Backtrack: Halloween.

Halloween is definitely a favorite in our house. This year, it was the first holiday that Eisley really got to celebrate! Double the excitement! For the past few year's I've been attempting to incorporate handmade items into our holiday season. I've never pushed myself hard enough or managed my time well enough to complete larger items (I generally make small things like hair accessories.) I committed to making my first handmade family costumes this year. In order to start off easy, I went with mediums I've worked with for years: felt & yarn! Naturally, the theme we chose was beach. Emerson was a shark- costume made out of a hoodie, soft felt, stiffened felt, and google eyes, paired with an already owned pair of grey skinnies (that were a little too short, but still worked for the day.) I had seen this idea online. Eisley was a jellyfish- costume made out of onesie and cotton tights that I dyed, some single-stitch and double-stitch crochet strands, and a handmade slouchy beret. This idea was all my own. Not a lot of people got it, but I still felt pretty creative and proud of myself! I was a lifeguard. Super simple to throw together. Brian was a shark-attacked surfer and wore his normal beach garb. The entire set cost us around $20. Pretty decent considering children's costumes are at least that much a piece! Handmade costumes are definitely something I'll continue to do. I can't wait to get a little more adventurous.

I fear this year might had been the last time we'll be able to have our tradition of themed family costumes. I imagine next year Emerson will have his heart set on a certain costume that might not have correlating Mom, Dad & Sis costumes. This year he was still pretty easy to sway. Plus he loves sea creatures! Either way, I made sure to savor this year's theme as if it was our last.

A new Halloween tradition I'm happy to pull into next year is making time for a little photoshoot of the kids in their costumes. I'm more than pleased with how these turned out! There was a perfect haze and I loved the hill as a backdrop. I'm getting to know my camera better, finally, after nearly three years of super-amateur photos. I was a teacher's assistant in a photography class in high school, which gave me some knowledge of how to frame shots, but I still don't have a full understanding of my camera as a device. I've been doing lots of manual experimenting. It's pretty difficult to do on-the-go and when taking photos of my busy-body children, so I didn't shoot in manual here. A Canon EOS Rebel T3i is on my list of purchases for next year. Photography has been an interest of mine since I was a kid, so I'm happy to act on it a little more. The canon also has video capabilities and I can't even express how excited I am to take advantage of them! My flip is fun, but I can't wait to make my mini movies a little more legitimate.

The kids were both awesome during trick-or-treating. Eisley was a little grumpy at the beginning, but it had already been a long day by the time we went out. Emerson went to so many houses! The kid has so much energy. One of his nicknames is Emergizer. I was happy he called it quits for himself before we had to tell him that we had to be done. I'm not too fond of the idea of letting my kids gorge themselves on candy, but we let Em indulge a little. He's seriously so awesome when it comes to self-control with sweets. He'll have a couple bites and be content.


















Our mummy & pumpkin bagel pizza lunch!