Time for Tea

This year's costumes (I knew) had to be low key for me. Sewing was not an option this year with a baby due less than a week out.  I repeated to myself: I will not buy fabric, I will not buy fabric.  I'd like to say that I didn't and to be honest, most of the elements were pulled from somewhere around my house, my parent's home, and my aunt, Nine contributed a top hat.  Then there was the dress... I didn't stress.  Everyone else did instead, I think.  I'd gone to a couple of second hand shops and hadn't found a flower girl dress, and I wasn't finding one on Craigslist either.  SO, my mom, my sister, and Nine all went to about 45 second hand shops between them and couldn't find one either.  (They got so desperate that Nine actually bought lingerie with a built in bra... oh my! in hopes of reassembling it into something that would work.) Then the day before, I thought I'd try one shop while Jesse and the kids ran through the Micky D's drive-thru, and they had about 5 flower girls dresses to choose from.  So, there you have it.

Mad Hatter -Diego sweat his make-up off in no time flat. I did hand stitch some lace onto the cuffs of last year's Christmas jacket. The thread bandolier was the most fun to make... I love those vintage spools of thread... (my momma found them at an estate sale for a buck).

White Queen- Eliana's smeared lipstick was my own fault...fortunately for her she ate before she went out and Elisabeth reapplied it much more prettily.  I used a white spray in her hair (it looks pretty gray but my mom and I thought that there would have been no way of keeping a wig on her at this point).  There were a few undone stitches on this dress that my momma restitched so Eliana could wear the dress.

This was a group effort and I have to say that the other mommas did much more than I did. Because you can't have Wonderland without...

Alice! Evie was the perfect little Alice (even though she wasn't too terribly thrilled to put on her costume that evening).  Emily did find the dress at a second hand shop and I believe she had the pinafore from a previous costume, but she modified both of them quite a bit.  Such sweetness!

Absolom, the Caterpillar. Finley was such a hit!  (What a beautiful first Halloween costume!) I believe, was completely from scratch... go Elisabeth!  Even the hookah! 

Now, one of these days I'm going to learn my lesson about photos.

First, I have a very slow point and shoot that I know I should be grateful for, but grrr... it usually goes something like this: I say, "Look at me you guys." They look, I push the button, they look away, the camera finally flashes.  If anyone knows how to fix the timing on my camera I would be eternally grateful.  But I have a feeling it's just the camera and I'm going to have to deal. So, I need to learn to take individual shots of the kids!  Because getting a good shot of just one of the kids is a big challenge.  But my goodness! Trying to get four kids to look at me all at the same time is impossible.

This is as good as it gets of a group shot.

Second, it probably would also help if the kids had any sort of clue who to look at- there were four cameras going off at the same time.  But maybe someone else ended up with better photos... we'll see.

Third, must take Halloween photos before sun sets outside. Must, must, must.  (There's always next year, right?)

Hope you all had a happy Halloween... ours was splendid despite my lack of good photos (because it involved Potato Cheddar Ale Soup and Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bread Pudding with Praline Sauce and wonderful family!) Oh yeah... fourth, must take photos of spectacular food and family next year.  On that note: I give up! *sigh*