Fancy Meeting Ewe: My kids favorite Halloween costumes I've made.

I think this is one of my very favorite, the Mad Hatter!

Well, I must say I'm sorry! I have neglected you for days. I don't mean to and I promise, I do love you, but...I am a wife, mommy and part-time business person. I just have not had time to post. You have, however been in my thoughts. Here's a catch up to what's been going on here: dinner's were made, diapers changed, school pictures and family pictures taken, grape jelly and pear jam were put up, the garden was froze and therefore ripped out, the lambs were sold, homework was done, my kindergarten-er read her first sentence books, dress fabrics were sourced and swatches ordered, oh and I hate to mention we all got the stomach flu, which if you are a mommy know brings lots of other eminent chores, such as extra dirty laundry, sterilization and disinfection of home, car and other things. I must also say that it should really be against the rules for mommies to get the stomach flu! How on earth can you take care of a husband and children when you can't even get out of bed for fear of passing out? Oh...well, you call in your mommy! And that's just what I did!! Poor Grandma got a text at 6 am the other morning, with a plea, "if you aren't too busy I could really use a babysitter" and I didn't mean for the kids, I really meant for me! As my hubby got ready to leave for work he said to me, "should I stay until the kids are off to school?" I thought, that is ridiculous...no, you have so much work to do, go, I will figure it out. (This might sound strange, the fact that I can't handle being sick on my own, but I must explain further with fear of totally grossing you all out!) He was asking if he should stay due to the fact that he found me in a pile on the bathroom floor covered in my own emesis in a full on seizure at 3 AM the night before. I can't really explain why, other than my body cannot handle the process of severe vomiting without passing out! I have done this since I was a teenager, yes...I have seen a doctor. Unfortunately I have done this at the most inopportune times which have landed me emergency room visits and tests which have concluded: I have an over-active vaso-vagal response. Over-active? Ya-think? I know it's coming and I don't know why at that last minute I don't ask for help, but apparently I passed out while vomiting, hit my head on the toilet and he heard the commotion and found me on the floor. I really hate the way his face looks when I open my eyes and see his face (he looks really scared!) But long story short, I have a fantastic husband, who is handy and also very caring. He picked my mess up off the floor, got me in the tub, washed the nasty out of my hair, (keeping in mind at this point my body would not even do it's most fundamental functions like taking care of oneself!) I have a feeling of what it is like to not be able to care for yourself, not a feeling I enjoy. But very glad to have the love and help of those around me to pick me up and dust me off! So this is why mom, being my mom was called in as a re-enforcement! I think he thought I might pass out while home alone with the kids, not a good thing! So luckily my sweet mother was already awake and responded immediately to my text and was on her way down. She does live about an hour away and that made her arrival perfect to get the kids to school on time! Bless her, I don't know what I would do without such a sweet lady in my life! After all that I have been planning for Halloween which brings me to today's blog topic (after a long detour!) Sorry, it has been days...I felt I had some 'splaining to do. I have been playing room mom and planning a kindergarten party and our family is hosting another annual Halloween party. So costumes were a priority also. But for some reason this year it was not as easy to figure out what we all wanted to be. I love the times when it all meshes and the whole family has a theme (like last year we all dressed up as the characters from Alice in Wonderland.) This year...no one could decide! I have learned as a mommy to also kind of wait until what you might say is the last minute, not because I'm lazy or not getting around to it. But I have also gotten a costume done only to have a child change their mind and throw a giant fit about another costume seen at Walmart on a visit for groceries! So I tend to make sure their choice sticks!! My kids finally decided on Bat Girl and Merida from Brave. So my youngest daughter found a costume at Walmart that I thought was cute and needs little embellishing to make a cute frock. The Merida however, needed to be made by mom. So yesterday after feeling all better I ventured to Joann's for some fabric. (Along with every other mom in Utah County!) I found the perfect cobalt blue taffeta and some gold trim, spent about $20 on everything I needed to get the job done. The one thing I didn't buy was a new pattern. I sometimes have a hard time shelling out another $15 for a pattern. I like the costumes to be custom made but I hate them to cost more than something at Walmart already made. So I went sans pattern. Which might frighten some! I knew I had a pattern at home that I once used for a Little Bo Peep dress that could work. But it was for sizes 1-4 and my girl is now 7 so it did take some tweaking. I ended up loving the Merida costume and will probably post individually how to make it in case it helps another last minute mommy out there!
Here are some photos of my favorite Halloween costumes that I've done over the years: