Halloween Parties

Halloween is such a fun holiday. I made it easy on myself this year, and didn't sew any of the kid's costumes.

I always take the kids out to visit my 98 year old and home bound Grandma. I like to call her the energizer bunny. She has had a couple of heart attacks, but she has just bounced back and keeps on going. She looked great yesterday. She was as sharp as ever. She's the only 98 year old I know who you can sit and talk sports. She keeps up with the Jazz, and BYU football. She can remember everything, She probably has a better memory than me. She also knows whats going on with current events, and keeps her mind very active by reading a lot. Here are some photos of her with the kids.

A good example of how responsible my oldest child is. I told Kate that she could bring her doll out to visit my grandma. As I looked back I saw this. She had seat belted her doll into the van. She is so sweet!

We also had a party last week with my parents and my brother's family. We ate sloppy Joe's, and roasted masrshmellows. My Dad told the kids a Halloween story around the fire. It was fun to get together. This is a photo of Kate and her cousin Alexandra.

Last night Dan and I attended a costume party. I love dressing up for Halloween, but usually I get so focused on the kid's costumes, that I end up just throwing something together at last minute for Dan and I. Example a few years ago Dan was a skier, and I often go as a cat. But this year I was determined to come up with a fun costume to coordinate with Dan's. We decided to go with Harry Potter since the new movie is coming out in a few weeks. We may even dress up for the movie just for fun. So here is my costume.

Going as Ginny seemed like the obvious choice because of my hair color. It was very convenient not to worry about a wig. The costume was easy to get together I already had a white shirt, gray sweater, and black skirt. I just had to make the cloak, and tie, and wand.

We found an old graduation gown for Dan's cloak. We already had the white shirt, and pants, and we borrowed some glasses from his parents. They were extremely cheap costumes. I bought the ties at DI for $2.00. I had some gold spray paint and I spray painted the stripes onto the ties. I made the wands out of paper and hot glue, and paint. They were so much fun to make. You roll up the paper from corner to corner, and tape it. Then fill in the hollow ends with hot glue. Then add detail to handle and tip with more hot glue. Then paint. I used black, white, and gold paint because that's what I had on hand, but I've seen some really cool brown ones online. No one could believe that I just made them out of paper.

Here is a ultra up close one I took by holding the camera in front of both of us. Dan had already taken off his tie and glasses, but you can see his lip gloss scar on his forehead! I'll get a picture of him in his full costume tonight. He's going to be taking the kids trick or treating, and I think he'll dress up again. This theme was so much fun to do, that I'm tempted to do a Hermione and harry costume for Kate and Kirk next year. I think they would look so adorable in little ties, and cloaks. Plus I think they would be all about the wands.