The Super Squad rocked the block that Halloween back in 2017 when I accidentally took a blogging hiatus! I do love coordinated costumes & was glad that they consented to my suggestion ; ) Once we decided on super heroes, it didn't take long for them to make their decisions. Craftiness has been on the forefront of my mind lately so making costumes was a given. It was perfect timing for sure! My mom & I had a weekend away in Fredericksburg so packed up the sewing machine & all necessary items to knock out some capes.
There were lots of lists & lots of trying to remember whose pants are what color, who is refusing to wear a mask & who is SO picky about the type of fabric they wear....child numero uno.
My mom & her sewing machine, my goodness! She (as always) took the lead role & I gladly accepted the assistant to the sewing genius. I went ahead & bought super hero T-shirts to work around. We planned to make five capes, one skirt & accessories. Hobby Lobby provided some iron on decals for the capes which saved us SO much time & looked much better than what we could have come up with. Spider-Man needed a spider on the back of his cape so we were on the hunt for something we could use. We came across some decorative webs & I went to town cutting pieces off until we had the perfect shape. It worked out well! I FaceTimed Anson & showed him the blue cape we made & his face just dropped. He said that he had really wanted a red cape & I felt so bad for my little Spider-Man that we got right to work on a new cape as requested. Thankfully we hadn't sewn that hand cut spider yet! I might have said "tough luck bud," probably not though.
We made multiple trips to Wal-Mart which is probably not the place that people frequent when on a weekend away in the lovely town of Fredericksburg! It got funny really fast when we kept going back & spending more & more money as we changed ideas. We were quickly reminded that homemade costumes are not always the cheaper way to go! We walked over to the Halloween section & saw the official Spider-Man & Batman costumes complete with muscles for a mere $15. After quickly considering how ecstatic the boys would be if we pulled those costumes out of the bag, we were at the checkout! At least those were checked off the list. Over the course of the weekend we knocked out all the capes, the skirt & a couple of Wonder Woman accessories.
The Super Squad prep was in full swing! You may wonder who the Bernice mentioned in the title is. To put it simply, she was the star of our favorite fall book & is still referred to often. The book Sophie's Squash by Pat Zeitlow Miller is just darling. It is the story of a little girl named Sophie who goes to the market & comes home with a yellow squash. Instead of letting her mom cook it for dinner she names it Bernice, draws a smiling face & assumes responsibility of sweetly caring for her. Over time Bernice begins to look a little splotchy & feel mushy like any squash would. All said & done, Bernice is buried in the garden when the cold season comes & when spring arrives, Sophie finds two baby squash named Bonnie & Baxter in which she shares "you look just like your mother!" It is full of humor, lovely illustrations & will be added to the library at the Nest. Here's Arlo enjoying it again just the other day...
We were complete procrastinators with getting a pumpkin to carve & when we found just the right one, Eloise & I named her Bernice as she asked me to help buckle her in. The continued procrastination worked in her favor but I guess it was only right to never carve her! She was well cared for but even with all the love shown to her, she began to rot just like the one true Bernice. Eloise was actually a little sad. We have had some good laughs in relation to the book. Once at the grocery store, the girls got my attention & said "Look! It's Bernice!" pointing at the line next to us. They started whisper screaming "Berneeeeeeece! Noooooo! Don't goooo with her!" Just last weekend I was about to cut up a couple butternut squash & someone wanted to verify that it was not Bonnie & Baxter. Anyway, that's probably more than you want to hear about Bernice but I want to remember later : )
The next day was Halloween & contrary to the weather report, there was only a sprinkle of rain! Here's the Squad!
We got some great pictures but there are always the greatest ones too...
After a restful afternoon, we got costumes back on & headed out to the street.
Arlo figured it out the mission rather quickly & decided he hated riding in the wagon. He got a mini package of Swedish Fish at the first house & held onto it nearly the entire time! Even once we were home & sifting through the rest of the candy it was tight in his grip! We did strap him in on multiple occasions & I think he figured we weren't paying enough attention so he would chew his way into a package & have chocolate all over his face, ha! I'm pretty sure I looked like that later that evening & maybe once a day when I would sneak into the pantry when no one was looking ; )
It was almost embarrassing to see how much candy we ended up with. We had a few pieces then all squeezed in to our room to our bed to watch the Astros play in the World Series. It was an evening where we felt like we didn't have a bunch of teeny tiny kids. While they are still young, they can stay up past 8 without losing their marbles...most of the time ; )
Here's the loot.
