Halloween 2015

"Truly wonderful, the mind of a child is." - Yoda

I have a love/hate relationship with Halloween. I am always really excited and want to come up with creative and awesome Halloween costumes. But then my mind goes blank, and I can't come up with anything. I scour pinterest, yet nothing seems to stand out to me. I knew Austin would be born shortly before Halloween, so I really wanted to get everyone's outfits ready before she came. Doing a Star Wars theme had crossed my mind, but I wasn't really thrilled with the idea. So I did nothing. Then Austin was born, and I still had no ideas for costumes. We have plenty of dress-ups, however, so I figured as a last resort they could just throw one of those on.

Will was supposed to dress-up for preschool the Wednesday before Halloween, and they were having a party and a little parade where the parents could come. On Monday, I suddenly felt ambitious and decided to go ahead with the Star Wars theme. Because Will's had to be finished by Wednesday, I started with his. 

Copying a link on Pinterest, I came up with this Jedi outfit. I bought some cheap khaki pants and made them into skinny jeans. Then I found a pattern for a vest and cloak. I love how the vest turned out, but the cloak is a different story. There were so many different patterns, and most were more complex than I really cared to try. I didn't have a lot of time to make it, so I wanted something simple. It gets the job done, but it was poorly made and doesn't look great up close.  

Once I had Will's made, I started on Austin's. Originally, I was just going to make the Yoda beanie for her and call it good, but then I decided to add a little tutu, and a vest-type thing as well. I think it really completed the look. I know it's probably pointless to dress a newborn baby up, yet it was fun ,and I think she looked absolutely adorable.

Cutest little Yoda I've ever seen.

And lastly I began to tackle Blake's outfit. I originally wanted to make her dress myself, but one day while I was in kid-to-kid, I noticed they had this Leia dress in her size. I didn't buy it then because I was still determined to make her dress. But some of the patterns for the dress that I was planning on using were very similar to the jedi cloak and I wasn't happy with how that turned out. Plus, by this point it was already Friday afternoon and I was quickly running out of time. I decided to run back to Kid-to-Kid and see if they still had the costume. Luckily, they did. It came with a different Leia hair piece that was quite hideous, so I made this hat for Blake to wear instead. 

I told the kids we couldn't go trick-or-treating until I took some pictures. They were not excited about it, but after enough threats they finally complied...somewhat.  

It was chilly and there was a bit of a breeze, so I tried to take the ones with Austin quickly. She was squirming and became fussy quickly. Fortunately, I got a couple of shots that worked. Afterwards, Lance took the kids trick-or-treating while Austin and I stayed home to pass out candy. 

"The force is strong in my family."

Happy Halloween!