Halloween 2016

So Stella and I were pretty busy doing some Halloween crafts this year. I saved two different types of fruit cups and made ghosts and pumpkins.  The ghosts are reversible with battery powered tea lights inside. The pumpkins I made were for Stella's classmates for her Halloween party.

We also made paper plate spiders and toilet paper/paper towl bats.  She really loved making the spiders. She selected the colors, painted them all by herself, helped me stick the legs in the glue and then selected the number and placement of the eyes.
The bats were 99% just me since it required hot glue and an Exacto knife, but she had a say in the color paper and I let her glue the eyes on.  She gave a spider to Emily, Asher and Ivy for their Halloween party and gave a bat to Lolly and Pop.  I think Landon and Huddy aslo received a bat.

We made our annual stop at Smyrna FUMC to pick out pumpkins.

And then we decorated this one, but we never got a chance to carve pumpkins. 

On Wednesday the 26th, we went to Smyrna FUMC's Trunk or Treat with Harper and Londynn.  Stella went as Chase from Paw Patrol.   

A while back I mentioned her going as Goldilocks and having her 3 bears. She was ok with that. Then one day she said she wanted to be a dog-specifically Bandit. Easy enough. I bought a black long sleeved shirt to pair with black cotton pants that she already had. I was going to cut brown patches out and pin to the clothes and make the ears.  I typed in "DIY dog costume" on Pinterest and started scrolling. She found a kid dressed as Marshall from Paw Patrol and for a little bit wanted to be him. But then she saw Chase-her favorite. Turns out, the most difficult part about this costume was finding brown pants and a blue shirt for her. Both are boys attire.  I enjoyed making this and she said I did a good job although she did have a few criticisms, but nothing major.

So grown looking here....and ALL Michael!

Harper as Cat Boy from PJ Masks, Londynn as Elsa and Stella/Chase.  My mom sent her four Halloween cards this year since Stella loves getting mail and checks the mail for her name.  Lolly put Stella/Chase at the top of each card which she loved.

Stella handcuffing Harper or "suction cupping" as Stella called it.

Being a puppy dog at the dog & scarecrow photo cut-out.

When we got home she asked to take a picture of me and Donald. Then she wanted Donald to take a picture of me and her. What a treat! The one of me and D was too fuzzy to post, but this one is pretty good.

That Saturday Donald cut up a limb that had fallen and we had a bonfire in the firepit. We were supposed to make s'mores, but we could tell Stella was fading fast. So we roasted a few marshmallows instead.

And Stella passed out in her teepee about five minutes later.  Donald and I just sat around the fire staring at it, chatting here and there. It was so relaxing and nice-just cool enough.

 We went down the road to a new (to us) Vietnamese restaurant and had Pho for lunch and I put this one down for a nap. Oooh was she a Grumpy Gillian.  I shared this picture on Instagram with the caption "Hoping she'll #riseup in a better mood."

My goodness I have a gorgeous kid.

Sunday evening we met The Green's at the boys's school/church for their Trunk or Treat.  Landon went as THE best looking homemade robot I've ever seen. Tiffany outdid herself on this one.

Stella decided she did not want to change out of her Falcons jersey so I threw some black leggings on her, pulled her hair up, put on some tennis shoes and handed her a football-instant football player.  Although a few people called her a cheerleader. Uh no people.

She wouldn't let me paint the black stuff under her eyes. It would have been perfect.

Year 4 of Halloween pictures with these two.

Then Landon, Hudson and Stella all chased each other around or chased/kicked balls around the field. They definitely burned some energy.

On Monday, Stella had her Halloween party at school. We opted to let the kids bring their own lunch and we would supply a craft, a game, read a story and have something sweet for them to decorate and eat..

I made pumpkin cupcakes (the Pinterest way-box of cake mix & can of pumpkin) but I did make homemade cream cheese frosting.  I brought mini chocolate chips and an assortment of sprinkles for them to decorate their cupcake with. While they ate, I read Room on the Broom. 

The night before the party I let Stella select each pumpkin at tell me who she wanted that particular one to go to. Then she passed them out at the party. 

Owen's mom made this Poke-a-Pumpkin game and it had little treats inside. The kids enjoyed this.

I bought these crates originally to use in the computer room on the wall for storage/decorative use but I don't think they'll work out (not sturdy enough) so I just incorporated them into decor out front on the porch.

I made chicken posole soup and jack-o-lantern quesadillas for supper.  It was warm, tasty and filling before we went out Trick or Treating.

We walked across the street to The Retreat at Old Vinings Lake. 

Old crazy eyes here....

Daddy manned the stroller all night while I walked Stella to each house. Sometimes she'd walk up by herself, other times she'd only go up holding my hand.

This pumpkin was real, about 3 feet tall and had a 2X4 inside of it to brace it. So impressive!

And this yard definitely won for most enthusiastic owners. They turned their garage into a haunted house and the yard was covered in scary stuff. Really scary. Kids were screaming and running out. I told Donald if my parents had been with us, we would have lost them at this house because they would have wanted to join us and meet up with us later. 

Walmart: Garanimals brown jogging pant-$3.88; Chase helmet-purchased this Summer; Fruit of the Loom blue long-sleeved shirt-$4.97
Hobby Lobby: Giant brown chenelle stem aka huge pipe cleaner aka Chase's tail-$2.99; Dark blue stickable felt-$0.99
I already had the light blue and yellow felt from another project.

The helmet was around $25, but obviously it will be used many times for quite some time. So out of pocket for just costume stuff I've got around $15 in it. And it wasn't too complicated. 
Like I said, I enjoyed making this. I almost just ordered a costume off Amazon, but knew I could do this and also didn't want Stella having a generic costume. 

This was a great Halloween season. Stella looked so stinkin cute as Chase and everyone commented on her costume. Curious to see what she picks to be next  year.