Jolly Holiday

Last week was a doozy round here.  Besides being up at Primary Children’s Hospital three different times for Harper (two appointmentments and then the ER when she pulled out her tube again), I was sewing every spare second to finish costumes (umm, why I make myself crazy for Halloween?!). On Saturday I ran the Halloween half marathon with my family, which was the most fun I’ve had since I was baptized.  I was really proud of myself, because I remember thinking six weeks ago how impossible it seemed that I could actually run that far considering how out of shape I started out my training.  I ran it last year (I was actually six weeks pregnant then), but I really was too sick to work out at all during my pregnancy after that, so I started from zero again and that’s a really hard place to start. I was so proud of my sister Eirene whose never even dreamed running that far, and for my Mom, who is has more endurance than us all put together. Of course I was proud of my Dad, Peter, Sariah and Elena as well (siblings) too. It was epically fun.

    Eirene and I waiting in the Fffffffreezing cold for the buses to arrive.

Ferb (Elena), Mary Poppins (me), our Lady Liberty(Sariah), Gavroche from Les Miserables (Peter), Peter Pan(Eirene), Captain America (Dad), and Mom (Mom).

My running possy.  We stayed together the whole 13.1, and you better believe we belted out “Do You Hear the People Sing” and maybe some Simon & Garfunkel too.  Dad and Elena were WAY ahead, and Mom did her own thing too.

Captain America with Merritt and Cousin Ike.

And here’s my whole little family at our neighborhood Trunk or Treat. I found myself WITHOUT a camera (batteries were dead much to my horror), so I was at the mercy of my friend Kristi who kindly took some shots and sent them to me. SOOOO sad that I didn’t get better shots of the kids; I’m still hoping to maybe dress them up again once I wash their sticky costumes.

Allan has agreed to dress up every OTHER year, so I went all out this year. He looked super hot in his Burt get up. I think he secretly felt a little cool too.

And here are some close ups of some AWESOME props that need more of a spotlight:

First, THE MOST BRILLIANT carpet bag costume. Hardly anyone saw this because Harper was bundled or sleeping most the night. My sister Em made this a few years ago and passed it on to me, and it’s got to be the best idea ever. There are two little leg holes on the bottom, so she just sits in the bag, with the handles as her straps. Genius.

Second, this chimney sweep. One just can’t find a chimney sweep at Halloween City, so I had to get resourceful.  I bought a broom from the dollar store, unscrewed the handle, cut off the bristles from the head and poked them in groups into a  floral foam disc (also from the dollar store), poked and glued the handle into the foam disc, and then spray painted the whole thing black.

And lastly, Mary Poppin’s hat. I didn’t like all the run of the mill straw hats I found when I googled Mary Poppin’s hat (where does one even find a black one?!) , because they didn’t have the  floppy shape  that is so crucial.  So I recreated the flop by using craft felt. The top circle is made out of the harder starched felt, as is the under brim that I added for stability.  It’s sewn together, but the flowers and cherries + bottom brim are hot glued.  I pieced the brim (two halves), and cut them in a circle but with a smaller center circle, so that when made to fit the actual hat, the brim ripples slightly and makes it perfect.

Whew! Too much work, right? Yeah probably, but whatev. It was fun. I’m trying to find someone to pass a lot of this stuff on to–I can’t just get rid of it, and I don’t want to keep it! I’m going to ask my sis in law, and if she doesn’t want it, then I’ll put it out there for anyone who is in the area who wants to swing by and pick it up.

Did you pull out the stops this year?

PS. In other very exciting news, my little bro Adam (or as we call him Egg) came home from his two-year mission for our church in Chile. How we missed him! And how FUN it was to see him and be ALL together again.