{Costume parade} year 2

We don't really celebrate Halloween, but unfortunately it's a difficult holiday to ignore altogether. Especially with the creepy decorations all over our neighborhood, the scary and disgusting displays at every single store in town, and, oh yes, the hordes of kids that show up at our door each year. Every year Robert and I struggle with just how much to do - or not to do - on Halloween, since it's not possible to ignore it or, even better, just fastforward to Nov. 1. Usually we buy some candy for the trick-or-treaters and let the kids each eat a piece while we watch a movie. Since 3 of the 4 are now in Awana, there is also a "Costume Night" on the Sunday closest to Halloween, and we allow them to dress up for that. Since I love sewing costumes, usually I make some or all of the kids' costumes for that - it's one project that actually "stays done" and you can never have too many dress ups, right?

This year Gabriella kept talking about how she wanted to be Strawberry Shortcake, one of her favorite characters, and Elora would Strawberry's baby sister, Apple Dumplin'. That seemed appropriate! (She also decided that Auntie Dano was going to be Strawberry's friend, Blueberry Muffin, despite the fact that said auntie lives in Colorado...she was an honorary member.;-)  There aren't really a lot of boy characters in Strawberry Land, so the boys picked characters from some of their favorite shows, Bob the Builder and Fireman Sam. Luckily we already had most of those costume pieces, so I got to focus on making the girls' dresses.

They were pretty simple, really - I just cut off the top of a t-shirt, made a little gathered skirt, and sewed them together. The hats were actually kind of a bigger pain. I bought them at the store and then hot-glued the fabric on, but they didn't stay on very well, especially Gabriella's.  Here's the finished product:

All four looking at the camera and smiling at once! That's gotta be a record.

 James as "Bob the Builder"

 

 Joseph as "Fireman Sam"

 

Elora as "Apple Dumplin'"

 

 Close up of Elora's dress. Her favorite part was the "hattie" as she kept calling it. She insisted on wearing that hat everywhere. And yes, the little buttons on her bows are apples. ;-)

Gabriella as "Strawberry Shortcake." Her dress isn't an exact replica of the character's, more like my interpretation of what Strawberry would wear. But the colors, especially the green and white stripes, are authentic.

 I was just not happy with Gabs's hat - it was a funny shape and wouldn't stay on, so we tied it under her chin with bows. But she liked it anyway. The hat is covered with Strawberry Shortcake fabric that Sophie gave her, and her buttons are strawberries.

 

The two sisters. I love the fact that I have little girls and can make dresses for them. I think they can even wear the dresses, minus the hats, as regular clothes. Maybe to church.

 

That's the costume parade from the Voss house this year. Hope you enjoyed it!

 

 

Costume parade...

As I mentioned before, this year's kind of the first year we really planned to do anything for Halloween. And, as it turned out, we didn't actually really do anything different! We were going to go to a "trunk-or-treat" event at a local church, but Robert had to work late, and we found out later that it had a lot of scary stuff, so I'm glad we didn't! Instead we dressed the kids in their costumes, had a nice dinner at home, watched a movie together, and ate way too much candy! It was a fun night just to spend together as a family, and I got to dress up the kids and (attempt) to take their pictures! They also got to wear their costumes to Awana on Sunday night because it was "dress up" night, and Robert and I were filling in for some teachers who were absent, so we brought the girls along too.

So here they are:

Cinderella:

Prince Charming:

Bruno, the dog:

and the little mouse:

Here's the only picture I could get with all four of them together:

And then James got bored and left...

I tried very hard to get a picture of Cinderella running away from Prince Charming, while he holds her slipper and calls "wait!" This is what I got instead:

(please ignore the big piles of dishes in the background. We had to take photos in the kitchen because that's the only room with good overhead lighting. As you can tell, I spent the week sewing, not cleaning.)

Finally, here's one of the Prince fitting Cinderella's slipper on her foot. I think it's my favorite!

I love the demure little expression on her face. She likes having her brother kneeling at her feet WAY too much! ;-)

Cinderella was a big hit. Next year I think we'll go for something simpler though! Whew! I'm tired of sewing.

Halloween?

It's October, which means you can't go anywhere without being accosted by all manner of creepy-looking paraphernalia: skeletons, ghosts, vampires, tombstones, leering pumpkins, and *shudder* spiders, among other things. Some people (ahem...our neighbors) have even gone so far as to start decorating their houses with "Halloween lights," a garish orange parody of the Christmas lights I love so much. I hate taking my children to the store during this month because I don't want them too see all the horrible decorations and costumes. However, I am kind of conflicted about Halloween as a whole.

Growing up, my family never celebrated Halloween. No costumes, no trick or treating, no parties. Usually my mom would buy a bag of candy, just in case any neighbor kids stopped by (which, living in the East Mountains, they usually didn't!) and let us eat a couple of pieces. Once or twice we went to "Fall Carnivals" thrown at churches, and I seem to remember one where we all dressed up as Bible characters. (I must have been about 6 because I remember I wore an old pillowcase and was Miriam and my brother Isaac was Moses and Mom put him in a basket.) Usually we celebrated "Reformation Day" instead, because as any good homeschooling kid knows, Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses of protest against the Catholic church to the door of the church in Wittenburg on October 31, 1517.

I understand the reasons why my parents chose not to celebrate Halloween, and I respected them, even though I felt (and still feel) that it was highly unfair that Satan had stolen the holiday of dress up and candy, two of my favorite things! Once I hit my twenties, my sister and I dressed up in our homemade Renaissance costumes and went out with friends to dinner on Halloween a few times. But now that I have kids who are old enough to actually notice, Halloween has become an issue I have to deal with.

My husband came from a Christian, Bible-believing family who had a different approach to Halloween. Their kids always dressed up and went trick-or-treating. For the first few years we had kids, we'd talk about what we believed about Halloween, but we never really had to decide because they were too little to really do anything. We dressed them in their Batman and Superman and Pooh bear pajamas, just because it was cute, and we passed out candy to the neighbor kids. But this year they are getting older and we still haven't decided on a strong conviction one way or the other.

I believe that there are many aspects of Halloween that definitely ARE wrong and demonic. I don't approve of all the ugly and scary things, simply because I don't think they are edifying or glorifying to God, and I wouldn't let my kids dress up like them or decorate our house with them. But I admit I don't see anything inherently wrong with dressing up in costumes. Or eating candy! I don't want my kids to go trick-or-treating because I don't feel like it's safe, and somehow it seems rude to me to ask other people for candy! Especially because they would certainly never be allowed to "trick" someone who doesn't give it to them!

This year Robert decided we should go to the "trunk or treat" event that's being held at a nearby church. And I am making all the costumes. Gabriella's favorite movie is Cinderella, and the boys like it a lot too, so we are all going to be characters from Cinderella. Gabriella will be Cinderella, of course, and I have already started working on her dress. Elora will be one of the mice, and Joseph will be Prince Charming, and James will be Bruno, the dog (because honestly, that is who James likes best! ;-) And if I get around to it, I will be the fairy godmother and Robert will be the Grand Duke.

 I love sewing costumes, and I am really excited about making them for my kids. As for the whole "Halloween Issue," we may just have to take it on a year-by-year basis. Ultimately we will do whatever Robert thinks is best, because he's the boss of this house! ;-) There is no specific Bible verse that says whether or not to celebrate Halloween...but there is one that says "wives, submit to your husbands." And I trust him to make a good decision because I know he listens to The Boss.

What about you? Do you celebrate Halloween? Why or why not?        

Memory Lane

Thinking about Rachel's upcoming visit has me wandering down memory lane today! (If Memory Lane was a real place, I think it would look like this:)

When I was in college, a group of my girlfriends and I shared our love of long-forgotten days and medieval garb by making costumes and taking yearly trips to the Renaissance Fair in Larkspur, Colorado. We would drive up in a big group, stay at my grandmother's house (who reveled in sharing the experience, let me assure you!), and go to the Fair wearing our creations. It was a fun chance to pretend we lived 400 years ago, sport beautiful fashions that we (sadly) cannot seem to convince the rest of society should be worn every day, and spend some quality "girl time!"

Daniella and her best friend Emily as fairies: 

 Sarah as a noblewoman and me as Maid Marian

:

Jessica isn't really into dresses, so she opted for a knight's costume:

Here is our whole group. Rachel (in black) is Juliet, and my grandmother was doing her own thing, as usual, celebrating the "Egyptian Renaissance" in a lovely gown she acquired in Egypt.

One of the Renaissance shops (it is truly a "fair" with everything you can possibly imagine for sale!)

 Below: The jousting arena. There are four knights who joust, each with their own squire and herald. The area surrounding the arena is divided into four sections and each section supports one of the knights, hurrahing their success and booing the others.

Daniella and Emily with Anthony, the marshal who oversees the joust.

Anothony explaining the rules for the joust. Great fun...the knights are greatly skilled with their lances, though not with their jokes... 

I don't seem to have any pictures of the actual joust (I guess the horses were moving too fast!) but here are Sarah and I after the tournament.

I believe the reason Rachel and Jessica are in so few of these pictures is that they were the ones with the cameras!

Note - there are two teams, the "good knights" and the "bad knights." We cheered Sir William, one of the good guys. If I remember correctly, he was killed. ;-(

The fairies with Sir Jeffrey, an evil knight (boo!)

Sarah with Sir Marcus, another evil knight. (For shame, Sarah! Don't tell Jason...)

Our whole group outside the castle:

Now I really want to go to the Renaissance Fair again, girls!