October 2016

What rules during the month of October in the McBride household? Halloween. That's the long and short of it. It was difficult still not being able to drive and pulling costumes together, but you do what you gotta do.
This first picture, though, has nothing to do with Halloween. Jake dropped Tessa and me off at Salvation Army to look for, you guessed it, Halloween costume pieces, but we had to check the frames too. I had a couple pieces of art that needed framing, but I wasn't about to pay full price for big, not so common sized frames. Second hand was at least worth looking at. I, happily, did find what I was looking for -half price day!-, spent a bit of time refurbishing/spray painting/ etc. and finally got those pictures up on the wall. BUT THIS GEM BELOW. I had to take a picture of this particular picture because it was a picture that hung in our family room growing up. We had deer mural wall paper on one wall, a big stone hearth for our standing fireplace in the corner with the wooden louver door next to it, a deer sculpture on a shelf, and this guy on the wall. He is burned into my memories. We would put a red pom pom on his nose for Christmas as we transformed him into Rudolph. His image is as nostalgic as it gets. I didn't buy it since I'm not that sentimental, but a picture was needed.

 Jake, he who knows me so well, bought me a posable skeleton that was on sale. Good man. The box was big enough that we wanted to shove a couple willing kids into it.
Awesome.

 Good on ya, Cole!

 And, drumroll, please.
HALLOWEEN 2016
The Neverland Crew.

 We've got Wendy, Peter, Tiger Lily, Tinker Bell, A Lost Boy, Mr. Smee, and the illustrious Captain James Hook.

What a cool crew. They are still game for themes, and I'll happily take it.
Most of the costumes were online finds (hooray for random little girl costume sales! And Amazon!), but I did have to make Jake's hat and...dum, dum, dummmmm.... Tessa's dress.

 You wouldn't think it would be difficult in this online day and age to find an affordable Wendy dress. It is. I ended up ordering one from China off Ebay that was to be custom made for a great price. Because of the medical stress, I justified that this year, I was leaving it to online retailers instead of myself. The dress took almost a month to get to us, a week before Halloween, and it was awful. So awful. As in, how in the world could a person actually believe it looks like the picture advertised? The bow and sash were decent, but that was the end. The boat neck was so large that it disappeared into poorly made sort-of sleeves. It was gaping up top and strangely fitting through the center. It went a little past her knees and flared significantly. There was no saving it. There wasn't enough material there to work with. I was able to get a partial return and vowed "Never Again" and went to work finding a suitable pattern. I had all the other costumes complete. It was Wendy or bust. And I did it! I was very proud of myself, even if one of the sleeves is sewn on completely inside out. (No one can tell.)
She looked lovely.

 I wasn't sure we could trick Gavin into wearing his hat, but it was a Halloween miracle. He's so formidable as Captain Hook. :)

 Peter Pan.

 My blonde Tiger Lily. We couldn't talk Sadie into being Tiger Lily, even though Paige's blonde hair was meant for Tink, so we're glad Paige is a trooper.
Paige also wore this costume for her preschool party and Trunk or Treat. It's now in our dress up box. I love when costumes get the love they deserve.

 It's our friend, Doc. McStuffins!

 Friends met at our house to go trick or treating on Halloween. We had a lovely night collecting candy together. My mom was so kind to come over, take pictures, and hand out candy to the kids who came to our house.

 Mr. Smee!