"Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort." - Franklin D. Roosevelt

 Last year I did not make Halloween costumes for the grandkids and I felt awful. I totally felt like I failed them. So this year I asked everyone early what then wanted to be and got to work.

Seeing the excitement there faces when they saw the complete costume brought me so much joy.  This year they did not got much of a preview of the costumes until they were done so it was a really fun when they saw them.

Since Larina is not yet 2 years old her mommy told me she wanted to by Elmo. It was so cute when I tried the skirt on her. She held out her arms and twilled around laughing. She makes a very cute Elmo...

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 Eli wanted to be a Minecraft spider. Minecraft is a video game that all the kids play. So after looking up what it looked like and made a costume and did not like it. So I threw that one away and started over. I enlisted Christa in making his hat with the eyes in it. Eli loved it! 

Oliver wanted to be Charizard who is a Pokemon character. I had no idea what that was so again I had to do my research. Once I figured it out I found the origami pattern for the head and wings. The pattern said it would take 6 to 8 hours to make so I figured it would be a good job for Grandpa Rick. Well Grandpa Rick thought it would be a good job for Jese so he also got to help. With team work it took them just over 6 hours to get it done. I made the body of the costume and we attached the wings to it. It turned out so good! Oliver was a happy little boy. I am happy to report that the mask survived trick or treating. 

Josie was my easy costume. She wanted to be a cat. We decided that she need a tutu also to make her a pretty kitty. She was all smiled when she came in and saw it.

 Liam wanted to by a green plastic soldier. After assembling all the parts I painted the jacket, pants and belt with some leftover latex paint. I had to do that so the green spray paint would not just soak in. It also made the cloth very stiff so it looked like plastic after it was painted green. I had Rick help me with the spay paint since I tend to spay it on to thick and make it run.

Liam made me the happiest with his reaction. I was helping him get it on and he told me that he did not think I was going to be able to make it look good but I had. He said it was really cool. That is a big complement from a 10 year old.

So there you have it another Halloween in the books!

Sharon