I found this picture on the Make.com website:

HR Puffnstuff!

Forget pixies and fairies – next year Daughter2 can dress up as a Bugaloo!

Mom, the Raisin Bran box says, “OMG! Cholesterol!”

For Halloween, last year, my eldest was Goth.  She wanted to dye her hair black.  First, we tried a semi-permanent dye that was supposed to eventually wash out.  Unfortunately, that turned her hair a grayish purple.  We went out and got some permanent dye.  Zisixi dyed her hair for her.  She liked it, and it looked good (for several months, until the blond roots started to grow out).  We still have some spots in the carpet and on the walls from the dye.

Middle child was a garden pixie.  She was upset that people kept thinking she was a fairy.  According to her definition:  “Fairies live in the imaginary realm, like unicorns.  Pixies interact with humans, like in Peter Pan.”  (I think she was just grumpy that the black widow was getting so much attention.)

Youngest was a Black Widow spider.  When people would tell her she looked scary, she would reply,
“Don’t worry, I won’t hurt you. I’m a vegetarian.”
 

Last year, our youngest wanted to be a Black Widow Spider.  She wore a black sweat suit (with several layers of warmer clothes underneath.) 

It was a lot of work, but we had fun making the costume.  (zisixi, my sister and I all worked on it.)

Directions:

1.  Sew black feather boas onto the arms and legs of the sweat suit to make them look hairy. 
2.  Cut the legs off of two pairs of black nylons, stuff them with batting, and sew boas onto each “leg.”
3.  Sew two legs under arms on each side of sweatshirt.
4.  Use fishing line to attach bottom “leg” on sweatshirt to  the arm of the sweatshirt.
5.  Cut a shiny piece of red fabric in an hourglass shape.  Attach to sweatshirt.

Mask

1.  Cut 4 ping pong balls in half, and paint black. 
2.  Attach ping pong balls above eyes on the face mask.
3.  Cut a styrofoam ring in 1/4s.  Attach 2 of the 1/4s under the mouth to make the chalicerae (fangs.)
4.  Put black makeup around eyes.

I just answered this Featured Question, you can answer it too!

There is actually a patent for the cold weather Halloween costume. 

I found two other interesting Halloween related patents: 

What is a flexible or light emitting member?

A chemiluminescent reagent sounds truly frightening.  I’m guessing its like a glow stick.  And that picture of the little girl…now that’s scary.

Illumination and Halloween costume
 
…”A light
emitting member having an appearance which creates, in the mind of an
individual viewing the light emitting member, an associated image
associated with the image of a person, animal, character or thing
completes the inventive costume.”

CHEMILUMINESCENTLY ILLUMINATED COSTUME SAFETY MASK

A costume
safety mask housing chemiluminescent reagents. Upon activation, the
reagents illuminate the mask or features thereon for purposes of
novelty illumination and safety of the wearer. The mask may include
liquid, viscous liquid, or solid chemiluminescent reagents that are
held in cavities. Liquid components of the instant invention may be
transported through passageways in the mask to provide a flowing
appearance.

[0066] FIG. 6 depicts a mask 100 that simulates a young girl
wherein the liquid-liquid chemiluminescent reagents or liquid-dry
chemiluminescent reagents can be used to highlight aspects of the mask.
The safety mask may include cavities to highlight the cheek 102, chin
104, forehead 106, eyebrow 108, lip 110, eyeball 112, nose 114, hair
116 and so forth. The mask can be rotatably attached to a human head by
the use of a hook and loop (VELCRO) strap and rotated so that the
representation of the mask would change, for example, to that of an
elderly woman, as shown in FIG. 7. Portions of the mask may be opaque
to conceal fluids and other fluids may relocate to cause enhanced aged
features. For example, the chin 124 may contain fluid that flowed from
the young girl’s hair 116. The eyeball 112 fluid may flow to the
eyeball socket 126. The lips 110 having a concentrated fluid may flow
to the general forehead area 128, and so forth. The result is a dual
function mask having illumination for novelty as well as safety
purposes.

Two different “collectible” covers for Martha Stewart’s Halloween magazine:

“Glampire” Martha

“Goddess Martha”

Last year, I went to see Amy Sedaris at the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul.  Amy was there promoting her book, I Like You, on  The Current Fakebook.  When Mary Lucia asked her about her appearance on the Martha Stewart show, Amy replied, “we’re just different energies.”

Video:   Amy Sedaris making a Lady Baltimore cake on the Martha Stewart show:

Martha told Amy “In my book I try to make things look like they should. In your book you make things look like they are.”  

I think making things look like they are instead of how the should be is ‘good thing’.  

Ah, that time of year again.  Time to figure out what the kids want to be for Halloween, and buy/make costumes.  Just narrowing down the choice is stressful enough.  The kids usually change their mind at least 4 times before actually deciding what they want to be. 

When they were little it was easy – I usually got something for a couple of bucks at a garage sale; a lamb, a bunny, a pumpkin.   A couple of years ago, we got costumes at one of those stores that is just open for Halloween.  We hadn’t found anything at the thrift store, and I didn’t have time to make anything. I was really not happy about it; the costumes they sell are flimsy, way overpriced, and not at all suited for trick-or-treating in Minnesota. 

Boughten (that doesn’t even sound like a real word, but it is) costumes just don’t suffice for Minnesota Halloweens.  Remember the Halloween Blizzard of 1991?  (Actually, I was living in Hawaii at the time, but it could happen again!)  Even Minnesota-based Target stores only sell the light-weight sleeveless costumes.  You would think at least they could sell some that are made of microfleece.

As a kid, I remember crying and/or pouting about having to wear a coat over my costume. “Really, I’ll be fine.  I’ll be running around so much, I won’t get cold.  Nobody will be able to see my costume!”  Usually I did get cold, even with the coat.

I wonder what subarcticsuburbia does for Halloween in Alaska? 

I’m having a bad morning.

My life is building sand castles on the the beach.  Ordinary sandbucket and seashell sandcastles.  I spend all day working on it, and in an instant, the all of my work is washed out to sea.  Start over again tomorrow.

    After watching Schoolhouse Rock, the kids and I walked across the street to Munkabeans & Sunshine Cafe for a snack and a latte.  

In addition to coffee, they also offer massage and acupuncture.  Interesting combination.

Dang.  If I would have gone on a Thursday morning I could have gotten a free chair massage.

I was feeling rushed, grumpy, and in need of a good bitch session with my friends. I had to rush to pick up Daughter1 from school, then pick up zisixi from home and bring him to his chiropractor appointment.  I was nervous about the results from the previous day’s MRI, stressed about dealing with insurance companies and lawyers, and worried about Daughter1’s grades.  We had checked her online progress report, and she was getting an F in ART.  She loves art, and I couldn’t understand why she would be getting an F.

I pulled out a chair to wait for my coffee, and was surprised to see a happy face painted on it.  It seemed like a good omen, and made me smile.  I turned my phone back on, and saw a message from my friend Kelle saying that they were going to JoAnn’s house in St. Paul, and we were welcome to join them for lunch. 

I drove to JoAnn’s house and  had a few more minutes to bitch and have a cup of tea with my friends.  I let the younger girls play while I picked up Daughter1, then went back to pick up Daughters2 and 3.   We drove home to pick up zisixi for his appointment (his car was still at the shop.)  I was only about 5 minutes late (which is good for me,) and I called the chiro to let them know we were running late. 

According to the chiropractor, the MRI results looked good. Daughter1 talked to her Art teacher.  After recording some assignments that somehow didn’t get recorded, he changed her grade from an F to an A-.

All’s well that ends well, I guess.

Last Wednesday, I took my 8 and 10 year old daughters to Stages Theater’s
production of Schoolhouse Rock. 

I had forgotten my Mapquest directions. My iPhone directions told me to take 35W (not an option) and kept changing my destination from Hopkins to Plymouth.  Amazingly, I made it to the theater on time (which for
home school groups means about an hour early, in order to be seated before the
huge school groups.) 

I knew three of the other moms there, and even though the
kids didn’t get to talk much, they got to sit together, and I had a bit of
mom-chat time.  I have missed that in the
past weeks, as we haven’t been to our weekly play group. 

I told the kids that mom and dad used to watch Schoolhouse
Rock on Saturday mornings – back before the days of cartoons on demand.  We have the DVD with all of the songs, and
sometimes I make them watch it. 

I’m sure the moms enjoyed the production more than the kids.  The cast invited everyone to sing the
Preamble to the Constitution.  I
was already (quietly) singing along to all of the songs. 

The next day, my youngest asked me “Mom, what are burbs?” 

Me:  “Burbs?”

D3:  “You know, ‘Burbs,
that’s whats happening!”

Me”  “Verbs – verbs are
action words, like run, jump, play…”

D3:   “Oh, verbs.  I get it.”

I swear we have talked about verbs before.  Time to watch the old Schoolhouse Rock DVD again.  I just found out that most of the episodes are on YouTube!  The kids would probably like watching that better than the DVD.