Open Door Trunk or Treat

I picked up some free coveralls to join the costume fun.  A couple of "grease" smears, a custom vinyl patch and I was a mechanic for parker's tire.  We hit up our old church for their trunk or treat yesterday afternoon.  Jimmy's parents live nearby and joined us as well.

Grandpa and Grandma Herrmann had some big bags of candy to share with them as well.  We have plenty of goodies to go around and it's not even Halloween yet!

Great Grandma Bette's Visit

My grandma and Larry came up for a visit for the first time in a while to meet Jaxxon and Jameson.  We had dinner at my parent's Friday night to welcome them.  Grandma was helping feed the boys when we arrived.

Parker and Esme enjoyed a dip in the hot tub while chatting.

They came for lunch and a tour of our house on Saturday.  She thought the swings in the basement were pretty cool.

Then on Sunday, we gathered for a big Thanksgiving style meal.

We took some family pictures in the front yard since we were all together.  Parker wasn't feeling the greatest and it showed on his face.  He's also been a little hit or miss with picture smiling lately.

We broke out the shirts I made this summer as well to get some snaps with all of us.  It was so nice to spend some extra time with Grandma this fall.

Cornerstone Trunk or Treat

Our church hosted a trunk or treat event yesterday.  I decided not to decorate a trunk this year because it's been a pretty busy fall in other areas. I hope to get my act together to participate again next year.  Esme's costume was finished off with Pascal, Rapunzel's chameleon sidekick.  We got there right at the start and there was already slim parking and huge line.  The warm and clear weather helped to have record numbers, over 1500 people and over 30,000 pieces of candy given out.

It had a carnival theme and our lead pastor, Jeremy, was the mime.  Jimmy said that would be his go to costume in the future so he didn't have to talk.  Lucy was helping with "traffic" control and I couldn't pass up the picture opportunity.

We hit up a couple trunks with short lines, but Parker really wanted to get to the inflatables.

The tire wasn't going to work while jumping.  Parker had so much fun!

Jimmy's biggest win of the afternoon was finding fun size peanut butter M&Ms!

Thanks for another great event Cornerstone family!

The Making of the Costumes

Halloween is just around the corner and I got an early start on costumes this year.  After several different ideas, I made Esme chose one on October 1st.  She settled on Rapunzel and I got to work.  Making a dress completely from scratch seemed a bit daunting, so I hit up the thrift store to see if I could find something to work with.  I nabbed this adorable pink princess dress and knew I could make it work.  I started by removing all of the lace and gold trim as well as the bottom part of the sleeves.

Here is the inspiration picture for reference.  I took the rest of the dress and the lace and dyed them purple.  I then reattached the sleeves and added the purple lace detail to the skirt.  I finished it with some white lace that was actually from my mom's wedding veil (don't worry, she approved!)

 The 40" blond wig arrived and I prepped it with a braid and some faux flowers.  The finishing touch was adding the ribbon details to the shoulders and bodice.  It's a pretty snug fit, but it's looking like things will be warm enough to go without a coat.

Next up was Parker.  I had a few ideas for him this year.  I even ordered a lazy susan to make something from, but it was not the smooth rotation I really wanted to execute my idea.  My back-up idea was a tire. I know, you're thinking the same thing Jimmy did when I mentioned it, "that sounds pretty silly."  But, Parker always been interested in spinning things and that's been expressed with tires most recently.  He loves to tap on tires in parking lots (even when discouraged) and watches then closely whenever he can.  I started with a pool noodle frame that was reinforced with cardboard.  I covered the whole thing in black felt.  For the sides, I added vinyl to mimic BFGoodrich text and painted some silver wheels.

For the tread, I picked up a cheap yoga mat at Five Below and hand cut out each of the pieces and hot glued them on.

Parker was loving every moment of the process and was so excited once it was finished.  I know he's going to have fun playing with this once Halloween is over, just like he did with the washing machine.

We've got a couple trunk or treat events we plan to attend, so it will get plenty of use.