Happy Halloween!

Last Halloween we really wanted to have a MarioKart theme, but it was way too late and there just wasn't enough time to put anything together. So we went as this.

This year we were ready and waiting for Halloween. We meticulously planned our trunk decorations, because we were determined to win the Trunk or Treat competition. We got to the church, ate dinner, decorated our trunk, and were then told we weren't eligible for the competition. WHAT!? We parked right beside the Young Men's president, and the youth [not the presidencies] were in charge of handing out awards. He nonchalantly mentioned to us, after we spent tons of time decorating, that it probably wasn't fair for us to compete since I'm in the Young Women's presidency. BUMMER...We were so upset, but the show must go on (and we weren't about to take down everything and go home). I'm not gonna lie, our trunk was da bomb.

Just in case the picture doesn't do it justice, let me explain everything we had going on. Spider webs, of course. But Brad also made huge spiders out of tennis balls and straws. The two you can see the best are right below the ghosts, which Brad also made. The orange twinkle lights could be seen from a mile away in the dark parking lot, and the black light was what made our trunk the most popular of the night. Everything we put in the trunk glowed. We had little pumpkins we drew faces on with yellow highlighter. We had a huge pumpkin candy bowl, some awesome scorpions, and some very neat highlighter water (again made by Brad). As the kids came I gave them candy and then drew either a heart or a smiley face on their hand with a highlighter. Then they got to hold their hand out near the black light and see it glow. This was seriously the coolest thing they had EVER seen in their little lives. Just imagine if you had never seen a black light before. They were amazed. One of the moms came up to me the next day in church, and said, "When we got home last night I asked my daughter what her favorite part of Trunk or Treat was and she said, 'Seeing the heart on my hand glow.' She really loved your trunk!" She wasn't the only one either. Some of the kids completely forgot about their candy and walked off without getting any. Several times during the night we had traffic jams, because one or two kids just couldn't get enough of looking at their hand by the black light and were holding up the line. It was great. I mean that's what Halloween is all about - making kids happy. (Truth be told, I totally marked on their hands just to see if they were coming back multiple times for candy.) Well, the youth decided they wanted to give us a prize. The YM's president said, "Oh sure, why not? You obviously put in the effort." YES!! We won second place and a $10 gas card. Brad searched in vain for the car that had won 1st place but it was nowhere to be found. We [and everyone else who thought we should have won] still think it was rigged since we won last year as well. So we'll just say we won again this year. I don't feel bad about that at all.

Before I get to our costumes I'll show you how we made the pumpkin candy bowl. It was super duper easy. Brad cut the pumpkin almost in half. It was more like he just cut the top third off. Oh, and the pumpkin we got was more long than wide, so we put it on it's side to cut it. Then he scooped out the insides and cut tiny triangles out all along the edge of the pumpkin. Then I got a plastic grocery bag and lined the inside of the hollowed pumpkin. To keep the bag in place, I stuck sewing pins around the top of the bag.

And the finished product...drum roll please...

Alright, I know you've been waiting for it. Here are our costumes, dog included.

 Toad, Princess Peach, and Yoshi. 

Killer seriously HATED her costume, so we only made her wear it for the pictures. But she sure was cute.

And just in case anyone out there is wondering how to recreate these costumes for themselves. It's super easy and super inexpensive. 

Killer wore the same costume she wore last year, which meant we didn't spend anything on her's. At the time I think I bought it online for $15 or $20.

We headed over to Goodwill to pick up almost all of Brad's costume. His pants are a pair of white scrub bottoms that still had the tags on them. We decided on this pair mainly because there were perfectly clean (I still washed them though, don't worry) and because he'd wear them again for pajamas or just laying around the house. Having a second use for something definitely makes spending money on it a lot easier. The vest we also found at Goodwill. It's actually a black vest with a blue lining, so we turned it inside out and altered it down to his size since it was an XXL. Then he just wore a long-sleeved button-up white shirt. The hat was actually pretty ingenious, if I do say so myself. We got his scooter helmet, covered it with a piece of a white sheet (which we bought at Walmart for $5, but we also used some pieces for the trunk ghosts and we still have some left over to use at another time) and used fabric glue to stick the red dots on it. Overall I think we probably spent about $10 on his whole costume, and everyone knew exactly who he was the minute they looked at him.

My costume was probably the most expensive. I bought the dress at Goodwill a few months before and wore it to the roller derby finals. I also had to buy the pink long-sleeved shirt I wore underneath for about $7, but it's something I will [and have] worn again. I put on some white tights underneath and wore my awesome pink sneakers. I bought the white gloves at Target for $5. The wig was also a Target purchase for $15, which was way cheaper than anywhere else I looked. Most places were charging $30-$40 for the same kind of thing. But if you have blond hair then you won't even have to worry about it. The crown came from the dollar store (thanks for the tip Sara!). It was originally silver and had a nasty pink feathery thing around the bottom. I took the pink feathery off and painted it gold. All-in-all I'd say we probably got everything for Princess Peach for around $40. But like I said before, most of it I'll use again or wear on a normal day.

So, there you have it. Super easy, super cheap, and super creative.

And, just for fun, here are some more pictures.

We went over to David and Susie's for Halloween night to hand out candy to the trick-or-treaters there. Susie was a big fan of the long blonde/pink hair. She said when she was little she used to tie scarfs around her head and pretend she had long hair because her's never grew much longer than her shoulders. So sad. I couldn't even imagine what that would be like. Right now I've got more hair than I know what to do with. I wanted her to have lovely dreams of little Susie running through flowery fields with her long hair flowing behind her, which is why we now have this picture:

Sweet dreams Susie!

Happy Halloween!

Toad, Princess Peach, &Yoshi