and hot glue.

Originally I was going to have Quinn be Sergeant Garcia (left), since he is more well known from the show.  But Quinn really didn't want to be a big fat guy.  :)  So we decided to simply make him a Spanish soldier and he ended up looking just like Corporal Reyes (right)

I LOVE the way this all turned out. In August Shannon asked me if she could get the twins their first Halloween costumes as a baby gift for them. I said sure. After a while went by and I hadn't hear from her and wasn't sure if she was still planning on doing their costumes I started to kinda think of what I might do if she changed her mind. I decided I really wanted to do Little Bo Peep and her sheep. I then started keeping my eyes open for little sheep costumes but wasn't' having any luck. One day Shannon texted and asked which of these 3 ideas I would prefer for their costumes. Tigger and Eeyore, Good Witch and the Wicked Witch, or two adorable little sheep? I know, how perfect! She had no idea I was wanting to do Little Bo Peep. I had a yellow dress that I was going to use for Avonlea but I had no bonnet and when I got the sheep costumes and saw that they had pink all over them it bothered me that Lele's dress was going to be yellow and the theme didn't' match or coordinate at all. Two nights before our Halloween party I jumped on Craigslist and typed in "Little Bo Peep." What did I find? One $5 dollar pink Little Bo Peep dress complete with bonnet. I know, too good to be true! It did say size 7 but I thought I'd take my chances and I didn't even have to drive clear over to Portland. It was here in Vancouver. I got it and it was just a little big on her. She looked so so so darling in it.  Every time we would put her in the dress with her bonnet on we would just giggle and giggle. 

Isn't that bonnet great?

I told Shannon that the twins would probably fit in 9 month costumes.  These are 6-12 month costumes.  They fit, but by the end of the night they had both outgrown them.  If you look closely, they both ripped through the feet of the costume.  You can see their cute little toes. :)

Cadie J

Londie Lamb

Lele Joy

I did dress up. I am always so busy making or coming up with everyone else's costumes I never have time to get one myself and this year I said "Yeah right I am not going to try and nurse twins while wearing a costume." But, at the last minute I threw on a plaid shirt with my sisters overalls, a big straw hat and bare feet and called myself Little Boy Blue to fit in with the girls theme. In the end we forgot to take a picture of me.

A week at Grandpa and Grandma Pearce's

All summer I have had a sewing weekend planned with 3 of my cousins who are some of my best friends that I grew up with. We were getting together specifically to make Christmas stockings. Quinn came with me so I wouldn't have to make the drive with 5 kids and no help. He was able to work from my parents home the whole time so he didn't have to take any days off and we got to stay for a week.

While there, Quinn and I were even able to go on a few dates and to go to the Boise Temple together.  We were married in the Boise Temple, and this was the first time we had been back since that day.

Tasha was also able to attend the Grand Opening of the Nampa DI with her Mom.  If you know Tasha at all, you will know that she had a great time with that.

We went to the Boise zoo with some of my other cousins and their kids.

I think there was only one kid on the carousel that wasn't family.

Uncle Andon got to go with us. He is so much help with the kids and he enjoys going places so much and the kids just love him.

My parents have an island counter in the middle of their house. It's a big counter plus the stove and sink are right by it so to walk all the way around is a big circle. Growing up we rode trikes, bikes, roller skates, scooters, office chairs any thing with wheels around and around that circle. It is so much fun. The grand kids enjoy it now. They go around and around.

Playing with cousins

Avonlea tripped and fell into a bucket of apples. Gensie thought it looked like fun so she joined her.

We joke that we were bathing chocolate and vanilla kids together. My brothers kids are so dark compared to my kids.

Our kids are never shy about taking a book to someone to read to them.  Aunt Sarah was the target this time.

Avonlea is so in love with her grandma. She has no need for mom or dad when grandma is around.

Avonlea LOVES Nani's dog Bowie.

Uncle Whitney's first time meeting the twins.

McKay reading a story to Grandma.  He loves to read

This is Lele saying, "Cheese!"  Uncle Andon above, Aunt Nani on the left.  Aunt Autumn on the right.

These kids would play SO hard during the day.  When night came and we got them to slow down, they were OUT.

Uncle Logan bought a puppy that was simply waiting for a ride to Ririe.  It was at Grandpa and Grandmas for a few days and the kids LOVED it.  It makes us feel so bad that we don't a place for a puppy where we live.

The kids were able to ride while there.  This is Zipporah, who has been in the family for 24 years.  We have had her longer than our 2 youngest siblings

When I called Avonlea to look at the camera and that I was going to take her picture, she patted Zipporah on the neck and told her to look at Mommy.  :)

The drive home.