Halloween Costume Tutorial (sort of)

When Leland told me he wanted to be a backhoe loader for Halloween (and that Alden should be a bulldozer), the first thing I did was turn to pinterest. I saw a few ideas that I pinned and chose two as my "inspiration."

I intended to take pictures throughout the process so that I could write up a step-by-step tutorial. But I forgot.

The first step was to cut a hole in the boxes. I used a diaper box for Alden's, but had a bigger box for Leland's I cut the hole and taped the edges with duct tape.

For the buckets, I cute half-circles from cardboard for the sides and then poster board for back. For anyone using this tutorial, my husband says I made the buckets the wrong shape. They are supposed to be flat on the bottom. I could have changed it, since I had plenty of cardboard and poster board, but I just didn't feel like it. I also should have made the rear wheels/tires larger than the front ones, but - again - didn't feel like changing it. 

For the wheels of the loader, I cut out a large circle and small circle. I cut triangles in the edges of the large circle to give it the look of a tire.

For the bulldozer wheels, I used oatmeal containers. And for the blade, I just bent some cardboard into a blade-ish shape. I glued them on with hot glue.

At this point, I made the decision not to make the cab of the loader. I was going to make it because it was in my "inspiration" picture, but I decided that it would probably be frustrating for Leland to have it on, and it would be more difficult to paint and transport to trick-or-treating locations.

Dave painted them: the vehicle bodies, buckets, and wheels yellow, and the tires black.

Then I assembled them. I used hot glue mostly, except for the backhoe. For that, Dave cut a slit in the back of the body. I glued the logos (printed from a google image search) where I wanted them, and hot glued some nylon webbing straps (crisscrossed so that they would stay up on the boys' shoulders better) on the underside of the body opening. I added some other details with black cardstock, like loader arms and a blade on the loader bucket.

For the bulldozer, I glued black cardstock to the blade. The cardboard was wrinkled from bending it, and I wanted a smooth blade - it worked nicely. Then I cut strips of black cardstock, folded them accordian-style, and attached them around the wheels with hot glue in a couple of places.

Dave said I needed smoke stacks, so he painted a paper towel tube black and we cut it down. We put one on each machine.

At that point, I was pretty much done. I ordered some construction vests and hats on Amazon (the hats were awesome because they are very durable and have adjustable straps on the inside for a snug fit).

And voila! Adorable DIY costumes for my sweet boys.

We received lots of compliments on them when we were out trick-or-treating. A few people said they were the best they had ever seen, and someone said we "win Halloween." That's not why I did these, but it sure was nice to hear that people liked them. Mostly, I was just thrilled that my boys loved them so much. They were SO excited to wear them.

When I first started this project, it seemed like it would be SO difficult, but once I broke it down into steps, it really wasn't bad. I probably worked on them 5 times - sometimes during nap and sometimes after they went to bad. I'm sure it took less than 5 hours total. Assembling them took the longest, but the rest went pretty quickly.

Unfortunately, it always seems to rain on Halloween, so they don't look brand new anymore. But they did last through trick-or-treating (twice) in the rain, and the parts that need fixing won't be too hard to do. A little glue and tape and we'll be good as new so I can give them away to someone else to use next year.

Big thanks to my husband for painting them and for being my construction consultant. Teamwork makes the dream work.

If you use this "tutorial" for your own costume inspiration, let me know in the comments. I'd love to see what others come up with!

Halloween Costumes 2015

I finally finished the boys' costumes this weekend. I will probably put up a "how to" post sometime soon in case it would be helpful to anyone else out there. But for now, I'll just share some pictures of the cutest bulldozer and backhoe loader operators you've ever seen.

Leland has been so excited about his backhoe loader costume. He would wear it all day, every day if I would let him.

Alden also loves his bulldozer costume, but he wasn't as cooperative for pictures.

See? Running away from me.

Since Alden wouldn't participate for a picture with his brother, I decided to try to get a picture of just the costumes. Leland insisted on being in it because he didn't want to leave his loader for one second.

I am so relieved to have the costumes done and I cannot wait for trick-or-treating on Saturday! Happy Halloween, friends!

Museum Field Trip

This past weekend, Leland's class had a field trip to the Children's Museum. Leland was so excited to spend some time with his preschool pals outside of school. We've been to the Children's Museum plenty of times, and even had a membership for a year. We hadn't been in several months, so we were surprised and happy to see some new things.

Leland loved the helicopter! He spent a great deal of time up there, and one of his teachers even climbed in with him.

The lighthouse is always a hit.

The sailboat activity was new. Leland had fun experimenting with angling the sails to get them to go where he wanted.

The slide and the water table are old favorites.

Bridges and trains were new. They were working on it the last time we were there.

Funny story, I saw the OB/GYN that delivered Alden while we were there. I have run into her probably three or four times (twice at the Children's Museum) since having Alden and she always remembers me. She even remembers my boys' names! She's not even my doctor; she was just the one on-call when I went into labor. We might just have to become friends since we apparently frequent the same places. Ha ha.

We had a great time with Leland's friends and teachers. As a teacher-mom, I know that I won't always be able to attend his field trips, so I love that this was on a weekend and I could be there.

Pumpkin Carving

This weekend, our friends invited us over for a little pumpkin carving party. Until this year, we hadn't carved pumpkins with the boys - we always painted them. But I was looking forward to carving them for the first time. Leland was excited to see Fischer because we haven't been able to see them much since school started.

Magi is such a great party hostess and thinks of things that I never do. She had some cute spider hot dogs and pumpkin cookies ready when we got there. I don't think I would have even thought to have snacks, let alone cute snacks.

We got to work right away when we got there. The boys weren't incredibly interested in pumpkin carving (the toys and their friends were more interesting), but they did have fun. I think scooping out the guts was their favorite.

Eric got fancy and used a template, while the rest of us tried free-handing it.

Our finished masterpieces.

Later that night, I lit some candles and turned off the lights so that the boys could see their pumpkins lit up. They loved it.

I love Halloween more and more every year. And I'm so thankful to have great friends to enjoy the festivities with.

Fall-ish Pictures

A couple of weeks ago, I took the boys to a nearby covered bridge to get some fall photos. Unfortunately, the leaves were still green so I didn't get the fall colors I was hoping for, but I knew we wouldn't have time this last weekend with Alden's birthday and I didn't think we'd have any leaves left by this weekend. So green leaves, but they still turned out nice, I think.

Note: We are finally in the stage where Leland will happily oblige to have his picture taken, but his smile doesn't look genuine. And Alden smiles constantly but is never looking my direction. So pictures of these two still take some work. I took about 200 pictures and ended up with a couple of keepers.

See...fake smile, but GOSH! He's still so handsome.

Cheeeeese!

I love this one, but I wish Leland's face wasn't covered.

We found a caterpillar!

Another car pulled up to get pictures so the boys were distracted. I still love this one though. Leland's pose is on point.

They had fun running back and forth across the bridge a gazillion times. And there is a bell to ring as well, so of course they had fun with that. Leland has asked if we can go back. I'm sure we'll be back at some point. Such a pretty place for pictures. Also, the property that it's on is for sale. I want to buy it! Now to just stumble upon gobs of money to afford it. 

Alden's Birthday "Party"

After the first birthday, we do simple "parties" with grandparents. They come over for dinner and cake and it's just an intimate gathering. We like that it's not a huge production, but our boys still feel the birthday love from their grandparents.

Here are some pictures from Alden's birthday.

He opened a few presents himself, but Leland was a big helper for most. That's what big brothers are for, right?

They had to open the duplo sets immediately, of course. Daddy helped put the vehicles together.

Growing up, we always had homemade cakes instead of store bought (homemade = from a box, but still made at home). I much prefer homemade cakes to store bought, so I like to make my boys' cakes myself but still try to be a little creative with them. Since Alden loves Blaze and the Monster Machines, I made him a Blaze monster truck cake. He dug it.

Of all the toys he received for his birthday, his favorite was the shovel from the Lego duplo construction set. He even ate his cake and ice cream with it.

Such a fun night celebrating our favorite two year old.