Ben's costume

I wanted to do a quick write up about Ben's costume. He wanted to be a Ninja for Halloween. I bought a long sleeved black t-shirt from the boy's section at Target and some long black leggings from the girl's section. Ben wanted a hood, so I foundMcCalls 2940 and it had a ninja costume with a hood. I bought a men's black t-shirt from target (so the fabric would match and made the hood from that. The hood was meant for wovens, so it's a bit stretchy and the pattern was an adult pattern, but it worked well since Ben has a big head.
Ben then decided he wanted a dragon. I bought a short sleeved boys t-shirt from Target and found this dragon image on-line. Printed it out on iron-on paper and cut it out and ironed it on the t-shirt. Ben will be able to wear it this summer. I could have ironed it on the long sleeved shirt, but Ben would more likely wear something like this on a short sleeved shirt than a long sleeved one. Don't ask me why, that's just how he is.

I finally bought an x-large boys red t-shirt and cut it into strips. I basted them to the sleeves, waist and ankles at the seam lines and then we wrapped and tied them around his arms, waist and legs.

I could have purchased a store bought costume for a little less than I payed for all the pieces for this one. It would have been worn twice (once to school, once for trick-or-treating). It would have been made out of horrible polyester fabric. Now Ben will have two t-shirts to wear. We'll save the black pants for the girls for when they get bigger. He'll probably wear the hood a lot around the house. He likes to pretend we don't know who he is when he wears it.

Happy Halloween

Pilot jackets and a costume preview.

I made these pilot jackets for Macy's class when she was in Kindergarten because they were doing an airport/airplane unit. Eleanor has the same teacher, so I made some for the other two classes so they would all have some. I just took a ready to wear sweatshirt and cut it up the middle, removed the neck, wrist, and waist bands. Turned under the edges, added gold braid and buttons.
I used iron-on paper for my printer to make the crest and the wings.

They are machine washable and sturdy. Just right for kindergarten!
Here's what Claire may be wearing for Halloween. She keeps changing her mind so stay tuned.
I made this snow white dress for Macy using the same pattern as the dress for Claire. In fact they are the same size. I made the dress for Macy's 5th birthday and she's just now decided she wants to wear it for Halloween. It's a bit small, but it should work. I finished the cape last night using a different pattern.
And here we have Eleanor as Erika in Barbie's The Princess and the Pauper. (Don't you love the wig?) I used McCalls 5731 and made a few changes. It looks more like the gown in the actual movie. Eleanor was very pleased. I just need to hem it. I was hoping it would be fairworthy, but unfortunately this happened:
I used Organdy ribbon for the ruffle, didn't use a press cloth and melted the ribbon. At least it's in the back. I told Eleanor this makes the dress more authentic since Erika is a pauper after all.

Ben is going to be a ninja-almost done, but Kate is pretty sick with a cold so no sewing tonight.

Rehoboth

We went to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware this past weekend. It's become an annual tradition. The schools are always closed this particular Friday for a statewide teacher's conference and so it makes for a nice little weekend trip. The beach is not crowded and the hotel rooms are cheap!
The only downside is that it's often chilly. On Friday it was fairly windy too.
The water felt warm to the kids though, so they played in the surf most of the morning and afternoon. I always bring dry clothes for them to change into. Eleanor was soaked!
Kate wasn't sure what to think about all of this fun! She couldn't eat the sand and she didn't like the wind.
This is what I look like after a night without sleep. I didn't get any sleep either night. I was tired.Our favorite thing to do is dig holes and build sandcastles!

Ben is looking for two of his Eddies. Have you seen them? They look like this:
As you might recall a few posts ago, the kids have been playing a lot with their Little People. They decided to take them to the beach. Ben decided to bury two of the Eddies in the sand. He marked their spots with Eleanor's croc type shoes, but it was very windy.
Macy's helping look for the Eddies. We never found them.
On Saturday it was even windier and colder than Friday. So much so that the water was up to the boardwalk and we were unable to play on the beach. We were disappointed, but that happens sometimes. We did get to eat at Five Guys though. Claire likes to eat the peanuts. She is ignoring that hot dog on the left that we bought her. That $3.00 hot dog. She would rather eat the peanuts that are free.
Eleanor and Macy are explaining to Sonya Lee and Maggie (or is it Mark?) what has happened to Eddie. It was a somber lunch.
Claire is still not eating her $3.00 hot dog. She is still eating peanuts that she dips in ketchup.
My children love ketchup. Especially Ben. He did eat his $3.00 hot dog, plus some peanuts and now he's finishing off his ketchup. Ketchup counts as a vegetable right?
My children's favorite way to eat ketchup is to dip their fingers in it and then lick it off.
We didn't just eat ketchup and $3.00 hot dogs, we bought some fudge and caramel corn at Dolles. The fudge was $10.00 and you know what? It wasn't even very good. It's never very good, but every year we still buy some thinking it will be good. I'm not going to buy any next year. Please remind me I said that.

Praying Mantis

We found this guy (girl?) hanging out on our screen door. (Well actually there's glass in there right now, but calling it a glass door seems wrong. Maybe it's a storm door? I don't know.) It seems that every year around this time a praying mantis comes to visit. We (I) always get excited. We don't see them very often, so the kids kind of freak out when they discover one.
The first thing I always want to do is find an insect for it to eat. I find it fascinating the way they
devour their food. I usually try to get a fly so I won't feel too bad for the insect and the mantis doesn't seem to mind that they're dead. We couldn't find any flies, so I took pictures instead. He (she?) hung out on the front of our house for a couple of days before leaving (being eaten?).

Happy Birthday Eleanor!

This crazy girl with the forced smile is six today! I can hardly believe it. It just seems like yesterday we were racing down to the birthing center wondering if we would make it (we did).