Halloween fun

So I was given the ultimatum that I have been lackadaisical with posts, especially Halloween pictures of my kids, and thought that since I had a couple pictures on my camera before it died again--we need a new one--I would put them up. The bulk of my Halloween pictures and birthday pictures of both Benjamin and Lydia are on my mother-in-law's camera, so I will be posting the rest rather late. So, for the time being, enjoy the smattering of pictures I have to offer.

Lydia told me at least twenty different ideas for her costume. She would always say, "Mom I want to be ____ for Halloween, okay?" So about two weeks before Halloween, I asked her what she was going to be, and she said she wanted to be a butterfly. So butterfly she was.

She had to be a pink and purple butterfly, no exceptions. So I made her pink and purple wings with a pink and purple tutu. there is a little bit of black in there too.

She was so excited to trick or treat this year, and insisted on using her chicken wire basket she used last year with her chicken costume. She made such a beautiful butterfly, even though we could not figure out the pipe cleaners. Pipe cleaners work in Kindergarten. They do not work for grownups (except for teachers).

I had ideas about what I wanted Benjamin to be, but it was not set in stone until about four weeks before Halloween (yes, I make my kids' costumes, and yes, I am a procrastinator). I saw an idea for a baby owl costume on Martha Stewart and decided to run with it. I changed it drastically, like I made my own wing patterns, and put feathers on the back and front. Benjamin just looked at it and kept saying "pretty bird" all the time.

Well, when I got him to try it on, he would not take it off, including the eye "goggles" (which I will need to reinvent if I ever have another child wear it). By the end of the night the goggles had slipped down around his neck, but he would not let me take them off.

Our ward had a trunk or treat, a.k.a. bags of candy in ten minutes (visions of driving three hours to get a few pieces of candy when I was little flashed through my head the whole time). Ben just absolutely loved his costume, as I said, and ran around the whole time flapping his wings and saying "who, who". That is why all the pictures I have of him are of him running around, or the back of his costume. Works great when you have such a cute feathery back, though.

Aren't those feathers adorable???! I absolutely love how both costumes turned out!

The little owl did not like being in his natural habitat; he wanted to be running around, so the only picture we got of him in the tree was of him crying.

Ben's head grew from the time I measured it for the "hat"...I will need to remake that one too if it is ever worn again.