01. November 2008 · 4 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , ,

Hello friends…enjoy some pictures from our fun Halloween today. It was a nice balance of fun and not being overwhelmed! Too bad it was in the mid-70s this afternoon and I had purposefully designed all of our costumes for temperatures about 15-25 degrees cooler!

After Jake went off to school, Timmy and I went to the Bellevue Early Childhood Center for a trick or treating experience at their building. Timmy made his debut in his R2D2 costume and it was a big hit…not just with the folks who admired it, but also with Timmy. He seemed comfortable and happy wearing it. Unfortunately, he can’t sit down, but at least it was easy for him to put on and take off…so if he wanted to sit, it wasn’t traumatic for him. Check out Yoda — Yoda’s Mom and I made sure to try to pose the boys together for a cute photo!

From 2008 10 31 Halloween2008

From 2008 10 31 Halloween2008

Timmy and I went to lunch, then the BX and commissary after the trick or treat event…Timmy looked fine in his white sweats, but I still had on my costume and got quite a few comments.

After errands, Timmy went to Alissa’s for about 1 1/2 hours while I went to Jake’s school to see the Halloween parade and help with his class Halloween party. I’m very glad Jake’s school recognizes Halloween and allows the kids to express themselves through their costumes. It was awesome to see the sea of children in their costumes…

From 2008 10 31 Halloween2008

From 2008 10 31 Halloween2008

From 2008 10 31 Halloween2008

Jake is Mace Windu, from Star Wars Episodes I-III (Samuel L. Jackson). Since Mace is bald, Jake and I discussed how to be bald. Our choices: shave his head or come up with a pretend way to be bald, such as a headpiece from a costume store, or else some pantyhose. Jake chose to shave his head…I didn’t shave it all the way, but it was pretty close:

From 2008 10 31 Halloween2008

Jake had a good time at his party, and after school, since it was officially the start of the weekend, I set up the Wii again (it had been put away for a while) and Jake and I knocked out 3 Lego Star Wars chapters this afternoon before dinner! Whoo hoo!

After Dave came home and we had a quick dinner, it was time to suit up again for trick or treating in our neighborhood. It was Dave’s turn to take the boys…and this year, no stroller or wagon! I put my costume back on and stayed home to hand out the candy! I really enjoyed seeing how creative the kids can be…we had so many children come by!

From 2008 10 31 Halloween2008

From 2008 10 31 Halloween2008

From 2008 10 31 Halloween2008

From 2008 10 31 Halloween2008

From 2008 10 31 Halloween2008

Enjoy our pictures and Happy Halloween!

29. October 2008 · Comments Off on The R2D2 Helmet Solution! · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , ,

So we figured out how to keep that wide trashcan lid on Timmy’s head for his R2D2 costume. Thanks to Dave’s Mom (Grammy Vollmer) for the idea:

“As far as Timmy’s helmet–can you take one of his hats, cut off the peak and glue it to the inside of the helmet? Don’t know if this would work or even if it would stay on.”

I searched the house for an old baseball cap that we didn’t mind sacrificing to the hot glue gun, and found a chintzy Las Vegas hat Dave and I won through some geeky hotel promotion.

Instead of cutting off the brim, I simply turned it around and glued it in place. Timmy was thrilled with how comfy his R2 helmet fits him now.

As for pictures, you’ll just have to wait till Halloween 😉

27. October 2008 · 4 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , ,

So today we just about finished with Timmy’s Halloween costume. You can see the shots of pre-construction from earlier this week here.

Yesterday I painted the top of the trash can chrome-silver and it turned out pretty nice.

From 2008 10 20 R2D2_Costume_Construction

Today ended up VERY windy! Gusts exceeding 50 mph! We ended up having to do the rest of the paint work in the closed garage, and then setting it outside briefly to dry. But the dewpoints were in the single digits today, so it dried in no time at all! Dave took over the masking for the rest of the helmet and he did a really nice job:

From 2008 10 20 R2D2_Costume_Construction
From 2008 10 20 R2D2_Costume_Construction

Meanwhile, I grabbed a pile of multi-colored Sharpies from my craft stash and got to work on the body details. I used this picture of R2D2 as the guide.

From 2008 10 20 R2D2_Costume_Construction

So here’s Timmy modeling what we have so far. I recycled Jacob’s white sweats from his 2006 astronaut costume. The red light on the right side of the helmet is a red safety blinker.

From 2008 10 20 R2D2_Costume_Construction

Help! If anyone knows how I can make Timmy’s helmet look better, please speak now! I’m using a rolled up t-shirt to set it properly on his head, but otherwise it’s just balancing there like a bobble head…

20. October 2008 · Comments Off on A Work in Progress — Timmy’s Halloween Costume! · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , ,

I can’t remember if I’d mentioned it before, but Timmy declared around Labor Day that he wants to be R2-D2 for Halloween.

And of course I agreed.

I already finished Jake’s costume, which is described here. I’m still trying to convince Jake to shave his head like Mace Windu. We’ll see…

After some discussion with Maryann about materials — her son Joey also wanted to be an R2 unit for Halloween, I figured a small bullet trashcan would be our best bet to fit onto Timmy. Maryann investigated those large cylindrical soda receptacles that you see at convenient stores, but ended up going with the bullet garbage can, too.

At our local Home Depot, we came across this Rubbbermaid small bullet can — perfect!

So we’re off! We also picked up some assorted R2-D2 colored spray paints (blue, chrome, white) and here we go!

First things first, Timmy’s going to wear the trash can as a tube, so we had to cut the bottom out of the can.

So first I used a drill to put holes along the sides of the bottom edge.

A close up of the holes.

So with a couple slices with a keyhole saw, the bottom popped right off. But we were left with all this debris. I started with some 100 grit sandpaper, but that was futile…

But a box-cutter was perfect! I was able to shave off the excess plastic, then used the 100 grit sandpaper to fine-tune the edge.

Next task, painting the wastebaskets. We could only find that silver/coppery colored can, so it had to be painted white…

I wanted low humidity and not much wind, but in Nebraska in the fall, forget it! Today is the last dry day for a while, but it was quite breezy so I just made sure to remain upwind of the spray and we did okay.

Presenting, the white-painted trash can! Coming soon, masking and painting R2’s…uh…accoutrements?

09. September 2008 · 4 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , ,

How many of you knew that I could sew — show of hands!

Yeah, that’s what I thought. Not many. Enjoy this gallery of things I’ve made. Mainly costumes, as you will see.

Jacob wants to be a Jedi knight for Halloween. Okay, that doesn’t seem too hard. He showed me his Mace Windu action figure and asked if he could be THAT Jedi. Mace Windu was the character Samuel L. Jackson played in Episodes I, II and III.

Sure, I’ll help you with that costume idea! I always am enthusiastic to help my kids when they think of their Halloween ideas on their own.

Maryann helped us out too, showing me a link to this costume.

But I did a small inventory of what we had on hand and realized that between Jack Sparrow from last year for the pants and boots, plus a Joseph tunic from a Christmas pageant last year, Jake could be a pretty good Mace with simply the addition of a purple lightsaber toy and a brown cape.

The purple lightsaber was an easy birthday purchase at Toys R Us, and I decided I could make the cape.

So on Sunday I dragged the boys to Hancock Fabrics in Omaha, and subject them to the joys of browsing pattern books and thumbing through fabric bolts looking for the perfect color/texture of a brown Jedi cape. I had a good time, I hadn’t spent significant time in a fabric store in a long time — at least not in the fabric section — and definitely not at all in North Carolina.

I found the coolest lightweight brown faux suede fabric and an online recommendation to use the Simplicity 5512 pattern. The bottom left corner of the picture shows what “view” I’d make for the Jedi cape. If you look closely at the characters, the Jedi cape has sleeves and a hood…so even though I’m going through the motions of making a Grim Reaper costume, it’ll ultimately be a Jedi cape…trust me!

I cut the fabric and started piecing panels together today, but I’m stopping till tomorrow. I need to think…I am incorporating a lining into the cape (after all, it could be REALLY COLD Halloween night here in NE!) and I have to shoehorn that into the instructions. I’m a decent seamstress, when the directions are laid out in front of me. As for making up my own thing….well, I’m not that good.

I should be done by this weekend…maybe I’ll let Jake dress up for his trip to Pottery Barn Kids this weekend to meet Star Wars characters.

28. March 2008 · 1 comment · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , ,

My boys love Pez.

“Hey, I love Pez, too…I don’t see anything wrong with that.”

Yeah, I remember getting Pez dispensers when I was little, and I remember loading it up with the candy, and then gobbling it down.

“Those were the days, indeed. They seem like reasonable gifts for the boys…”

I got each boy an Easter Pez dispenser for their Easter baskets. A Pez dispenser comes with 1 or 2 blocks of candy, then I also stuck a “refill pack” of 6 more blocks into each basket. Really, it isn’t that much candy. Trust me. 150 calories total.

So here are the Pez dispensers…cute, huh?

From 2008 03 27 Pe…

I guess I’m not as young as I used to be. Jacob is pretty good at loading his dispenser, but Timmy needs help. Timmy’s gone through 3-4 of his 8 blocks of Pez, and I SWEAR, with every block since this past Sunday, I’ve been plagued with the VERTICAL PEZ. Allow me to demonstrate:

So here’s one of the Pez dispensers…this one happens to be Jacob’s:

And this is an example of the “Vertical Pez”:

Usually I end up with the vertical Pez when I’m just about done with loading, and all those other candies end up popping out while I’m adjusting the vertical one.

And finally, here I’m showing that Pez dispensers must have shrunk over the years — I can’t fit my fat fingers into the dispenser to adjust those $%^& Vertical Pez! My pinky barely fits.

Jacob’s received several Pez dispensers over the past couple years — Disney characters, Halloween, Christmas, etc. He probably has 4-5 of them. He never really had any problems.

Now that I think about it — Jacob never asked me to load up the dispensers…he merely ate the candy straight out of the packaging.

This Easter Timmy received his first dispenser, and the very first thing he did when he was given his first loaded up dispenser Easter morning was flip the head up and attempt to suck the candy out with his mouth. All he did was gum up the dispenser.

“MOMMYYYYYYYYY! It’s BROKENNNNNNNNNNN!”

So I fix it. Remove the slobbery one, wipe down the offended area…queue up the remaining Pez.

Then, about 2 minutes later, he somehow got a Pez candy way up into the Lamb’s head (imagine a Pez shoved up into your brain!).

“MOMMYYYYYYYYY! It’s BROKENNNNNNNN! AGAINNNNNNNNNN!”

When you brain your Pez dispenser, the head stays in the “up” position and you can’t advance the candy until you get the one out of the head. I had to use a seafood picker-thingy to break the candy into pieces and shake the pieces out. Sigh…

And all the while when I’m loading, cleaning, breaking, shaking with Timmy’s dispenser, he’s hovering over me: “Are you done yet? Are you done yet?”


I don’t remember Pez being this difficult…really!

24. March 2008 · Comments Off on Happy Easter #2 — Egg Hunt and Dressed for Church · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: ,
24. March 2008 · Comments Off on Happy Easter #1 — Dyeing the Eggs · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: ,