Pumpkins and costumes

The local Agway is having a coloring contest for kids ages 5 - 12 (so GB can't enter, not that it matters to him) and everyone who enters gets a free pumpkin. DQ finished her picture and we picked out a little pumpkin this afternoon, of course I also had to buy a big pumpkins for our front steps. For decorating we had theses wooden sticks with shapes to make a cat, bat, or witch pumpkin. They really turned out cute, very easy and no mess!!



Of course this got me thinking about halloween, I only celebrate it for the fun of costumes. It helps that the kids love to dress up, and I keep a good stock of dress up stuff around. (I find things really cheap at yard sales). Thes year I found a wonderful plush grey wolf costume for GB to wear so that now leads to DQ being Little Red Riding Hood. She has a Dorothy dress I made for her 2 years ago that still fits, so all I need to make is a red cape. I might see if Rick wants to be the woodsman and I can dress up as granny, but that might be a little much. My favorite costume I ever made was last year for GB. As most know, he is fascinated with Thomas the Tank Engine, so I had to see what I could come up with. I started with a couple of cardboard boxes which I ducktaped together then spray painted, it still was little flimsy so I made a wood frame on the inside out of 1 X 2 which I screwed to the boxes with metal L brackets. I cut out windows and added a smokestack (2 liter soda bottle that I spray painted) then I printed out the face and decals on the computer and glued them to the boxes. The whole thing fit nicely on our wagon so the boy could actually sit in the train and look out the window. I made GB an outfit like Sir Topham Hat (the head of the railway), but when it came time to wear it outside GB just wanted to be an engineer, so I raided his closet for overalls, his train hat and a bandana. VOILA
It sounds a lot harder to make than it actually was. Now when anyone visits they get to ride on Thomas. Very Cool!!!