Little Black Cat-Dragon

This is what Kate came up with for Halloween this year--a cat-dragon. We got her a black hoodie and I picked up some black fleece and pink satin a while ago, but I've been so busy painting that I haven't been able to work on it much. I found some time this week to squeeze in working on the ears and spikes, and then today I did a rush job on the wings and tail and got it all finished. The ears turned out more like horse ears than cat ears, but she looks pretty cute!



I just made straps on the wings to connect them to the arms, rather than stitching along the whole sleeve. (I was in a hurry!)



Doug took her down to Michaels this afternoon for a bag-decorating and face-painting activity.  (Cute bag--Doug said he and Kate worked on it together.)

We had some pretty heavy wind and rain earlier today, but by evening it had let up a bit, so Doug and I threw on our hanboks (and put the green dragon cape on Andy) and we went down to the trunk-or-treat at the church.  (It's at 6:00.  They say if you get there at 6:15 all the candy is gone.)  Then Doug took Kate out around the neighborhood while I stayed home with Andy.  He might be coming down with something so we didn't want to stress his immune system.  They were out for quite a while so they must have had a good time, rain and all!

Happy Halloween!

Cat-o'-Lantern

I keep seeing these really cool pumpkins that people carve, where they leave a thin layer and the light shines through.  I tried it, didn't work so well.  The carving part wasn't so bad, but when we put a candle inside it didn't really show.  Perhaps people are using stronger lights?

I ended up using one of my Speedball lino carving tips to take away the rind.  I was trying to get by without it, since I had a set before that rusted after being used on some potatoes, but I cleaned it well afterwards and we'll see if it pulls through.



Doug wore his Ravenclaw robe to classes.  Kate and Andy wore their dragon costumes (again), but we didn't get a picture because Kate wasn't ready when it was time to leave for the church Trunk-or-Treat.

We had a very rainy week, but it fortunately stopped before trick-or-treating time.  We still only had three groups stop by this year, and two of them were neighbors.  I know we had more than that last year. 

Vi Hart Costume

For Halloween Kate decided to be Vi Hart, mathemusician and maker of cool videos.  We're familiar with Vi's voice (and hands) from her videos, but I had to go through some online photos to find that definitive Vi Hart look--sleeveless top and arm warmers, hair pulled back with a feather in it.  We added snakes and a hexaflexagon for video-reference accessories. 



The morning of Wear-Your-Costume-to-School day, Friday the 25th.



When Halloween came and I put Andy in his dragon costume, Kate wanted to wear hers too. So we had two little dragons trick-or-treating again.



Heading to Trunk-or-Treat at the church.



We hit a couple of streets over by a friend's house, and then headed back home where we caught the tail end of the trick-or-treaters on our street (mostly teenagers by that point). The kids had a good time.  Maybe next year we'll have things together enough to do some pumpkins and decorations. 

Pin the Thingy on the Wossname

We had a joint Halloween party at church with the other ward that meets in our building. It's been a few years since we've had a Halloween party at all, so this was pretty exciting. Our Primary was in charge of the "pin the [variable] on the [variable]" booth, and I got to put the games together. (Linda found the ideas online.) I was also finishing up the vest for Kate's Bulborb costume (and having minor problems with the sewing machine), so it ended up being a really busy day. I had so many things I was getting together that I completely forgot to put Andy's costume on him as we were heading out the door.  He didn't seem to notice.



We had Pin the Tail on the Cat, Pin the Spider on the Web, Pin the Mouth on the Bat, and Pin the Nose on the Jack-o-Lantern. We had a lot of kids come through (some more than once). I helped out so we could have a couple going at the same time. (Pin with efficiency! Now with more blindfolds!) The spider was probably the most popular. Everyone wanted to try that one.



Kate tries out the spider...



...and the bat.



Molly Beecher is a fan of spiders. (She has a pet tarantula!)

With two wards it was really busy and crowded (and took forever to stand in line for dinner. They had hotdogs and treats for everybody, and I found some yummy vegetable soup that I could eat). Andy was a bit overwhelmed so Doug ended up taking him home early, but Kate had a great time.

Bulborb Kate

There's a Family Circus comic where Billy says to his Mom, "I forgot to tell you--I need an asparagus costume for the play tomorrow." This year for Halloween Kate decided she wanted to be a Bulborb. Fortunately she told me this in plenty of time for me to make her a costume.



I crocheted a hat to match her two Bulborb toys, and got some felt to make a vest.



When it was time to get pictures, of course we had to include Big Gulp and Little Gulp.







Can you tell she loves her costume? And now she has a cool hat for winter, too!

Trick-or-Treat Dragons

Doug wore his doublet and hose to class in the morning. Doesn't he look dashing?



Doug made everything here except the swords and stockings (and shoes). He says I should point out that he did not wear the swords to school.

 

*Snicker*

What with one thing and another (I've been kind of preoccupied painting) I hadn't picked up a pumpkin yet, and Kate really wanted one, so I went out after school to see what I could find.   What I found was that when you leave your pumpkin-shopping for the last minute, all the reasonably-sized pumpkins are taken, and you're left with a twenty-eight pounder.  Which I'm pretty sure weighs more than Andy. 



Kate drew the face.  I ended up making the features a little bigger, to fit the size of the pumpkin, but it was  her design.  She wanted a vampire pumpkin.




The kids wore their dragon costumes (again).  That's our go-to costume around here.  Kate came up with something else about a week ago where she was walking around with a box on her head, saying, "Greetings!  I am X398 from Ju-pi-ter.  If you co-operate with my words you can be one of my minions."  After I burst out laughing and told her I didn't want to be one of her minions, I convinced her that walking around in the dark with a box on her head probably wasn't a good idea.



Admiring the pumpkin.







We took the kids trick-or-treating over by Kate's school. Doug grabbed a Santa hat on the way out and said he was a Seasonally-Challenged Individual.



Andy thought we were going visiting and kept trying to run into people's houses (Doug had to hang onto him at every door).  Everyone was really friendly.  At one house I got into a conversation with the lady when I told her I liked her door--she started telling me all about how she'd lived in that house for 39 years and how much they liked the neighborhood.  I asked her if Kate could get a drink, since she'd been complaining about being thirsty, and she gave us a bottle of water.  (Then she asked Kate, "What year are you in school?" and Kate said, "Two thousand eleven.")



Almost all the houses had some kind of decoration.  It looked like the whole neighborhood really got into it.



We had a good time and got the kids home by 7:30!   Now we make the candy last until Christmas.

Kate's pumpkin

Kate's field trip pumpkin is now a jack o' lantern! She drew the face
and I carved it.






The inside needs a little more scraping out....




Kate shows off what her jack 'o lantern can do!



All lit up! (It's a lot more symmetrical than last year's.)

You may notice some letter stickers in that last photo. Kate thought her pumpkin needed some additional adornment.

Jack o' (late) Lanterns

We once again did not make it to a pumpkin patch, but I did go to Tacoma Boys and get two little pumpkins for Kate and Andy. We were so busy on the 30th and 31st that we just ran out of time, but I'd told Kate we were going to carve them (she seemed very interested in the idea of cutting holes in the pumpkins to make faces--apparently she didn't remember our previous pumpkin carving experience two years ago). So we went ahead and did it on November 1st. (Now see, you never would have known if I hadn't just admitted it in public.)



We bundled Andy up and took his travel crib outside, so he could watch the proceedings. He thought this was very cool. (Doug was on camera duty, and he didn't think he could hold Andy and take pictures at the same time. Having done this, I would have to agree that it is kind of tricky.)




Kate drew the face on her pumpkin. I believe this was her first experience using a writing utensil on a vegetable. (Okay, actually a fruit.)




I added centers to the eyes, but everything else is just the way Kate drew it.





Kate drew on Andy's pumpkin too, but she ended up with something that I couldn't really carve, so I just improvised.



Ta da!