Calvin and Hobbes Costumes! Halloween 2021

Halloween 2021 brings us none other than....Calvin and Hobbes!

An absolute family favorite in this home. 

This journey began years and years ago as their uncle every Christmas gifted the kids a new Calvin and Hobbes book. Presently, they have them all and literally read them every. single. day. 

When it came time to pick costumes, the kids wanted to try a family theme and everyone easily picked their favorite!

Presenting:

For this costume, I painted black stripes on a red shirt I bought and purchased some black shorts.  Spike up the hair and its good to go.

Hobbes was one of my complicated of this year.  I made up the pattern to make this tiger suit.  It was important to be that he had a dropped waist to make that big tummy.  I made it from orange felt, white fur and once it was all sewn, painted on the black stripes. The felt sucked up the paint and painting took hours and hours!

I also sewed up this little Spaceman Spiff costume.  I basically made a shirt and pants and added yellow accents. The fabric is soft, thin knit.  I attached black cardboard around his glasses. 

 Dad and Mom get points for being the easiest to recreate!  J basically wore a typical work outfit and I added a $1 pair of glasses from the dollar store.  My outfit was created from my closet.

Cute Susie.  I sewed her little purple overalls and grabbed shirts from her closet. 

Moe's costume was a big, black t-shirt and shorts from his drawers.  Don't forget that hair combed in the face. 

And lastly, the sweetbabysitter Rosalyn.  I bought a cute sweatshirt and paired it with clothes we had.  A side pony and she was set! 

 

Another Building Block Dress

This is a bit of a throwback, to a dress I sewed in 2019.  The occasion was a wedding! 

 All these sweet little cousins were asked to wear a Navy blue dress to their Aunt's wedding.  I bought two maxi dresses for the big sisters, but needed something for baby.  

Really I wanted a maxi dress for baby...but no one makes maxi dresses for babies.  They're completely unpractical, they can't crawl, walk, or move much with a dress tripping them up on the ground.

But, of course, I can always make one, I thought. 

I pulled out my trusty Building Block Dress Book and got planning. I turned the back buttons to the front, wanting to feature these cute "diamond" buttons ( I cut out of an old cardigan). I picked a simple sleeve, added a ribbon, and lots of length to make it floor length...yep, even on a baby.

I choose a really thick knit fabric with had a really nice drape to it.  The result was perfect (albeit a little long, per design).  She matched her sisters and family perfectly. 

Fast-forward two years later, she's still wearing this dress.  Still a perfect fit!  

I often add a lot of length to whatever I'm sewing for the kids, wanting them to last a bit longer -- but who would have guessed this dress would still fit perfectly having gone from a baby to a "big kid".  

She's gotten a lot sillier over the years, but still my little sweetie!

 

Primary Program Reward Chart Display - Ice Cream Party!

We are down to a few weeks left until our Primary Program (yay!).  We've have a bit of a rough start, but the kids have been amazing and through it all, they have been cheerful and happy to sing.

As time drew nearer I was excited to make up this little reward chart to keep us motivated to make sure we've learned all our songs.  Here's how to make your own. 

Materials Needed

Thick poster board (Dollar store)

print off ice cream pages (free-- found here)

laminator

markers

Step one: Print off ice cream pages and write your song names. 

 If you want, run each page through the laminator and cut each ice cream out.

Step two: Mark on your poster board, how to make your chart.  

Depending on how many songs you have.  We have 11. 

So I planned for six on the front and five on the back.

Step Three:  Write out the words, "Let's Being" on the bottom strip.  "Almost there" on the second strip.  "Good to go" on the top strip.

If you want color each strip.  I enlisted my eight year old for help.

Step four: Write out at the top, "I sing.  U sing. We all sing for ice cream!" on the front using just markers.

Add an ice cream on top to be cute.

Step five: Add your ice cream songs.  That's it!

Learn those songs!

In November we'll be stepping outside to enjoy some simple drumstick ice cream cones.  Considering the safety precautions we need to make, this seemed like a great option.

 

How to make a Bubbles Singing helper for Primary singing time

I made this last week to help in singing time.  I received lots of questions on facebook, about how I made it and how to used it, so I decided to write it all down in this post here.

First, HOW to make Bubbles.

Supplies needed:

- a box ( I used a leftover dish box)

- a balloon (pink)

- a balloon pump

- paint supplies

I googled a picture of "girl blowing bubble gum" and liked this image.

Then, I did a quick sketch on my box.

After the sketch, I painted it with simple acyclic craft paints.

Afterwards I needed a hole.  It looks a little crazy, but the easiest way to do this was to grab a steak knife and just go around to make a small hole.

Yeah, all done!  Next, you add a balloon to her mouth.

From the back.

Attach balloon pump:

That's it!

I also made little "popped gum pieces" out of leftover paint on bright pink paper.  After the paint had dried, I ran my two pages through the laminator and then cut them out.

I used them on my Chart Tablet, which I talked about in yesterday's post. 

Here's How to use Bubbles in Singing Time.

First I explained that we had a new primary child.  I brought her out. I said, "This is Bubbles, but she doesn't like to sing our songs.  She's a little naughty, she only likes to eat bubble gum." 

Then I explained how maybe she can help us:  When her bubble grow large, we can sing loudly!  When her bubble shrink down, we can sing softer.  I only used her for songs we had already been singing for a few weeks.  I think she's best for review.

Then I took her air out quickly and exclaimed, "Oh, NO! Bubbles' gum popped all over our song."  At this point you or your children can come up and put the "popped gum pieces" to cover up words in our song on the chart.

Worked like a charm. Can't wait to have her back at Primary.