I usually like for our family to dress in a theme for Halloween, but this year the kids all had their own plans. We started talking about costumes and making plans at the beginning of the month, but we were so busy that I still ended up finishing things last minute. I spent the day yesterday running to the store for last minute items, spray painting Tayden's costume and making treats to take in for Ady's class party as well as tidying up the house since we had a few friends coming by to go Trick or Treating with us and to have Hot Chocolate afterwards. It was an exhausting day, but we got it all done!
Kyler wanted to be an FBI Agent. That was easy enough! All we had to do was head to the thrift store to find a black suit and shiny sunglasses. We ended up not being able to find a black suit, but I did find a men's suit coat that worked well enough. He found some shiny sunglasses at Goodwill and we got a Dollar store gun and spray painted it black. He also wore Dave's Blue Tooth ear piece. In the end we decided that he looked more like a Secret Service Agent, but it was close enough!
I saw the idea for Tayden's costume on Pinterest here. As soon as I showed it to Tayden he was so excited to be a Lego Man!
We basically followed the directions found on this blog to make it except we didn't have the perfect boxes they had for the body. We used a big Office Chair box that we had in the garage and cut it down. We should have cut it a bit smaller, but, like I said, we ended up doing this one last minute. Tayden loved it, but it was hard to get around in. Almost every house had a lot of stairs in front (like our house) so I had to help him up and down all night.
He attracted a lot of attention though! Several people stopped by and asked if they could take a picture. Some houses even said he deserved extra candy for that costume!
If we made the costume again we would make the body a bit shorter, but overall it was a success and Tayden loved it.
Ady wanted to be a mermaid. I saw this awesome mermaid costume and I thought I would try making one like that. It ended up not turning out to be as easy or as cute as I hoped. I didn't buy enough green tulle (it takes a lot more than you would think. I didn't even have half as much as I needed). I should have known since I have made tutus before, but it has been a long time ago. I had some Purple tulle on hand so I added that in to make it more full. Since it was pretty cold out Ady wore a long sleeve purple shirt underneath and then I made a shell top with some big shells Tayden found in Lake Michigan a few years ago. I added glitter and drilled holes in them to tie them on like a bikini top. I was really please with how they turned out and Ady was all excited about them until Kyler called them a bra and then she was pouting and not wanting to wear them. I let her take them off after pictures but she was still quiet and seemed unhappy with her costume the rest of the night. I guess she just wasn't feeling it. You can't tell in the picture, but we also sprayed her hair red. It looked pretty in person.
To sort of go along with Ady's mermaid costume, I thought it would be cute and easy to make an octopus costume for Evy. I used some old tights of Ady's that had a hole in the toes, an old pair of knee socks and a pair of tights for Evy that don't really match anything. I kept the waist band attached on that pair of tights and after stuffing all the legs sewed them all on. The six extra legs fit on over her onesie. I used the waist from the old tights of Ady's to make a hat. I got the idea for that here. Here is a close up of the hat.
I am happy with the way the costume turned out. She stayed in the stroller all night, but you could still tell that she was dressed up with the hat and all the extra legs sticking out.
On Sunday night Dave was cutting the boys' hair and also his own. While he was cutting his he thought it might be fun to leave a mohawk on for Halloween. We spiked it up and sprayed it with some purple hair spray that we had on hand. He wore it to work all day and got lots of looks and comments.
For trick or treating he changed out of his work clothes and ended up looking a little like he was dressed like the 90's.
This year I didn't dress up, I just wore some cat ears.
We had a fun time trick or treating with our friends. We had two families who don't live in town come with us. One of the families had never Trick or Treated house to house before! Their 16 year old daughter had only ever went Trick or Treating at the church! I wish I had taken a picture of their costumes. The whole family dressed as ninjas. Their 5 year old daughter wore a tutu with her ninja costume and had a pink mask. It was cute!
Tayden's teacher lives not far from us, so we were able to visit his house. He gave Tayden an extra hand full of suckers.
Everyone got plenty of candy and all the places we went to had good candy too! Not much of the cheapo stuff that gets thrown out. One house was even giving out full size candy bars!
The kids had fun after we got home handing out candy to people. Kyler decided to give out all the stuff that he doesn't love. (mostly sour candy - he is more of a chocolate lover)
Ady and Tayden sorted theirs all out by type (I always liked doing that too!)
Kyler prefers the giant pile method.
for nostrils, 
for the mouths, sliced, boiled eggs for the eyes along with 
. I used some cheddar cheese for the ears. I served them with sugar snap peas. 
stick with a 
heart. I served it with some yogurt with a few heart sprinkles and some grapes.
and a 
. To the right of that is a little cup of Cheez-its. Below that is a No Bake Chocolate Cookie (Recipe 
to color it in. On the right is one of my Halloween Lunchbox Notes (free printable 
