Princesses, Spiders, and Pigs! OH MY!

You all know that I usually go all our with themed family costumes each year for Halloween. This year I'm really trying to be a little easier on myself. It's been a really rough couple of months, and I'm trying to get rid of any stress that isn't completely necessary. That mostly means we do everything on a much smaller scale. Honestly, it's pretty hard for me on the front end, but proving to be TOTALLY worth it in the end! Like, seriously, go easy on yourself, friends.
SO, this year, when the dreaded "fall festivals" started to creep up on us I kept trying to think of how we could pull it off in the most simple way. Saturday we got up and I just kept kind of putting it off until after snack when I finally decided we were going to just do a little "what's inside momma's costume box game." I jumped up in the attic(actually I climbed the ladder, but it's always pretty quick because secretly I'm a little worried that one day it's going to fold up with me.) and got the costume box down. This is the box that holds all of the costumes of the past. I really built it up with the kids, so when I brought the box in they were all jumping around excited about what might be inside.
After going through everything the kids each decided what they wanted to be and we went to the not so quick work of getting everyone ready to go.
Here's what they chose.

Smittle Family Halloween 2013.

Eli and I are Charlotte's Web. KK is Wilber.

Flash Back to 2008.

Oh, my hair...Please, look away. Draw your attention to the first Charlotte, Addison, and KK as Wilber for the first time. So you know, Lulu is Fern and Manly is Homer Zuckerman.

My web was a white flat sheet that we painted with puff paint. The spider is just stuffed socks pinned to the carrier.

My Mia Jane as Dorothy. She's just recently realized who Dorothy is and that she had the costume. Now she wears the shoes just about every day. She rocked the ruby slippers.

Brubbs was the, as he says, "scare a crow." These two make such a CUTE team!

 

Flash ALL the way back to 2007. The background, the sweet cheeks, the brown nose. I just love it! We used all the same scarecrow pieces on Brubbs as we did on Manly. Even the same brown paint.

These two had already made up their minds before hand, but even after seeing all the costumes they stayed with their first choice. Lulu was Wendy and Addi was Cinderella.

 

Here's Olivia in 2011 the first time she went as Wendy(Isaiah was Captain Hook).

 

 

Other pics from the fall festival.

The best thing about this season is FREE FOOD! Ha! I seriously make my menu around free food activities whenever possible. Ha! Isaiah ate THREE hotdogs that his sisters decided they didn't want.

Brubbs on his horse ride.

This was Mia's first time on a horse! She loved it. She's gotten so much more outgoing since she's started being a big girl. A few weeks ago she wouldn't have dreamed of doing it!

LOVE this one of all three big girls. You can tell Lulu and KK were giving each other a hard time about each others horses. Such a cute moment captured.

 

Happy Halloween!!

Halloween Family Fun

Halloween can be a great time for family fun! Themed costumes are a great way to bring the family together and get the creative juices flowing. We've done several different themes that have all been fun. This year is a surprise until the big reveal, but here are a few of our other themed years.

2007

One of my all-time favorite years! This was actually the first year we did an official theme. The girls loved the Wizard of Oz, so this was a perfect fit. My costume was part of a real tin man and part of it was spray painted because I was too tall to wear the whole one piece set. I was also pregnant with Addi. 

2008

This was a year that Olivia was obsessed with Charlotte's Web. We decided it would be pretty easy to pull it off for Halloween. Addi and I are Charlotte's web, Scotty is Homer Z, KK is Wilber, and Livi is Fern. It turned out really cute! I wish we had a better picture.

 

2009

This was a crazy year for us. My grandfather was in the hospital and we were in the middle of buying a house, and I was HUGE pregnant. SO, we kept it simple and let the kids do characters from the hundred acre wood. So cute! Look at Addi! So little and CUTE!

 

2010

This year we decided to mix it up a little and go as Disney Pixar characters. Scotty, KK, and I were from Monster's, Inc, and Livi, Addi, and Bubby were from Toy Story.

 

Last year we let the kids go as Random Disney pairs such as Hook and Wendy, but I got NO good pictures of it!

Here's one of them apart from each other.

Manly and I as red riding hood and grandmother. Hysterical!

 

The biggest thing to remember when you are doing themed costumes(or any kind of costumes for that matter) is to go with what you already have around the house. There's no need to buy expensive costumes. Get creative and look around at what you have just lying around. My cape in the picture above was a red sheet we weren't using anymore. I just added a few stitches and red ribbon and it was a cape! Keep it simple and think ahead! Ask the kids for help and always ask them for ideas on a theme. Also, buy costumes at consignment events. I always stock up on things there, and then just use what we can when we can. Everything else goes in the costume box for playing dress-up. Enjoy the fall season as a family!!