Halloween 2011!

For those of you who haven't yet seen this picture on FB, here it is again: Silas as a wolf in sheep's clothing.  I think this might be my favorite of his Halloween costumes, to date.  I made the hooded vest and ears from the Bainbridge sheep's wool.  It's knit with spun yarn as well as with un-spun batting.  I also knit the wolf-paw gloves, but credit for the mask goes to Drew who cut all of the pieces, and my friend Barb, who sewed it together for us.  Thanks Barb!

We began our Halloween with a video chat with Grandma and Papa.  That afternoon, I dropped Silas off at school and got to see all of the adorableness that is a preschool costume party.

Comparing outfits:

Circle time, in which each child got to tell everyone about their costume:

He might not be a lion, a tiger, or bear (oh my), but I do think you might want to keep your distance, Dorothy!

After school, we headed to the Island, met up with Drew, saw some friends, and participated in the obligatory trick-or-treat madness.  Then it was back to the house to pass out candy for neighborhood nighttime trick-or-treat.  I took Silas to a few houses of people we know, but really, we were pretty tired by then.  Time for this wolf to start counting sheep :)

Jack-o-lanterns

Happy Halloween, everyone! 

Lots of pictures will follow, after the day's events...

Back to the pumpkin patch

On a beautiful fall day last week, Silas' class went to the pumpkin patch (you can see last year's trip here).

Drew went along and dutifully took pictures for me.

These next two pictures melt my heart:

Silas and his best bud, J.  These two are thick as thieves this year.

With the pumpkin patch trip behind us, we are gearing up for Halloween.  The costume is done.  Now all we need to do is to carve the pumpkins.

He's home!

We picked Drew up from his retreat on Friday.  It was a long two weeks for all of us and we're so glad to have him home!

I didn't intend this blog post as a Halloween spoiler, but Silas REALLY wanted to wear the part of his costume that I'd finished so that he could show his dad. And that's all I'll say about it...for now :)

Happy Halloween 2010!

Well, the day has finally come and gone. It was long, but we loved it. For the first time ever, we went up to Port Gamble to trick-or-treat. It did not disappoint: Way smaller and low key then the crowds on Bainbridge. Each business offered something different: games, "fishing" for prizes, etc. All in a lovely, scenic town. The top two pictures were taken there.
After Port Gamble, we headed for our Midwife's house. Each year she hosts a reunion open to all of the families whose babies she helped birth. We've never gone before, but now think we'd like to make it part of our Halloween routine. It was wonderful to see her and the house that she built, which is only a few miles from the town we live in.

After an all too brief time there, we headed to Bainbridge to drop Drew at the ferry, meet up with Patrick and do some more trick-or-treating. Although I had my camera with me, I stopped taking pictures around this time. I think we were all a little burnt out by this point. We had promised Silas that we'd take him to Bainbridge, so we had to follow through. I think next year we'll skip it. It's become too crowded and hectic. Still enjoyable to see all of the kids dressed up, but not at all fun to push a shy three year old through the masses.

Back at home, Patrick and I took Silas for a brief walk around the neighborhood and then I settled in and passed out a bit of candy to trick-or-treaters. After picking out a few pieces of candy, he set the rest on a table in his bedroom to await the candy fairy, who will take away his candy and leave a present.

The last two shots are from Thursday (costume day at preschool):
The shell that Drew made...Nice, huh?
Did you have a fun Halloween? I hope so!

Peek-a-BOO!

Happy Halloween!
I'll post pictures from the day sometime soon...

The jack-o-lantern post

We finally carved our pumpkins!
Silas says: they are spooky... but funny spooky, not scary spooky.
I think he's right :)
Silas got to test drive his Halloween costume at preschool yesterday. The shell that Drew made looks fabulous. I took pictures and am so tempted to post them, but I think I'll wait until Sunday.

Have a happy spooky Halloween weekend!

A house for Hermit Crab

Well, I'm not keeping the identity of my son's Halloween persona a secret this year. He quite firmly decided several months ago that he wanted to be a hermit crab. Actually, he started out by saying he wanted to be a ghost hermit crab monster, but I think we talked him down to just plain old hermit crab.
Have you ever tried to make a hermit crab outfit before. No? Really? Well, neither have too many other people apparently. I basically went out on my own here, designing first the mitts and then the hat.
He likes to pretend to pinch things with his mitts. He will grab on to my hand, and gently press down, and then say "See, I'm a nice crab."
We are still searching for the perfect house (i.e. shell) for this Hermit Crab. I'm leaving that mainly up to Drew to take care of. We have some ideas, and some time. Hopefully it will all come together by the end of the month.

Trick or treat or, better late than never

Again with the neglectant posting... It's November 5th and I'm finally catching up with a few more Halloween pictures.Trick or treating takes place downtown, where they close off the main street and all of the costumed kiddos gather to rake in the candy. Silas was super excited to wear his bulldozer. He took the whole thing very seriously.Since the costume was a bit cumbersome, we held onto his toolbox and collected the candy for him. There was actually only one item that he was truly excited to receive. And believe it or not, it was an apple (handed out at the grocery store). Nope, it wasn't candy that he begged me for for the rest of the day. It was that delicious red apple, which he got to eat for dessert. He really could have cared less for the several toolboxes worth of candy we collected. Not that he doesn't have a sweet tooth, mind you, but having never had that sort of candy before, he didn't think much of it or seem to care.
That night, we let him pick out three pieces to save and try some other time. The rest of the candy was taken by the Candy Fairy, and she was nice enough to leave him a little present in exchange (she was also nice enough to share a few pieces of candy with Silas' parents :)

Silas' friend O is dressed as a mushroom (hat conveniently attached to the stroller, she is more interested in S's bulldozer at the moment), and her parents went as gnomes:
Halloween wasn't all about trick-or-treating. That morning, we carved the Cinderella pumpkin we grew in the garden this summer.
Grandma, mom, and Silas all helped.
I bought Silas a safety knife and he quickly mastered it...
...with a bit of guidance.
Silas named the jack-o-lantern Spud and really seemed fond of him. On Monday, we asked if it would be okay for us to give Spud to the sheep to eat. I thought he might be resistant, but he said that was fine and, well, that was the end of Spud.

I'll have a few more pictures from my parents' visit, one of these days...

Happy Halloween 09: Bugdozer Man!

Here's the big costume reveal. This was a group effort: I knit the sweater, Drew made the bulldozer, Patrick made the "Bugdozer Construction" logo, and Silas supplied a heaping dose of cuteness. "Bugdozer, by the way, is a character from the Richard Scarry books.

I'll be back in a day or two with more pictures and details from our day.

Halloween '08: Pumpkin Sprite!

Here's our little pumpkin sprite!
It took over a month to make his costume, but I think it was a success. I was worried at first because he wasn't too fond of wearing the hat. I lined it with flannel and then he agreed to wear it. In fact, he wore it for 4 hours without trying to take it off once!

In addition to the felted pumpkin hat and knit pants, I made a simple crocheted quiver for him to carry a stalk of Chinese lanterns on his back.

Here he is, running to the car so that we can go trick-or-treating downtown.
Being only 19 months old, Silas doesn't eat candy and we didn't want the temptation of having too much of it in the house, so while we did collect some, we largely wanted Silas to give something away instead. Seeing as though he was a pumpkin sprite, I got a bunch of tiny pumpkins for him to pass out. Our first stop was Cafe Trios where Silas gave away his first pumpkin of the evening to his favorite barista (apparently, in exchange for her phone, which he really did not want to give back).
Then, we hit Winslow Way (our main street), which was closed to traffic for trick-or-treat.
We saw lots of great costumes, and as the rain had stopped, there ended up being tons of people.
Here's our friend Carmen, with baby Ozma, dressed as a bat. So cute!

A good shot detailing the back of his costume:
Silas loves this fountain, which is right outside my favorite store, Churchmouse Yarns and Teas.
After trick-or-treat, we made one last stop at Shannon and Patrick's house. Silas gave away his last 2 pumpkins and posed for a few more pictures before calling it a night.
What a great Halloween! And if the pictures weren't enough, here's a short video too. Remember that if you click on the video and go to Youtube, you can choose to watch it in high quality.


We hope you all had a fun Halloween!

Halloween Preparedness Checklist

Trip to the pumpkin patch. check.
Turning a pumpkins into a jack-o-lantern. check.
Jack-o-lantern checklist added note: It was a family effort. Drew scooped out the stringy stuff and seeds and then roasted the seeds. I did the oh-so-elegant carving, and Silas held the top for us so that it wouldn't get lost and also threw pieces of discarded pumpkin bits off of the deck.Back to the checklist:
Read "scary" stories, including "The spooky old tree" which grandma and pa sent. check.

Wear the cute Halloween pajamas that grandma G sent. check.
And finally,
Put the finishing touches on Si's costume. che--er, well, almost check. Let's just say, it will be ready to go by trick-or-treat time on Friday afternoon. We are ready for Halloween and can't wait!

Halloween Costume Sneak-Peek

I don't want to totally give Si's Halloween costume away, and I am actually still working on some of the accessories. I thought I'd let you have a sneak-peek, however. So, here's a partial view of the hat... stay tuned for more pictures on Halloween.