Halloween 2011: The Year of the Dinosaur

We started our Halloween festivities over the weekend by going to Dell Osso Farms.  While we had always gone through the corn maze in past years, this year we skipped it because the kids really just wanted to do the (lame) kids area with the pumpkin bounce house.  It WAS cheaper than the corn maze, so they won and were happy.  Plus, they had already done a corn maze at Zach's birthday party.  They also picked out their pumpkins when we were there and we checked out how tall they were!

Sunday Evening (Beggars Night for our Cheektowaga, NY Readers), we carved the pumpkins.  RJ drew a T-Rex and we helped him cut it out (if you can see what looks like a dashed line, that's where RJ cut it), and Lance made Logan's a silly pumpkin, just like him.

Then for Halloween Day, we were all set to go to DreamWorks for their annual Halloween Party, but we got a call just before leaving from Lance, who explained that when he got to work, the power was out, people were scurrying away from the building, one guy was huddled under his desk, and the only ones roaming the halls were the zombies.  So due to their power outage zombie infestation, the party was off : (.  The silver lining is that Logan was well rested for Trick or Treating because he got his normal nap.

But you really want to know what we all were for Halloween (well, except for Lance who has been the same boring thing for the last 5 years - Silent Bob)...

I finally made the kids Halloween costumes!!  I've always wanted to do this, but never really had the time when I was working and even last year, Logan was still a baby and I just didn't pull it off.  But while sewing means that Logan throws my knitting needles and thread spools all over the floor (the sewing cabinet needs to be open when I'm sewing so I can get at the pedal - otherwise he wouldn't have access to these things), it is becoming something I can do to a certain degree even when the kids are awake now.

RJ wanted to be a (duh!) T-Rex that looked like his toy T-rex "Stripey" and since Logan had not expressed his opinion about his Halloween Costume, RJ decided that Logan should be Buddy T-Rex (from Dinosaur Train).  I took them both to JoAnn to pick out the fabric, and RJ picked out all the colors.  I found a free pattern online to make Buddy (thank you pbs.org!).  The pattern was a hassle to lay out because I had to put the pieces together from 8.5 x 11 printer paper, but they're also sturdier than most patterns and it's a basic costume body that I could probably modify to be other things if/when the time comes, so...not too bad for a free pattern.

I figured that it was time for me to go full out Gleek this year and channel my inner Rachel Berry...although most people missed all my subtle details and just thought I was a Catholic School Girl.  Tell me though - wouldn't the brown wig be a clue that I was trying to be something other than JUST a Catholic School Girl?  I could be that with my own hair!  And Catholic School Girls don't typically wear sweaters with things like hearts on them (I would've knitted an animal but that was just too damned hard to pull off with my very slooooow knitting skills - the heart was actually a huge accomplishment!)  Anyway...I guess there aren't that many Gleeks in my neighborhood - even though RJ recognized who I was right away.

We did the usual trick or treating thing.  I took both kids up and down our street, then dropped off Logan with Lance so he could help hand out candy (he was slowing RJ down), and then went back out with RJ.

RJ and I stopped at a few houses in our neighborhood before heading over to meet his friend Zach in his much busier neighborhood.  You can tell that both RJ and Zach were wiped by the end of the night.  This is them "being extinct" (RJ) and "recharging" (Zach).

More Halloween pictures.