Halloween night was wet and rainy, but it didn't stop my two oldest from doing the much-anticipated Trick-or-Treat thing. Eliza really wanted to be a vampire, so I made her that cape. I ended up buying a costume pattern, and just added the bat "peaks" at the bottom of the pattern before cutting it out. Hyrum had his heart set on being a ghost, so I made a bigger version of the one I made for them a couple of years ago. I was trying to convince them all to be cute monsters (imagine the creative potential of that!) but they wanted nothing to do with the idea.
Don't they look scary? Eliza's expression cracks me up - she looks JUST like a picture of me when I dressed like a punk rocker when I was about 12. What do you think, Mendenhall clan - is she her mother's daughter or what? She had already lost track of her vampire teeth by this point, but no matter. I was glad not hear her go berserk anymore every time saliva dripped down her chin because of the fake teeth!
I don't have any pics of Hazel that night, as she had hit her fussy stage of the evening and was not in any mood to hold still for pictures. I had taken some cute shots of her (she was Bat Baby) a few days prior to Halloween at a Trunk-or-Treat party, but I was using my little point-and-shoot camera that night and I can't find the cord that connects it to the computer. Yet another example of my disorganization at work! Okay, going through 2 moves in less than 9 months didn't help...but how long can I keep pulling the "Just Moved" card? :-)
I almost forgot to post pics of the outside of our house!
It's pretty much the same as last year, except it's a different house (obviously) and the banners you see here used to be fabric chair covers that I created for the two chairs on our front porch in Hawaii.
I cut off the back and the side ties of the covers and looped the top of the fabric over so they could be hung as banners.
The wind whipped them around quite a bit, and half the time they were flipped over so the back of the banner was facing out. Next year I may try to weigh down the bottom corners with something so they don't flip over so much when the wind blows.
These tall buckets were a garage sale find several years ago. I painted them orange and decorated them all goofy.
The kids have been having a GREAT time with all the autumn leaves! None of them have had much experience with the gloriously crunchy stuff because we were in Hawaii for over 5 years, so this has been quite a treat for them. Hazel, especially, loves to rake them (or, more accurately, UNrake them out of their piles).
Yes, she's still in her PJs. One of the perks of being a stay-at-home kid when big brother and sister are off at school!
The other day we helped raked up a huge pile of leaves in the neighbor's driveway and some of the neighborhood kids came over to join in the fun. They had such a blast flopping into the leaf pile, throwing the leaves up into the sky, and burying eachother under piles and piles of leaves. It brought back some fun, nostalgic memories of my own childhood - we used to do the same thing in our backyard. I didn't have my camera with me, I wish I could have captured that moment on "film" but the most important thing are the memories created for the kids. I hope they're old enough to retain such simple moments of pure joy!
Quite awhile ago Hyrum lost his 2 bottom teeth (I tried in vain to get a picture of him with his missing teeth in view - or rather, the lack thereof) but he started feeling self-conscious and gave up trying to pose for me. Poor kid...the trials of having a Mommy Blogger. Anyway, I managed to get a pic of him smiling with his Tooth Fairy pillow that I made for him. He was very excited to have a star-shaped version, because his big sister's pillow is a boring square with frills around the edges. Now Eliza is jealous. The sibling rivalry continues!
It looks like you have perfected the art of ghost costume making. Thanks again for your help with mine. I meant to email you pictures, but here it is on my blog.
Posted by: rachelle F | November 05, 2009 at 06:36 PM