Halloween 2011

It was a Halloween to remember (or maybe to forget!). We actually squeezed Halloween in, in between pukes. It all started on Saturday evening when Maida threw up red, RED, all over my white carpet. Erik and I spent the rest of the evening scrubbing and scrubbing and scrubbing. We also took turns running into Maida's room to catch puke.

Around 10:30pm, we deiced that it was time for bed since Erik hadn't been sleeping much lately and I decided to sleep in Maida's room on the floor to help her since she had been puking about three times an hour all evening. Right as I laid down on my pallet, I heard puking coming from the boys' room. I yelled for Erik and we both ran in there to find Klaasen puking all over his crib. We tag-team cleaned up him and his bed and then I brought him to bed with me on the floor in Maida's room. The rest of the night was spent catching puke. They both threw up about 3-4 times an hour until 4am, when Maida finally stopped puking. Klaasen turned in shortly after and we were able to get a couple hours of sleep.

Sunday we stayed home from church and I spent the day washing laundry and cleaning floors. Maida had a touchy stomach and laid on the couch for the majority of the day. Klaasen took a four hour nap, which gave me just enough time to finish up the costumes and start making some special treats for our neighbors.

Monday morning I kept the kids home from school since I was paranoid about passing germs around and we wrapped up last minute Halloween preparations. The kids and I packed up the Pumpkin Butter and Goblin Bait for our neighbors and did a trial run with the costumes to make sure I had everything.

We also had to carve our pumpkins! Erik got home from work just in time to help the kids carve while I made dinner.

Maida wanted a butterfly on her pumpkin and Skogen wanted a mean face with sharp teeth that said, "RAAAAAAAAWWWW." Erik did a great job of carving on such a time crunch!

While carving pumpkins, Skogen started telling us that his tummy hurt, but we encouraged him, reminding him that in just a few hours we'd be trick-or-treating for candy! That seemed to work and I sort of wondered if it really did hurt or if he was just saying that because he had heard Maida saying that.

Dinner came and went, along with our spooky drinks, and lots of trick-or-treaters at our door.

Soon it was time for us to get the kids in costume (which included a few meltdowns and a couple of other, "Mommy, my tummy hurts."). We kept encouraging the kids, telling them we were on our way to get candy. All costumed up, down the street, and four houses later and Skogen couldn't make it another step. Not even candy could keep him going. His tummy hurt and he had to puke. Daddy brought him home, where he promptly puked all over the place. I finished out the street with Maida and Klaasen so that we could meet our neighbors and deliver our treats, and of course get more candy! Then my night was spent on the living room floor where I caught puke for the rest of the night.

By the next day, I had the bug, too, and Skogen and I stayed right in our bed on the living room floor all day, while Maida and Klaasen crawled and jumped all over our sick bodies. I was so happy to see Erik home for lunch (so he could put Klaasen down for a nap) and then I was so so thankful to see him home for bedtime, too! He took complete care of the kids so that I could rest up and try to get a good night's sleep.

OUR COSTUMES

Our inspiration for the kids' costumes came from these two famous potato heads.

When we lived in our small apartment this summer, there wasn't much for the kids to do. Most of our afternoons were spent building potato head families. When Halloween rolled around this year, the kids knew exactly what they wanted to be. The only problem was, I couldn't find a pattern anywhere and the only costumes I could buy were $35-40 for one! So, Maida and I drew some parts on some scratch paper, Skogen and I picked out material at the store, and off I went on the sewing machine.

All of the parts were stuffed with cotton balls or plastic grocery bags and were velcroed on so that the kids could switch parts around, just like on the real potato heads.

I stuffed their bodies with grocery bags, diapers, and crib sheets.

The shoes we got at the thrift store. (If anyone wears a size 7.5 and would like either pair, let me know and they're yours!)

I got the idea for Klaasen's costume, somewhere on the internet (I have no idea where because I wasn't Pinteresting at that time!). I wanted to make him a baby potato head, but since we got sick and I was running short on time, this was a little faster to make.

I found some material at the store that I thought might look like a tater tot and then cut and sewed and put in some elastic. I also printed out an Ore-Ida label off of the Ore-Ida website, but I switched the "tots," to, "tot," and the "8 pound value size," to "28 pound value size." It works out that he just happens to be 28 pounds, too!