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With Grams (my mom) being in town, we had a very busy day planned.  So once Jillian woke up from her morning nap we were off to music class.Of course we made their costumes this year.  Joshua is very sweet about it.  He does an amazing job with the costumes.  He has such an amazing mind to design the costumes. Wesley was so excited to go and show off his costume, a Tyrannosaurus Rex that Joshua created - which is one of his favorite animals right now.  And Jillian went as a black cat - her favorite animal to date.  It was pretty simple to make.  I just found a black body suit and then made a tail and ears using black fleece.  It really looked darling on her.

Heading to class.

Getting some window washing in before class starts.

All the kids in costume - and Becca too.

Playing around before we left...Cats are sure yummy!

Then after music class we went to Joshua’s work (Tel West) to do some trick or treating.  Joshua took with him a bag of candy and passed it out to his coworkers so the kids could get some treats.  Jillian was a bit unsure of what to do.  She saw Wesley run off and say “trick or treat” but she stayed back and just watched for a while.

Wesley just wanted to eat candy!

Both with a mouth full of candy.

She was the sucker queen today.

After a busy morning, we went home and had lunch and spent the rest of the afternoon resting up for the big event.

We walked down to the library at about 6pm to meet our friends/Joshua’s co-workers to trick or treat as a group.

Getting a ride to the library.

We spent some time taking pictures of all of the kids before we headed out…

They were all very excited!

We are ready......

Just before we left.

The first full block (the blocks here are very big - as you know everything is bigger in Texas) was a bust.  There were no porch lights on.  But after that, it really started to be more exciting for the kids.  Wesley kept up with the big kids very well.  He did a lot of running - and also a lot of falling down.

Next house please.

Jillian stayed up the whole night.  She did a fair amount of trick or treating herself.  She was so cute - she would put her hand out or in the bowl, plop the candy in her bucket and say “Ganck You” then head down the driveway.  About halfway into it she had a lot candy in her bucket.  We put her in the stroller and snapped the bucket in too.  She would not let go.  While Wesley and the others finished the houses, she tried very hard to get into every piece of candy in her bucket.  She was successful with a package of Whoppers and a sucker.  Everything in her bucket was very sticky at the end of the night.

I think I like this bucket!

It was a great night.  Once we were done trick or treating we took the head off of Wesley’s costume.  He was just dripping with sweat.  I guess this costume would have been much better in the Northwest…  But he did not complain at all.

Super sweaty!!!!

Once we got home, at about 8:30, it took a long time for the kids to wind down.  There was a lot of screaming and tantrums, but with the amount of fun they had - it made that terrible hour a bit better.

We are looking forward to next year.  I wonder what we will create for them next year.

You sort of get what you deserve when you ask a 2 1/2 year old what they want to be for Halloween.  In my case, Wesley said “Tyrannosaurus”.  Good.  I was afraid he’d say something easy like a ghost.  How do you make a T-Rex costume?  Well, here is how I did it.

Wesley in his T-Rex costume.

We started with the body which Amber found at the thrift store.  It wouldn’t be hard to sew one yourself if 1) you knew how to sew and 2) you owned a sewing machine.  Neither of these apply to me.  From there we glued two blocks of Styrofoam together to make the snout.  Something I hadn’t considered is that the propellant in the spray glue would dissolve the Styrofoam.  As you’ll see later everything is covered in tape so I could apply more spray glue and to ensure the two blocks would not pull apart.

Blocks of styrofoam glued together.

Once the blocks were together I began the process of cutting and sanding them to the shape I wanted.  I was just making the top jaw to which I would attach the teeth and eyes.  I decided the best thing to do was mount this to his bike helmet which would form the rest of head and give us a nice secure way to put it on him.  I cut a docking point for the helmet as well.

Carved foam with area for helmet.

Carved out nose/snout.

I had originally planned to make the eyes out of Styrofoam as well.  But the glue melted my eyes to the point where they were not usable.  So, out came a big old sponge (which we actually used as a form for the spider costume from last year).  I attached it with staples and tape.  Then the whole thing got covered with tape to protect the Styrofoam from the glue I’d used to attach the fabric.

Eyes attached and covered in tape.

Once it was all taped up I attached the helmet using a couple of nylon ties.  It needed to be strong, but not hurt the helmet which will go back to its usual job of preventing brain damage this weekend.  I covered the snout with spray glue a small area at a time and applied the fabric, stretching and pushing it into the grooves I had carved.

Helmet attached and ready to go.

We added some pink felt for the mouth (Wesley calls it the tongue) and used stiff felt for teeth.  The felt is best attached with hot-glue.  We trimmed up the fabric, leaving it long in the back so that it could be tucked into his costume and act as the dinosaurs neck.  We added a few green spots to match his body, glued on some eyes and nostrils and it was ready to go.

The finished head.

The costume was a great success.  Wesley loved it and told me thank you several times for making it.  He loved “eating” things with his T-Rex teeth.  I’m glad they were soft and flexible.  By the end of the night they were all pushed out at different angle and I was calling him snaggletooth-rex.

The costume is a hit!

You may catch more flies with honey, but you catch more little boys dressed as spiders by handing out free candy. It didn’t take Wesley more than one house to realize that this was the best day ever. By the second house he was trying to go inside. If they give out candy at the door imagine what they have stashed away in the living room.

We only went around one block and it went pretty well. It is a little different here than in Washington. The weather is so warm (it is 10p here and still 69F) that a lot of folks sit around on their porch, driveway or lawn and hand out candy. Wesley was a little intimated by them if there were more than a few especially if they were in costume.

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This year for Halloween we decided that Wesley was going to be a spider (I couldn’t figure out how to make a snowman without a sewing machine) and that Jillian would then be a fly. A nice little theme. In the spirit, but not gruesome.

Here is the step-by-step for the costume creation starting with the spider.

We decided early on that Wesley would have eight legs total. His own two arms, his own two legs and four extras. I wanted Wesley to be the spider, not be wearing a spider. I mounted the legs, made out of pipe insulation, to cardboard with nylon ties.

Next we created the body parts using a can of expanding foam insulation. It is light, cheap, and can be made any shape you want. It cures in about an hour (longer if you make it as deep as we did). It puffs as it dries and sticks to darn near anything. I wore latex gloves and safety glasses. The thorax was sprayed directly over the legs and the abdomen was sprayed onto a paper bag and then placed over a sponge to give it a curve and make it look fuller. I ran out of foam and could have used more, but it turned out okay.

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