Halloween Happiness and other catching up ramblings...

Wow.  I'm TERRIBLE at keeping up with this.  Really terrible.  But there's just SOOOO much going on!  I barely get time to think.

Trenton is in karate AND theater and Carter is taking swim lessons twice a week.  It doesn't sound like much, but it means we have to get at least one kid somewhere extracurricular every.single.night of the week.  Some nights, 2 kids different places.  It's pretty exhausting, even for the parent just picking up the kid(s) who don't have activities that evening. 

I don't know much about Trenton's karate because Scott takes him to that and, honestly, I don't get it.  It just looks like people pretending to be ninjas while wearing white pajamas to me.  ::shrugs::

But.  I DO know about theater.  I usually take him to his weekly practices for this.  He's going to be in a production of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in December.  It's pretty exciting!  I love the book and all the parallels to Christianity and Christ dying to save us.  It's such a great story.  And it's in December so it'll be close to Christmas!  The theater is super cute, too.  It lights up with kind of old-fashioned fun and ambience.  So much better than a boring auditorium or whatnot.  It just makes it feel like a bigger deal.  And they have a cast party after closing night.  How cute is that?! 

We just found out that Nana & Popaw will be able to make his last performance.  They booked a cruise before Trenton even signed up for this theater.  So of course the performances would all be while they were gone.  Since there are 2 full casts and 4 performances, he gets to be in 2.  One matinee and one evening.  We were crossing our fingers hoping he would be in the last one so they could get off their ship and book it home to see him.  And HURRAY!  Done!  He's working hard to learn his lines.  He's SO into it and he's really excited to get his costume and make his debut. 

Speaking of costumes... that's ANOTHER thing that's been keeping me from being able to do anything.  Halloween is TOMORROW.  Back in August, I asked the boys who they wanted to be for Halloween.  This was a mistake.  I should have learned from previous years of asking Trenton.  I should just take them to the store and say, "Pick one".  Instead I ask.  Which leaves room for MANY unbuyable options.  Which, true to fashion, is what happened.  They want to be Mordecai and Rigby from Regular Show. 

Mordecai and Rigby Halloween Costumes

Rigby - Left & Mordecai - Right

 



Oh yeah, sure.  I'll just whip that right up.  ::gulp::  Soooo, I had material and a sewing machine bought by the middle of August and I started working on Rigby.  I finished Rigby in roughly 2 weeks.  I worked on it sporadically during the evenings and weekends.  He seemed to be the easier of the 2, which is why I started there.  Between figuring out how to create this crazy little raccoon and fight with the sewing machine/bobbin tag team of evil, it took some time.  But, alas, I eventually finished and came up with this...

Is it perfect?  Um, NO!  Lol, not anywhere even close.  But it works for him and it'll work for his school costume parade and trick-or-treating.  And after that, he can wear it until if falls to pieces, for all it matters.  It IS really uplifting for me to hear him beg to wear it every day.  :) 

Mordecai was trickier.  The subject matter AND the fact that I was doing this for a 10 year old and not a 4 year old.  Longer legs, arms and head.  Plus, it fitting correctly just seemed more important.  Like it should be more clothes than costume.  I don't know.  So I procrastinated a little with Mordy.  And when I eventually did start, I started with his legs... the SEEMINGLY easiest part.  That went awry quickly.  Turns out, measuring is important in sewing.  Which is bad for me because anything math or number related immediately becomes mush inside my head.  I don't have the patience for that kind of thing.  So his pants needed some... tweaks after he tried them on. Tweaks like me removing an entire leg and sewing on a new one, then adding strategically placed black stripes (which I'd previously been too lazy to consider doing) to hide that seam, lol. 

Anyway, after many, many nights of sewing while watching (listening) to Parenthood, his costume was FINALLY complete.  Like, days ago.  I finished Saturday.  5 days before Halloween.  I cut it pretty close.  Not as close as I could've, but still.  Sheesh!  I'm so glad it's done. 

And, of course, my littlest nugget had no say in his costume, but I'd decided on this elephant costume because it was so cute and looked so soft.  However, FINDING it proved near impossible.  There's a girls version, with pink ears and tummy that's readily available, but no where, not even on the brand's website (Carter's), was it available.  UGH!  It was NOWHERE!  Not ebay or amazon or any of the Carter's stores.  After some SERIOUS searching (following random links after googling some creative things), I finally found it.  Kohl's online.  What?!  So random.  But, I found it AND an online coupon that saved me 15%.  WIN!  And it's so cute and IS so soft. 

Aren't they precious?!  All of them.  I don't care how old they get.  So precious.  I really, really love those crazy boys o' mine.