Twas the weekend before Halloween

It’s beginning to look a lot like Halloween! Tuesday the little boys and I went to a pumpkin patch with some of the other kids from church. There was a little wagon train ride that, for some unknown reason, J refused to get on with out me; you’ll love that picture. Anyway we didn’t stay long because it was freezing cold and not just for us wimpy ex-Californians.

We went to M’s campus to the Museum of Geology’s annual Halloween event. I love the old Museum. It is this classic 1940-50s exhibit hall, very nostalgic and not so in your face and gadgety-amusment-park-ish as so many of today’s museums are. Anyway, the university geology students really go all out on their costumes and have educational activities that the kids can do to earn a trick or treat. I always love to meet people who have a real passion for something. The guy who was enthusiastically explaining Pangaea - the Supercontinent! to my 3 year old, really made my day. S wanted to go back to the Mineral Matching table a couple of times; she’s definitely inherited my mom's side of the family's rock hound genes.

The kids dressed up, of course, for the museum party. S surprised me and after weeks of deliberation and switching/combining costume ideas, she chose to wear the big pumpkin costume I made for her 2 years ago.

J was a pirate. This year I decided on a no-commercial-patterns policy for costumes; just winging it makes the whole process more fun and induces a greater creative buzz. I took one of M’s white dress shirts that had worn out elbows and snipped, gathered, and refashioned in an exhilarating flurry of spontaneity until we had a smashing pirate shirt; sized 3T. He was also sporting a vest, hat and sash of my own design, mostly out of leftovers from other projects. He got lots of complements, but he is such a cute guy no matter what he wears.

I decided I wanted to dress AJ up like a little frog. He already had a green hooded jacket on to which I sewed some big googly eyes.  I have half of the froggy flippers made up, but not finished in time for the museum. Stay tuned for pics of those next week; they’ll be great for the upcoming church Trunk Or Treat.

I don’t think M and I are going to dress up this year, but I saw these awesome fake eyelashes made of feathers that I’d really like to try out. If anyone can think of a costume that requires feather eyelashes (and preferably shocking blue hair), please, let me know! Until then, Happy Haunting to all and to all a spooky night.