Sunday, November 2, 2008

Halloween!


Hi All,

Yes, the blog was on sabbatical for nearly 3 months! Whew how time flies when I'm away from the blog! I really do love to blog - mostly to be able to remember these precious memories in months and years to come. As I was organizing my photos tonight I was realizing that there have been quite a few photo-worthy occurances that have transpired that haven't gotten mention on the blog - due to my attempt over the summer to 'catch up' on what had happened in the past. Meanwhile the present kept charging forward - getting me further and further behind. So I'll just start today in the present and maybe someday I'll catch you up on all the stuff I missed! Yesterday was Halloween! The kiddos were looking SO forward to Halloween. They've always loved to dress up. Even within the few photos that we received from their foster home in Colombia, at least 6 or so are pictures of them dressed up for Halloween. They did celebrate Halloween in Colombia, but it was much more subdued of a holiday. They would dress up and either go to a Halloween party hosted by the Child Welfare Institute OR they would go trick-or-treating at neighborhood stores. They did NOT trick-or-treat at homes - nobody did. They said the amount of candy they got from stores only added up to a few pieces.

They loved carving pumpkins and Juancho carved his own ('Howling Wolves') from start to finish! Laura and I collaborated together on her "Scooby Doo" themed pumpkin and all Angie did to assist with her pumpkin was to pick out the pattern ("Kitty Cat"). We washed and dried pumpkin seeds (well actually friend Kim did that) and though we haven't toasted them yet, we plan to by the end of this week. Leading up to Halloween Juancho never wavered in his decision and desire to be Harry Potter. Laura, on the other hand, changed her mind daily - sometimes more than once a day! It varied between Cinderella, Ariel the Mermaid, Sleeping Beauty and occasionally something a little more random like Hannah Montana or one of the girls from High School Musical. Never did I hear mention of a desire to be Hermione Granger (from Harry Potter). That is until I told her she needed to make a final decision because I was going to start picking up items to use for their costumes (I had decided NOT to buy any pre-made costumes this year b/c finances were tight and $30 for a chintzy costume is a tough bill to rationalize). Suddenly she wanted to be Hermione Granger. At first I thought it would be hard to put together a costume that worked, but once I got going with it, it was a breeze!

For both Harry Potter and Hermione I picked up some REALLY cheap black fabric at Wal-Mart to make their cloaks with. I sewed their cloaks in 45 minutes with no pattern. I made it up as I went along and it turned out well. Granted, looking at the cloaks in the light there are definitely uneven seams and some shoddy 'quick fix' elements, but they worked perfect to complete their costumes and the imperfections were not noticeable in the dark. John and Laura colored Hogwarts crests that I printed out from the Internet to staple to their cloak to make it look official. I found some old wire framed sunglasses and punched the lenses out for Juancho to use as Harry's glasses. Juancho has liked them so much he wore them most of today as well, even though he was not in costume! Juancho wore his own gray sweater and black pants, and carried a stick turned into a wand. I drew the infamous lightening scar on his forward with eyeliner. For Laura I curled her hair and we sprayed it with gold sparkle to make it really shine! She work a black shirt and shirt along with her cloak and also carried a wand. Finally, Angie's costume was easiest of all! It was a full suit penguin costume that had come in a bag of 'hand-me-down' clothes someone gave us before the kids even came home from Colombia. All 3 kids have put it on over the year as they've played dress up...and up until the last few days before Halloween Angie was torn between being Cinderella or the Penguin. I'm so glad the penguin won out - it was super cute on her! We went trick or treating in our neighborhood and in an adjacent neighborhood and even though we only hit about 25 houses, the kids were struggling to carry their bags home, they were so loaded with candy! Now I am keeping the candy up high to deter kids that may be tempted to sneak a candy or two (or ten!). They are rationed out in small quantities - at this rate we'll just be finishing candy in time for Halloween next year! :)

Better load some pics now - even though tonight is 'fall back' on time - that extra hour won't even make a dent in my sleep deprivation!

Love you all!