Yep, we did it again. (Okay, I did it again. Matt can be spared any responsibility for this!) We squeaked out another themed costume for all of the girls. It may not be the last, judging from the enthusiastic response from Megan, the one I was most worried about. At 6, she didn't bat an eye at coordinating with her little sisters, and she and Bridget even loved pointing Tessa, Annie and Mary out to their friends at school during their Halloween parade. It helped that they were dressed as the Strawberry Shortcake gang. It also helped that Megan was Strawberry Shortcake ;) It's no accident that she's been the "main character" for the last few years. She has been Dorothy, Wonder Woman, Alice in Wonderland, and now Strawberry Shortcake. I'm thinking about possibilities for next year...
But, for now, back to those Strawberry Shortcake girls! And their costumes!! I made them :) I'm more than a little proud that it all came together as well as it did, considering this was pretty ambitious for me. Even though I hadn't used my sewing machine in over a year, I naively thought I could give it a go. I aimed low, and set out to just make two pieces for each costume: their wig and their apron. Everything else was something we already had, borrowed (2 skirts) or bought (the tights). But, even the task of making those elements was overwhelming, so I started with a little sketch. I decided that Mary would be the "gang's" little puppy, since we had a little puppy costume already (vintage Bridget 2008 and Megan 2007), so I really just needed to focus on creating four other costumes. But, coordinating the colors and components for each of those costumes was making my head spin. I'm already prone to walking into a store and forgetting what I came for or getting distracted with so many options, so I knew I would be a mess in the fabric store if I didn't know exactly what I needed. I'm so glad I drew this out, too, since I referred back to it many times, both in the fabric aisles and during my late-night sewing sessions.
Megan and Bridget came along with me to the fabric store. They were so excited, and so was I. It was a first glimpse of mother-daughter crafting time. I guess it would be akin to a father taking his son to his first baseball game (not that we would know about that in this family!). For me, it means sharing something I love with them, and then brimming with pride when they get into it. It also reminds me of doing these things with my mom!
Once we purchased all of the necessary fabric and sewing supplies, we got home and...the bag sat untouched for a couple weeks! I may be somewhat crafty, but I am a professional when it comes to procrastination. So, this project should be especially impressive for the amount of time I (didn't) dedicate to it. A stomach bug that ran through our entire house a week before Halloween didn't help matters. (All of us were sick at the same time. I could write a blog post about that, but who would want to read that? On an unrelated note, why oh why can't kids be born with the ability to throw up in the toilet when they need to?)
At T minus 5 days, I finally buckled down and whipped up all four little pockets for Strawberry Shortcake, Raspberry Torte, Orange Blossom and Lemon Meringue. I had to pause at this point (at about 3am) and marvel at the fact that nothing here was stapled together!
And over the course of the next two days, I made an apron pattern, sewed four aprons and attached the pockets. No staples here either! (Not that there's anything wrong with staples...) Every Halloween costume needs a cute little pocket for extra special pieces of candy!
The finished aprons :)
The last two nights were spent very tediously making their wigs. But, I don't have pictures of those by themselves. It was a lot of sewing by hand while watching trashy TV in the wee hours of the morning. By some Halloween miracle, everything was ready in time for the girls' parade at school. I would not have any pictures of us leaving for school that morning if our photographer neighbor hadn't been waiting outside to catch a glimpse of our sweet girls all dressed up:
The girls were a little leery of the paparazzi on the way to the car, but I'm thankful for the shots! (And Tessa, even dressed as Lemon Meringue, still needed to carry an armful of books to the car, as usual.)
Once we got to school, I managed to get a few shots, even though it was drizzling. The parade was moved into the auditorium because of the rain, thankfully. I'm not sure how the yarn in those wigs would have held up once soaked!
As it turned out, Megan and her friend Arianna were both Strawberry Shortcake :)
Over in the kindergarten group, Bridget had to correct everyone who thought she was Strawberry Shortcake, too. I guess the differences between Strawberry Shortcake and Raspberry Torte are pretty subtle.
Round 2 of costumes came after everyone had a nice long nap. Too long of a nap! It was a mad dash to get them all dressed, fed, and photographed before we headed out to Trick-or-Treat. I'm so happy we were able to get some cute pictures, even amid all of that chaos. It helped that Grandma and Grandpa, Mop, and Aunt Stacy were all behind the camera helping to get smiles. I think Mary has turned into our biggest ham!
Tessa (Lemon Meringue) and Annie (Orange Blossom)
Megan (Strawberry Shortcake)
Bridget (Raspberry Torte)
We couldn't very well have just the girls dress up, though, could we? Actually, I thought we could. It would have been fine. Perfectly fine. Matt disagreed, though, and was hell bent on getting the two of us in costume, too. He had the day off of school, so he made a solo trip to the Halloween store to complete our family costumes...
I present Sour Grapes and the Purple Pie Man (with a baby toy parrot on his shoulder).
We were quite the sight as walked down the street to trick-or-treat!
We hope your Halloween was as sweet as it was here!
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