Halloween: GO stick FIGURE

I love that my girls are still interested in doing family costumes.  This year I thought for sure that we would be doing Trolls.  I had already planned a King Gristle costume for Jake.  But as October rolled around the girls decided that they wanted to do something "scary".  So I looked online and came across EL Wire.  I have been wanting to use it for a few years now.  "Electroluminescent wire (often abbreviated as EL wire) is a thin copper wire coated in a phosphor which glows when an alternating current is applied to it."  I decided it would be fun to be stick figures.  The girls LOVED that idea!

I went to Kohls and found black hoodies for all the kids.  I bought a TON of safety pins.  I spent several nights safety pinning EL wire into designs on all our outfits.  It was a lot of work, but turned out to not be that expensive.  But man my fingers and wrists were sore from all those silly safety pins.

We went to the ward Halloween party.  When I made the costumes I thought it would be fun to make them all a little different.  I added a bow tie to Jake's white design.  Berlyn got orange glasses.  All 4 little got skirts in their name colors.  The older girls wore their rainbow fiber optic pigtails.  Skye has a little tiny baby curl on top of her head.  And I put a pink hair flip on the side of my head where my pink hair is.

We had a dance party.  The funny part was when we were dancing we didn't have music!  haha!  I told everyone to just dance and I would add music to it later on youtube!  The poor little YW I had recording our dance party must have thought we were crazy!  haha!  

I was excited for the outdoor trunk or treat cause we would have looked amazing.  Unfortunately it rained that day so we had to do our trunk or treat inside.  Bummer!  But still fun.  The YW were in charge of the party, so I put together the invite.  The girls wanted to wear makeup to be "scawee."  I debated about it, but decided what the heck.  They never get to wear makeup.  I found this cool eyeliner that looks like a sharpie marker.  The girls thought it was so fun to have cat eyes and black lips.  I just used the eyeliner on their lips so it would stay on better than lipstick.  The funny part was that the liner lasted like 2 showers, so they looked all emo for the next 2 days.  My favorite was the picture of the older girls on the way home from the party, they were so tired watching a movie - like little zombies.

On Halloween the Furnesses came over for dinner and trick or treating.  The weather wasn't too bad so we decided to take Skye out with us.  Berlyn manned the door while the rest of us bundled up for the cold.  We don't get a lot of trick or treaters in our neighborhood so people usually give out little gift bags full of treats and toys.  This year we gave out toys from oriental trading that I bought for a sugar-free Halloween.  I was glad that the kids were excited to get the toys.  After the girls were done I took our costumes and hung them on the railing in the upstairs hallway.  I put them on flashing mode.  It looked really cool from outside.  The girls had fun passing out candy.  There were a few times I had to remind them to come inside and wait for people, instead of yelling out the door harassing passerbyers.  haha!  After the girls were in bed Berlyn helped me divide up the candy.  I split it into different bags: cheap candy the girls like, good chocolate candy that are "taxed", and the "nut sack" filled with allergy candy for Berlyn and Jake to keep away from the rest of us.

The week of Halloween the girls were allowed to wear costumes to ballet.  I didn't want them to play in their EL wire before we went trick or treating.  So I let them pick whatever costume they wanted.  They both wanted to be rainbows together.  Since it was actually Halloween that day I wore my big spider on my head and I found a Halloween baby scrub shirt for Skye in our baby clothes.

Scarlett wanted to be a peacock for ballet.  Her teacher let the girls come up with their own dance to a Halloween song, then at the end of class they performed it for us.

Here's the dance:

Scarlett was allowed to wear a costume to school.  I didn't think the EL wire would fare well on the playground so I asked her what she wanted to be.  I told her she could be any of our costumes or even dress as her teacher.  She loved that idea.  At pickup after school the teachers wear a safety vest, a name lanyard, a radio, and her teacher often wears a top knot. Jake had a safety vest that I pinned up for Scarlett and sent her to school as her teacher.  I got an email that morning from her teacher: "Scarlett's costume made my day!!!  I love it, so funny!!!  Students like Scarlett make my job easy and rewarding. Thank you for sharing your daughter with me this year."

Several of my friends teach Zumba.  They throw a big Halloween Zumba party every year.  People are encouraged to come dressed in costume for the gueling 90 minutes of dance aerobics.  I thought it would be funny to come dressed as my friend Summer, the Zumba instructor.  She was dressed as Snow White (the instructors were all Disney Princesses).  She LOVED my costume.  Jake made me check with her husband (our bishop) before the party to make sure she would think it was funny and it wouldn't hurt her feelings.  I hung out during the party with girls from my YWs.  It was long and sooo sweaty!  Especially with that long black wig!  But so much fun.  Each instructor did a few songs, it was interesting to see how different they all teach.  My friends are dressed as Snow White, Cinderella and Merida.  After one of them told me that I've got real moves.  haha!  I'm glad that's what they were thinking, cause I felt like a sweaty, red-faced, winded goofball!  They had a costume contest and I won for most creative!!!!  You bet that trophy's coming out every Halloween.  After the party I drove home, switched into normal, less-sweaty clothes then grabbed Berlyn and we went to Applebee's for a late-night snack with my Zumba friends.  It was a fun night!  I'm already thinking about what I'll wear next year ;-)

A few weeks after Halloween Jaide (who is a real deep thinker sometimes) asked me "Are there princesses in real life?"  I said yes, and asked her why she wanted to know.  "Remember when we saw the princess at the party at the church?"  She was talking about Dede.  Her Zumba costume for Cinderella actually has a full length skirt that goes with it.  She wore it to the ward Halloween party and looked AMAZING!!!  She truly looked like a princess.  And she sewed the costume herself!  I told her how impressed I was and she said that was high-praise coming from me (cause I'm always going all-out for Halloween).  (her daughter was dressed as Belle).  Ok, I stole a picture off her fb so you can see the costume.... she just looks so amazing!  And she made her hubby's prince charming outfit too!  Jake and her hubby are in a special category of amazing guys that want to make their Halloween-loving wives happy.  And look at the "glass slippers"!  Love it!