Sunday, October 30, 2011

thoughts on halloween

halloween preparations


halloween preparations


halloween preparations

We are keeping Halloween really simple this year, which is how I like it.

When Jacob and Faith were little, I had a good run of years where I made complete home-sewn costumes from a pattern. I especially remember making a batman suit for Jacob one year (with a stretchy, full-body suit!) and an Obi-Wan Kenobi outfit. For Faith I remember an Esmerelda costume and a flannel bunny suit. All of this stuff got a tremendous amount of play from in the dress-up basket afterwards. I enjoyed doing this, but making costumes from scratch from a sewing pattern is very time consuming. Lately, I just haven't been able to find the time! I wish we had saved all those costumes, but alas, I got rid of them before the boys were in the picture.

Now I'm more in a "keep things simple and use what you have" mode. I encouraged the boys to choose costumes that easily could be put together with things we have around the house. Rainer is being a super-hero ("Super-R") and Dieter is being Obi-Wan Kenobi and carrying a lightsaber. For both of these I supplemented what we had with some thrifted shirts and some new pants. I sewed an R onto a shirt for Rainer. That's it! It took hardly any time to gather this together and everyone is happy.

halloween preparations


We kept the decorating really simple too. The boys just opened the Halloween "box" and had a blast setting out all the little toys and decorations they found in there. I'm not stressing at all about having the house decorated to adult or mommy-blogger standards. The boys have really had fun pulling this stuff out and the day after Halloween it will all be whisked away and stored until next year. For Thanksgiving I think I'll be a little more motivated to have a hand in the decorating.

halloween preparations

As far as candy goes, we have a plan for that too. The boys will eat a few pieces of their Halloween candy that night (3 or 4 pieces?) and save out a handful for subsequent nights (maybe 5 or so more pieces) and the rest will be left out for the Green Pumpkin who will exchange the remaining candy for books. That way, the boys won't feel deprived of candy, but most of it will not be hanging around.

I like keeping it all low-key. How are you handling Halloween this year?

4 comments:

Ashley @ It's Fitting said...

Well, the kiddo is only two, so this is going to be a family affair. We are all getting dressed up and this will probably be the first and last time it ever happens :-) My husband is wearing his work uniform (he's a fighter pilot) and my son is wearing the matching uniform. I'm wearing an airplane costume. And not even a SEXY airplane costume. Lame.

Madame Melville said...

Hi Mary Beth,

Thanks so much for your Halloween ideas! I LOVE the green pumpkin idea. We also allow a few treats that night, and then hand them out as "dessert" for a few nights. I then make the remainder magically disappear, but as the boys get older this might be harder to pull off. The Green Pumpkin just might save me this year (:

I made some costumes, but kept it simple by using t shirts and tights as the base and the adding to them. They are spiders this year and it was pretty easy to pull together.

As for decorating, I left that to the boys. They were so into making any Halloween craft I could come up with, our front door is covered in little pumpkin faces and ghosts they made. A few Jack-o-lanterns as we are set.

We have to drive to houses, since they are so far apart around here. This helps limit candy too. I can only handle so many ins and outs of the car seats!

Have fun tomorrow and thanks for the ideas!
jen

Carrie said...

Love the Super R! And I like that Dieter is remaining true to his Star Wars phase. Clearly "the force" is with the Green Pumpkin!

Andrea said...

I love costumes that can be put together from things around the house. This year my boys are being: a king, a wizard and a phantom. I pulled out a bunch of big pieces of shiny, stretchy velour that someone had given me and voila--costumes. They didn't even want me to sew anything, and they put them all together themselves (except for one adult-assisted wizard broom). Yea!