Best Halloween Costumes

We love love love Halloween around here. Robbie's birthday is on the 30th so it's the perfect excuse to have a costume party. I would like to share with you some of our best costumes from years past.

Our first big bash was for Robbie's 30th birthday. He dressed up as a pirate and I was a medieval princess. How gorgeous is this dress? The sleeves were my favorite part.

My dress was borrowed from his mom's costume shop at school and was handmade by one of her students. She oversees costume design for all of the school's play productions and has a massive storage room full of costumes. It's so much fun to go there and look through all the stuff which just goes on for rack after rack after rack.  For Robbie's pirate costume he wore his own pants combined with a shirt and accessories borrowed from the costume shop.

I made the pointed hat myself out of a rolled up tube of poster board that I covered in crushed velvet fabric. Then I stuck a yard or so of organza into the little hole at the top of the hat to make the "veil" part. (What do you call that anyway?) I wish I had a tutorial to offer but this was made in the days long before I thought about starting a blog.

 

Yikes....look at that banister. HIDEOUS! This picture was taken before Robbie replaced it with a white banister and wrought iron spindles. Check out this post to see what it looks like now. 

The following year we dressed as a flapper and a gangster. 

We went for store bought costumes that year because we were deeply engrossed in construction of Halloween decorations for the yard. Stay tuned for a post on that later this month! I bought the flapper costume here.

And that wig would be perfect for recycling into a Snow White costume one day. 

Sophie arrived during the next year so for the following Halloween we did family themed costumes. Robbie was Peter Pan, I was Wendy and Sophie was Tinker Bell. 

 Doesn't Sophie make the cutest Tinkerbell ever???

Robbie's mom made his costume, my dress was made by one of her students, and Sophie's costume I believe is no longer made but you can find something similar here. My father in law was Captain Hook, wearing items from the costume shop. (And he would probably object to me putting his picture on here...so I will just skip it!) 

The following year Robbie and I were Gomez and Morticia Addams. I borrowed my dress from a friend and Robbie's suit was store bought. He could not keep that mustache on straight to save his life!

 

The plan was for Sophie to be Wednesday but it's impossible to find a braided wig for a 1 1/2 year old, and I suspect even less likely that she'd wear it. So at the last minute we decided that Sophie would be the Addams Family cat! 

Here she is with the ears:

Later this week I will be featuring Sophie's costume from last year that was a true masterpiece, and entirely handmade by me and her grandmother.

My Halloween costume this year is in progress. I've bought a gray wig, purple sequined fabric, shiny black fabric, wire, stuffing and suction cups. Can anyone guess what I'll be???

Linking to these parties!

Here in Our Corner: 4 months!

 
Baby Audrey (as Sophie calls her) is 4 months old! My, how times flies!

Audrey's little personality is really starting to come out. She coos all the time and has the cutest toothless grin. She's very active with her hands and feet always going. She's also very ticklish and will laugh out loud if you give her a playful poke in the tummy. 

I am very happy to report that she has pretty consistently been sleeping through the night for the past 2 weeks. She typically goes to bed between 8-9 pm and sleeps until 5-6 am.  She's usually cuddled up on her side when I check on her before I go to bed. Definitely a side sleeper!

She started going on walks at day care last week and has really been enjoying it. They have a big 4-seater stroller and the babies look so adorable cruising around in it. Here she is heading out for her first walk. 

I know 3 1/2 months is early to be teething but she's putting everything in her mouth so I think a tooth might be making its appearance sooner rather than later. 

Sophie has been helping me cook a lot recently. We made chocolate chip cookies, a Toll House Pie, strawberry muffins and she helped with dinner several times. 

Sophie has been riding her tricycle a lot recently and is doing great with it. We let her ride through the neighborhood with us last week while we pushed Audrey in the stroller. I love her little red Radio Flyer but she has requested a pink princess bike several times so we've told her Santa Claus might bring her one if she's really really good. 

Sophie's preschool class studied about weather this week and yesterday was snow day. I brought our snow cone machine to her class for a special treat for the kids. It was a big hit!

We enjoyed a girls movie night last weekend with a bedtime showing of Beast and the Beast. Snuggles with my girls are the best. 

 Hope everyone has a great weekend! 

Crocheted Baby Slippers

I made Audrey 3 adorable pairs of newborn crocheted baby slippers during the last few weeks of my pregnancy. 

I don't know what it was, but I was crocheting like crazy the last month before she arrived. I made about a dozen hats for Christmas presents for kids in the family, slippers for Sophie and Audrey, and a hat and cardigan for Audrey. 

The first pair was made with Whistles and Ivy's Little Dot Mary Jane Pattern but I chose to leave the little dot off. 

Instead I embellished it with the most beautiful rhinestone buttons. I've had them forever, and they were the perfect finishing touch. 

  

 The second pair was made with the Flower Slipper pattern.   

I made the third pair with the Cuffed Slipper pattern.  

Yarn used was Caron Simply Soft in soft pink, and Patons Beehive Baby Fingerling in Angel White.

All three were quick projects. I love crocheting things that work up fast. I don't often have the time or patience to make large items like the Ribbons & Ruffles Baby Blanket. 

Sadly, she's already outgrown all three! But I'll always have these adorable little shoes to remind me how tiny her little feet once were. 

Linking to these parties!

Toll House Pie

Is there anything better than warm chocolate chip cookies straight out of the oven? That's what this pie takes like! And it's unbelievably easy to make. 

Audrey was napping on Saturday afternoon so I recruited Sophie to help me bake a pie.

She made me wait until after "Sleeping Beauty" was over. Of course that took precedence. But once we made it to the kitchen we had this pie whipped up and in the oven in less than 10 minutes! 

I measured the ingredients and Sophie poured everything into the bowl. She also volunteered to be the official taste tester of the chocolate chips.

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs, beaten
1 stick melted butter
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips 
9" Pie shell

 

I can sum the directions up in two sentences: Mix all ingredients together and pour into pie shell. Bake 40-45 minutes at 350 degrees. It doesn't get any easier than that!

Personally I think the pie tastes best served warm and gooey. With ice cream! But Robbie actually prefers it cold from the fridge.

Try it both ways and see what you like best!

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Big Sister-Little Sister Dresses

This was the first dress I made for Audrey before she was born. I used the free 0-3 month Peasant Dress pattern and tutorial available at Sew Much Ado.


I loved the way it turned out so much (plus it was soooo quick and easy to sew!) that I bought the full PDF pattern which includes sizes from 0-3 months though 6 years so I could make one for Sophie too. The pattern has options as well for a scalloped bottom and for making it as a blouse vs. dress.  I have a feeling this is a pattern I will use over and over again. 

I just took pictures of the girls wearing their matching dresses last week. Look at these little sweeties!

I always swore that I would never dress them alike, but after finding such a cute pattern for Audrey I thought it was only fair that Sophie have one too! And I was in love with the fabric way too much to make hers with anything different. 

The fabric I used is Ice Cream Social in Pink from the Riley Blake Go Fly a Kite line by October Afternoon. I bought this fabric quite awhile ago and have been saving it for something special. Unfortunately it is sold out pretty much everywhere now. Sniff! I want more of it!

The dress has coral colored ric-rac peeking out from the hem. Love!

 

And of course I had to make matching bloomers for Audrey using The Perfect Diaper Cover by Made. I've used that pattern many, many times because all little girl's dresses should have matching bloomers, right?

I can't get enough of Audrey's little open-mouthed look in the picture on the right. This is her signature expression for the moment.

And Sophie looked pretty as a princess, as always.   

Go out and get yourself on one these patterns ASAP! 

Linking to these parties!

Here in Our Corner

I tried to do a photo shoot of the girls in the backyard last week which didn't go as planned. I had to bribe Sophie with ice cream to get her to cooperate at all but once in the chair it was nearly impossible to get her to look at the camera. Audrey had moments of happiness mixed with moments of fussiness. If you click through all the pictures in succession it's almost comical to see. But at least I got a few good shots. 

I made these dresses and will share the details in an upcoming post. 

The girls are doing very well in school. Audrey seems really happy, takes good naps and has been drinking all her bottles. Here is a sweet picture of her looking at the family pictures that decorate her crib at school.

Sophie is enjoying being back with her favorite teacher Ms. Ashlee and has a cozy class of only 8 students. They are practicing learning to write by tracing letters and I have been incredibly impressed with what she can do. Here is an "A" she did all by herself.

I've been busy (as always) editing mounds of pictures that have been piling up for the last 3 months. I take pictures almost every day but simply never had the time to get to editing everything before now. Audrey's already changed so much and is getting so big! Here she is at 3 months.

She has discovered her feet and they are FASCINATING! I swear she can hold onto them and play with her toes for 30 minutes straight!

Sophie is such a great big sister and loves to hold Audrey!  

  

Sophie has expressed some interest in learning to sew which I am really excited about. I found her sitting at my sewing machine the other day and she said, "Mama, I want to help you!" I need to find a simple project I can get her to help me with. 

Hope everyone is having a good week!