Halloween 2012

Just getting around to catching up with this post now. We had a pleasant halloween this year, with jack-o-lanterns, mostly home made costumes, and trick-or-treating.


Costumes
Millie wanted to be a ghost, so I spent a few hours putting together a ghost costume from her, which I sewed up on the W&W No.9 from an old damask duvet cover that was in the scrap pile. This was a very loose fitting outfit by design, so I just marked out a shape on the fabric directly. I made a quick sleeve pattern after measuring the armscye perimeter on the sewn up main section. Time was short and it was only a costume, so I didn't finish all the seams or adjust the fit.

The hood ended up being a little tight, but wearable. The eyeholes are cut out with embroidery scissors and overcast by hand. Millie was pretty happy with it, though predictably there were some issues with keeping the eyeholes aligned to the eyes.

Violet conceived of her costume while wearing a paper bag on her head some weeks before halloween: "Recycling Girl". I helped her make a sort of dress from a box and packing tape, plus a little paper bag helmet.

The Sunday before halloween, we walked down to Somerville Ave. for a festival put on by the city. But it was raining and deserted.

Becky's friend Kelly loaned Child 1 an adorable lion costume.

Pumpkins

The girls had fun scooping out the pumpkins and carving faces, and we all enjoyed eating the roasted seeds.

Roasted Pumpkin or Squash Seeds:

• Try to minimize pulp on the seeds, and put them in an oversize bowl
• Fill bowl with water and massage seeds to clean them off
• Separate seeds from pulpy bits, transfer to another bowl
• Repeat washing cycle
• Take skimmed seeds out of second wash bowl and make a monolayer or sparsely coated layer on an oiled cookie sheet or cake pan
• Season with salt, garlic powder, and paprika
• Roast at 175C (350F) for 10 minutes, scrape and turn with a spatula, then return to the oven for another 5-10 minutes until the seeds are clearly roasty brown. If they start to get too dark or black, take them out early

 On halloween night, we joined our neighbors the Zuccas to trick or treat the neighborhood.

Girl's dress shirt for Violet's Revels show

Violet has been participating in a homeschoolers singing group called Revels, which she has really enjoyed. Last Tuesday they gave a short recital which was wonderful to watch. She needed a white shirt to wear for the show, and didn't have one. So I whipped one up on Sunday and Monday. Violet was very excited about it: "Dad, look it has cuffs and a collar! So fancy!".

Violet and Millie's Birthday Party

This year for Violet and Millie's birthdays, which are only separated by a month, we had a combined party. They share many of the same friends, and it's a lot of work to host! Given the date of mid-October, and coming the weekend after we went apple picking, we settled upon an apple themed party. We made apple theme cakes, two apple pinatas, served apple cider (sweet and hot, or hard and cold), and had some apple based games for the kids to play. The above is a box Becky painted for the 'Toss the Apple' game.