Happy Halloween!

***In case you're checking back, I finally had time to add commentary to this post.***

From my camera:

Getting ready to go. Aiden had been pretty willing to try on his costume while I was making them, but I was a little concerned Reid would be a hold-out. When we told him wearing a costume was the only way to get candy, he was eager to comply. Here the boys are putting little flashlights in the bottom of their pumpkin buckets.

Trying to get a picture with the seamstress:

Our first stop was to the neighbors across the street. They love the boys and were sure to tell us to stop over when the boys and I arrived home from school that afternoon. They had their door open as we approached their house, so I quickly hollered that they better close their door because Reid would want to push the ding-dong.

Reid pushing the ding-dong with a lift from Eric. We were very fortunate that Eric was able to get both Oct 31st and Nov 1st off so he could be home for Halloween this year. On the flip side, it looks like we'll only have him home Monday-Wednesday of Thanksgiving week. We'll take the small victories we can get.

Reid was very confident in his Trick or Treating skills until he actually had to put them into action. He sprinted back to Eric when our neighbors opened the door.

With a little encouragement from Eric and the enticement of candy, Reid was ready to go.

Mission complete!

Walking with Mommy. Anytime I wandered  into the street, Reid told me to get back up on the sidewalk. Very much the rule-follower/ routine-follower when he wants to be.

We finally arrived at Grandma's house!

Some costume close-ups. With some ideas from my favorite site, Pinterest (which has been described as fantasy football for women), I was fairly confident in how I was going to make the tops of the costumes.

I bought extra pants to fashion tails, but up until Oct 30th, I still wasn't quite sure how I was going to do that. When Reid ended up getting sick and I stayed home from school, inspiration struck. My biggest dilemma had been trying to figure out how to keep the tails around their waists. Then I realized I should just cut off one leg, keep the waistband, and use the other leg to make the tail. You'll notice I kept the cargo pocket from the pants leg. I tried taking them off, but the material was too cheap and I ended up with holes where the corners of the pockets had been.

Lisa, from book club:

Once we arrived home, Aiden played Power Ranger with all of the visiting Trick or Treaters. They were a little confused why this little dinosaur was running around our front yard and pointing his finger at them, but they were resilient enough to make it to our front door. Power Ranger! Pew!

Reid went back to pushing the ding-dong at our house:

Reid spotted the moon and pointed it out to Eric:

From my phone:

Making the spikes, from two equilateral triangles:

Added interfacing to reinforce the spikes:

Sewed down the middle of the spikes:

Aiden, quality control:

Folded the triangles together and sewed around the outside:

Monday evening, Aiden was more than willing to try on the top:

Reid wanted none of it, but did give us a good dinosaur roar:

Profile view:

Sewing the spikes:

Aiden:

One of the tails:

Aiden helping me with stuffing:

Seamstress in action:

Aiden helping me line up the pumpkins:

Happy Halloween, Gwanma!

(Be sure to look at the previous post for Pre-Halloween photos.)