Whew, another Birth-o-ween is over. And as always I'm excited to write about it and share all the cute pictures. But first I have to say thank you for the outpouring of love and support that you showed me after I published my last post. I was a little hesitant to talk about our precarious financial situation so openly. But I felt strongly that I needed to share it because people who were in similar situations wouldn't feel so alone. I didn't realize that sharing it would help me feel less alone. Thank you for each and every comment and message.
Okay now we can talk about Birth-o-ween. For those of you who are new, Charlotte and Lydia were born on Halloween Night 7 years ago. Halloween was already one of my favorite holidays so adding TWO birthdays to it just made it all the more extravagant. Every year we refer to the many Halloween and Birthday related events as Birth-o-ween.
Well, at least I refer to it as Birth-o-ween. I don't think we actually ever call it that for real. Mostly we just say, "it's Halloween, and Charlotte and Lydia's birthday." This year Derrick started calling it Happy Birthday Halloween.
But no matter what we actually call it, October is always full of birthday and Halloween preparations. The foremost of those is making Halloween Costumes for the kids. I put a lot of time and preparation into these so I always like to take a minute and talk about each costume.
Let's start with Veronica's.
One of the first movies we watched when we made it back to civilization and had access to a Redbox again was the Batman Lego Movie. Veronica was really into the Lego movie and wanted to watch it every day. (This was before I realized that pre-school was probably preferable to another year of TV boredom.) I figured she would like the Lego Batman Movie. She did, and she REALLY liked Batman. I jokingly asked her if she wanted to be Batman for Halloween and she got really really excited. She kept saying "I be Batman." Brandon taught her how to say, "I'm Batman!" in a deep growl and she ran around saying that for a while.
I found a Batman Costume at the Idaho Youth Ranch thrift store for something like $3. When Veronica came home after school and saw it she was so excited. She tried it on and wore it for a while. She really wanted a cape so I'd also bought a black pillowcase at DI for $1. I opened that up at one of the seams and cut it into a cape shape. Veronica was thrilled.
I knew she wanted some sort of mask, but I also knew that most of the Halloween events we'd be attending wouldn't want her to have a mask. So instead I asked my wonderful sister Emily if she had time to crochet a batman hat. Emily said that she would love to do it.
Here's my little Batman before the hat arrived in the mail.
Derrick's costume is always a little bit of a wild card. I'm never sure what he wants to be for Halloween or if he'll even want to wear a costume at all. At first when ever I asked him what he wanted to be he would tell me "Hulk." That's what he'd been last year. So I figured if all else failed he could just wear that costume again.
When Veronica decided to be Batman Derrick decided that's what he wanted to be too. So when I bought her costume I also found one for Derrick. It was a little big for him, but I figured that if he decided not to wear it this year we'd have it on hand for another year.
Two years ago Derrick refused to wear a costume at all, so last year I bought him a skeleton shirt as a back up costume. He still fit that shirt so I made sure I knew where it was so it could be a back up costume again.
I also asked Emily to make Derrick a hat too. She's such a good sister.
Derrick and Veronica's costumes were pretty simple, which was good because, as usual, Charlotte and Lydia's costumes required a lot of creativity.
Lydia wanted to be an Indian- specifically Sacajawea. And she wanted her baby doll Rose to be a papoose. In theory this would be a simple costume because I'd been an Indian for Halloween the year I was (very) pregnant with the twins. I still had that costume and with a little modification it would work for Lydia.
Here's a side by side comparison of the dress re-make.
I ripped off the bodice from the skirt and cut off about 18 inches from the skirt. I took the sleeves off the bodice and realized I could sew them together to make a little collar. The trickiest part of the whole dress was figuring out how to make it fit Lydia's tiny waist, but not be all bunchy in the front. That took a lot of thought and elastic. Lydia was very good to let me keep trying it on her as I figured out what exactly I was doing.
My favorite part of the dress was the beaded fringe that I put on the bottom. I already had the beads from other projects.The head dress was the same one I wore 7 years ago.
I finished the dress in time for our first Halloween Party. The next week I worked on the papoose. I used the fabric I'd cut from the bottom of the skirt. I glued some of it down to a back board I'd cut from cardboard. Then I made a little bag with straps. I put the backboard down in the bag and secured it with yarn left over from Charlotte's costume. And I put more yarn all over as a decoration. I was so excited with how this turned out.
Charlotte's costume involved a lot of hand sewing. She'd been telling me that she wanted to be a unicorn for several months, but she has a history of changing her mind so I told her that we'd make final decisions after Veronica's birthday. At the very end of Veronica's birthday Charlotte turned to me and said, "Okay, it's official. I want to be a unicorn."
She wanted to be a white unicorn with a white mane and gold hooves. I found a white hooded shirt for $3 at DI. It had AEROPOSTALE sewn onto it with but I knew I could unpick that. It also had the number seventy six or something embroidered on it. That would be harder to unpick, but Charlotte said she was fine if I just covered it with a patch. Later I found adult sized white capri pants at the Idaho Youth Ranch store. I adjusted them to fit Charlotte. (And I saved the extra fabric to be a tail.)
Charlotte had been eyeing a little unicorn headband at FredMeyer. I figured that would be simple to sew onto the hood. But when I went to buy the headband it was priced at $14! I'm not sure if it was just mis-labeled or what, but that price gave me pause. The headband was pretty cheap looking. Just a small horn and small ears. It also looked too small for Charlotte's head. It came with a tutu that also looked too small. I decided that even if it was less than $14 it wasn't going to work.
So instead I went to Walmart to see what they had. They had a solitary gold horn for something like $3. Much better. I bought a roll of gold sparkly sequins for hooves and orange yarn for a mane because I thought orange would be more fun to work with than white. I'm pretty certain that Charlotte's whole costume barely cost $14.
Then it was time to figure out how to put it all together. I decided to unpick the seam that held the hood lining to the top of the hood. That way I could put in the yarn for the mane through the hood fabric and then cover up the knots with the lining. I also sewed in the ears when the lining was off. Everything looked so great when it was in place and the lining was back on. I could have sewn the horn on, but I decided it was better just to pin it on so I could take it off if I needed to wash the hood.
Charlotte helped me a little bit with the costume. She sat with me while I sewed the little sparkly parts on the ears. When I put the yarn on she cut it into the right sizes. Every time I did something and asked her if she liked it she'd say, "It's PERFECT! Everything you do is perfect!" She's really good at encouragement.
Then it was time for the hooves. So much hand sewing. The trickiest part was reaching down inside the cuffs to maneuver the needle around. Each hoof took me 2 hours. I worked on them while watching movies with Lydia and then Charlotte when they were sick and home from school.
The hooves on the pants were a lot easier. I was running out of sparkly stuff so I only had enough for one layer around the bottom. I worked on these while we drove down to Utah for the Halloween Party with Brandon's family.
The final result was exactly what Charlotte and I had hoped it would be. She was so happy to prance around as a unicorn.
Brandon's family has a Halloween Party every year. Unfortunately we haven't been able to attend it for 5 years. In fact, the last time we attended it was when we hosted back in 2011. I was pregnant with Derrick at the time.
Last year we'd thought that we would move away from Fort Rucker, Alabama in September and so we were planning on attending the Halloween Party in Utah. We'd watched Specture, the newest James Bond movie, during the summer and really liked it. At the end of the movie Brandon said he wanted to be James Bond for Halloween. I'd really like the "girl," Madeline Swan, in this movie so I agreed to be his Bond Girl. Brandon had a ton of free time so he worked on props for his costume. He somehow made an exact replica of James Bond's gun from wood.
But then we found out our move was delayed. Overall I was really happy about that delay because I felt I needed more resolution to our time in Fort Rucker, but I was sad that we missed the Family Halloween Party.
So this year, we were determined to make it to the party. And Brandon was determined to be James Bond. He found his wooden gun and made a holster for it out of old car-seat webbing. (This is why I let him save random stuff like that.) He'd made a bow-tie last year so he also found that. He'd wanted to buy a tuxedo shirt at a thrift store, but we'd never found one. His white shirt worked well enough. I thought he made a very handsome James Bond.
I'd been planning to find a fancy dress at a thrift store, and had even tried some on last year, but I hadn't found anything I liked. This year I didn't see the point in spending money on a costume. So I dug out an old fancy dress that I wore to dances back in my early college days and was happy to find that it still fit. (Even thought it wore very differently than it used to.)
Some how it was a lot shorter than I remember so I decided to just go with that. I added tucks to one side to make the dress slant up. (This was my other sewing project I did in the car while we drove to Utah.) Brandon made me a wooden dagger and a strap to hold it on my leg.
We changed into our costumes at my sister Hillary's house and she offered to do my hair and make up. I liked how fancy I looked.
We had a fun time at the party. It was hosted by our friends John and Christina. John is the brother of my sister-in-laws husband. Johns' wife is the sister of a my friend Katie who I met in college. It was really funny when we realized that she is the sister-in-law to my sister-in-law's brother-in-law. (Or something like that.) We've been facebook friends for years but its been a while since I've seen her in person. I was hoping I'd see her at the party. And sure enough I did! It was fun to chat with Katie and compare the heights of our kids. She has two girls that are almost the exact same age as Derrick and Veronica. She said she walked in and saw Derrick and was like, "I recognize that boy."
It was really fun to see everyone's costumes. Veronica had been really excited to go to the party, but it took her a while to get used to all the costumes and decorations. She spent the first 15 minutes snuggled up in my lap. (And I spent that time wondering why I thought wearing heals and sequins was a good idea with children around.)
But gradually she perked up as she recognized her Bestemor, Bestefar, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Soon she was talking everyone's ears off.
At the end of the party we voted for the best costumes. Brandon and I won for best couples costume. YES! and Charlotte was in a three way tie for most unique. She was thrilled about that. (So was I because that costume was a lot of work.)
The party had been on the 21st which meant I was done with costumes 10 days early. I just had to do the papoose for Lydia's costume. It's good I was done early because all I wanted to do was rest and relax.
I realized that I had been stressed out for 18 months. Ever since Brandon decided to voluntarily leave flight school and the Army in May of 2016 I have worried about our future. I've worried about our finances, I've worried about where we would live, I've worried about cars, and food, and schools, and well - everything. That worry has been with me in Alabama, in Utah, in Yellowstone, and here in Idaho. In some way's the worry has been good. It's kept me planning and dreaming and moving. But it's also been toxic.
As soon as I found out I had a job I felt an immense sense of relief. I'd finally solved all our major problems. Brandon was in school, we had somewhere to live, and we had a steady income. And with that relief came the permission to rest. I had two weeks before I started my job. And I wanted to relax during that time.
So I've done as little as possible lately. I still take care of the things I need to, but I don't push myself very hard. And I've found every chance to just sit and read. Even with reading I'm not doing anything difficult. Instead of reading a new book I'm re-reading the Mistborn Series. It's been so healing to climb into bed every night at 8:00 and just read until I fall asleep. I've felt a lot of anxiety slip away. I'm going to be much better prepared for balancing work and kids and Brandon's school because I took this time for some self care.
Meanwhile the kids and Brandon took it upon themselves to make some cute Halloween Decorations.
And Lydia wrote a whole story about a Vampire. She is getting to be a really good writer. I can't believe how much she writes.
Veronica has brought home a little craft every day from school. She was especially proud of her spider hat.
Charlotte and Lydia continue to astound me with their creativity. They made these little Indian dioramas by themselves one afternoon.
The kid's school doesn't do anything on Halloween like a Parade of parties. What they do instead is a Carnival the night of the Friday before Halloween. So Friday evening we got all the kids into their costumes. I'd finished the papoose, and painted a yellow bat on Veronica's costume. And Emily's hats had arrived in the mail. The kids costumes were DONE!
The carnival was fun. The kids' teachers stood outside their class rooms. The kids could show them their costumes and get candy. Then we went into the lunchroom to play some games.
There was one where Brandon had whipped cream on his head and the kids threw cheese puffs at him.
It was really funny.
Then we came home and the kids watched some little halloween movies on Brandon's computer while eating their candy.
On Saturday I had a Super-Saturday activity going on at Church. (I was recently called onto the Relief Society Meeting Committee.) Brandon's parents were planning to come up to give the girls their birthday presents. The girls have wanted to go back to the Museum of Clean for a while so I thought it would be fun if they went with Steve and Jacque since they've never gone. Everyone liked that idea.
Before Steve and Jacque showed up I got a call from Sister Hansen. She and her husband were the military relations missionaries in Alabama. They were in Pocatello for a granddaughters mission farewell and wanted to know if they could stop by. OF COURSE they could. So I ran home to see them.
For a while our house was a little crazy. Steven and Jacque showed up, followed by Barbara and Carl Hansen. The kids were running between their real grandparents and their surrogate grandparents. I was so excited to see someone from Alabama. We are coming up on the one year anniversary of leaving Fort Rucker and so I'm getting a little sentimental about that. So it meant a lot to see them.
After they left the kids went to the Museum of Clean and had a great time. I'm glad that we live close enough that the kids can go do things like that with their grandparents.
On Sunday the kids had their primary program. This was the first year that all four kids were in it. They all did great. I had been worried about Derrick and talked over some options with the Primary President. But he did so well in rehearsals that neither of us were concerned. When it came time to go up for the program Charlotte and Lydia made sure he made it to his seat. His teacher sat by him the whole time and kept him focused. He was so good at standing and sitting at the right times. I even saw him singing along with some of the words. Last year he'd been afraid to say his speaking part, but this year he did it. About halfway through the program he lost interest in the whole thing and just sat in his seat. But he was quite and calm the whole time.
Charlotte and Lydia did great as well. Charlotte couldn't seem to sit still and Lydia moved a lot when they sang, but they were both really good at doing what they needed to. And they said their parts into the microphone very well.
Veronica was the funniest one though. You have to realize that Veronica has a soul of a 40 year old sometimes. She just doesn't act like a normal 4 year old. The sunbeams were the first kids to get up and say their parts. She was pretty excited to talk into the microphone. When she sat down she had a look that said, "wait. That's all I get to say? I've been waiting a whole year for this!"
Her seat was off to the side and she had a little bit of a table in front of her. She liked resting her head and hands on the table. She didn't like standing up and singing the songs. At one point they sang the wise man and the foolish man. The teacher sitting with her was doing the actions and trying to get Veronica to do them too. Veronica gave the teacher a crusty look and then looked at us like, "Do you really expect me to do this?" Brandon lost it. He was laughing so hard he had to double over so he wouldn't laugh out loud. I was crying big laughing tears. Best Primary Program ever.
After church we carved pumpkins. We got these from Bob and Vonnie Coombs who were the military relations missionaries when we lived in Fort Hood. They live in Idaho Falls now. They watched our kids when we went to the temple in September and then sent us home with 4 home grown pumpkins. (Blessings of doing temple work.)
The kids were pretty animated about the whole process.
It was funny to listen to them complain about how slimy everything was.
Derrick learned about the life cycle of a pumpkin at school and hasn't stopped talking about wanting to plant a pumpkin seed. I keep promising that we will do it in the spring. He was also really exited to carve the pumpkin. I gave him a marker and he happily and expertly drew on a face. Then Brandoon carefully cut it out exactly as Derrick drew it.
We went outside to put the pumpkins on the porch and ended up taking the cutest Halloween picture ever.
The kids wanted to do a scary pose too.
Here's what the pumpkins looked like with candles inside.
All I remember about Monday is that I had a big to-do list and somehow got it all done.
And then it was Tuesday! Which was Halloween and the twins SEVENTH Birthday. We started it off with Balloons like we always do.
The girls wanted to pose with the Balloons.
And here they are together wearing their trick or treat shirts.
Derrick wanted to wear his Skeleton shirt.
And he wanted to pose with Baloons like the girls had.
Veronica was able to wear her costume to school, so she was happy about that.
I got the kids all off to school and then went to donate plasma (a fitting Halloween thing.) Then some last minute shopping because I was trying to find spider rings. I couldn't find any and settled for pipe cleaners that I knew Brandon could make look like spiders. Then I went visiting teacher and then came home and started making a white chili for a chili cook off we were having that night at the church.
When the kids came home from school they had candy so every one sat around and at that for a while.
Brandon came home early and we opened presents. The girls each got a plastic horse that they were so excited about. They got some other small presents. The "big" present from Brandon and me was fabric and a list of days and times we are going to do sewing lessons. The girls have been asking to learn how to sew and I have been saying "we'll do it some day." Well I realized that now is a great time. So I figured out what times will work for me and Brandon. I'll teach the lesson and Brandon will rangle the other kids.
We had plans to go to a trick or treat thing at one of the businesses in town, but the twins told me they didn't want to do that. They just wanted to play with their horses. That was fine with me.
Then around 5:00 we started getting everyone into their costumes. Our ward was having a Chili Cook off and a Trunk or Treat. I was surprised when I'd heard it was on Halloween. But after asking around I found out that nobody really trick or treats in this neighborhood. (It's apparently a "rough" neighborhood which might be true but makes me laugh because I lived near Killeen, Texas.)
Anyway, we went to the church and got our chili.
I'd forgotten to take a picture of the kids at the house so I did it at the church. Here's Veronica with "bat eyes"
Lydia showing off her baby.
Charlotte with rosy cheeks. (Halloween is the only time I let the kids wear makeup)
And Derrick who had decided to be the Hulk at the last minute and was really upset that we weren't going door to door trick or treating.
I had my own case of the grumpies. I've said many times that I don't really like Trunk or Treats because I don't understand how being in a dark parking lot with cars driving around is "safer." I was also feeling homesick for Fort Rucker. Halloween in the South is amazing. It's warm and everyone sits on their porches to hand out candy. There is such a feeling of community. And yet here we were in an over crowded gym, but I didn't have anyone to talk to.
Derrick was getting antsy so we went out into the hall and hung out there. Suddenly Brandon showed up with a little package and said, "We just won first prize in the Chili Cook Off." And suddenly I was feeling a lot better about this Halloween. We'd WON. Somebody liked us. (Or at least our chili, but it was basically the same thing in my mind.)
So with a re-newed happieness I went outside for the trunk or treat. It wasn't quite dark yet, and the sky was pretty. I remembered that I really do like Idaho.
We decorated our car with a spider wed and the pipe cleaner spiders. We got one picture with the kids and then Brandon took them around to get candy while I stayed at the car and handed it out.
When they came back we put them in the car and they had fun pretending they were trapped by the web.
Then we went home and the kids ate candy for about an hour. I sat with Veronica and helped myself to her candy without her knowing it. We had a really fun time just sitting and talking about the day.
Charlotte learned the fine art of candy sorting.
And that was Birth-o-ween. Or at least all of it up until now. We still have a birthday party to do on Saturday. But we'll talk about that after it happens.
Thanks for reading and Happy Halloween.
