Halloween costumes and such

 I have too many boxes of stuff for every holiday, including a box of "old Halloween costumes"...

 What a bunch of treasures....

 Mr Ranch's "scream" costume from the 90's

His George Bush mask from even earlier

The Girl wanted to be a minion...but not a minion like this...adorable little child, but rather an "Adult woman minion" (gulp)...Here are some pictures of her costume in progress--stay tuned for the final product!

Thrift store women's size XS overalls, cut off

 Leg seams unsewn












and pinned back together to sew...I'm not sure I love how they turned out, but if she loves them we can always get more thrift store overalls and try again for "real" not just for a costume.

Halloween

This week has been cold and rainy, I'm hoping that today isn't so icky!

Time to take a trip down memory lane...The Girl's first Halloween...in her spooky shirt and Purdue cardigan.  That chair is still sitting in the family room.  Hmm..









And here is a very sleepy baby pumpkin, same year.  We don't have that couch, but we do have the baby chair.  Interesting.







After much searching I found 2002 pictures--I have to tell you, I'm not sure that electronic storage is all it is advertised to be...

Here we have a baby Girl at Grandma and Grandpa's house and dressed up as a puppy (in her Uncle's hat and tail), ready to go to the nursing home and spread some cheer.

And a bonus...Tigger is a costume!  I'm surprised we don't still have those toys...

Two cows...the bigger cow also wore this costume in college...I'll have to look for those pictures! 2003

2004, a pile of Elmos...waiting for The Boy to arrive in a couple months.  The question of the evening when I was writing this was "Where are all those Elmos?"  Um, hmm..don't know (wink, wink).








We seem to have a real problem with pictures from 2005...I know they are saved "somewhere" but I can never find them...Here is a herd of cows though and a bonus baby in a (really tight) pumpkin suit sitting with a bonus Elmo...

2006...

Pumpkin carving

Another Elmo, this time with a bucket on his head...and a princess

A.

And some more pumpkin carving...

2007  Mater and a pretty witch.  In a related note, Mater hated this costume and cried pretty much the whole time he wore it.
















2008, A kitten (thanks, Grandma!) and a red Power Ranger..again, kind of tight..what is it with the Boy and tight costumes?

I

2009.  Not really sure what is going on here--we seem to have Luke Skywalker and a princess with purple hair.
















In 2010 we have not only Hermoine and Harry, but also Lucious Malfoy!  Harry had glasses somewhere...















And 2011 brings us a young Tonks (from Harry Potter again) and Anakin Skywalker.











2012 brought out Indiana Jones and Katniss Everdeen--complete with bow and arrow for part of the festivities!



And here's a real blast from the past...

1977...A (politically incorrect) Indian (wearing a sun bonnet under her headband) and a tiny leopard, wearing boots and sucking on his finger.


Just wait until you see what we have planned for this year!


Happy Halloween, Everyone!

Bonus Post--Carving pumpkins!

Yes, yes, I know I'm breaking all the blogging rules...but the kids just finished their pumpkin carving (Mr. Ranch and I will do ours later, perhaps...or not)...and I want to show off what they did on their own...

Last pickle post for the year?

So about two shelves of my refrigerator are fully dedicated to pickled products...however, Mr. Ranch is doing his best to lower our inventory so there is room for holiday food!  Notice that this round of beets were actually beets...

Fall decorating

Those of you who know us know that I love holiday decorations and that I have a lot...starting in early October the top of my dining room buffet is the showcase, but any flat surface is fair game...

 Pictured...let's see..far left, fall colored vase thrown by a former co-worker's husband, some fake pumpkins (purchased at a post-Thanksgiving sale several years ago), a vase with fall (dollar tree) flowers, a cornucopia filled with gourds dried by my parents, orange vases and pumpkin man from Mr. Ranch's grandparents's house, some ghosts...one painted by my grandmother, and a bunch of corncobs and fake leaves...

The Boy decorated this corner for us--lots of faces in this corner.











A nice side benefit of the garden corn project was that I have corn stalks for the front porch--stay tuned and I'll post a picture of the "pumpkin man" who is sitting on the bench these days.

And here are the children helping...looks like a fall decoration/Halloween costume store exploded.

 More work by the children

 A nice view of the drying rack

And some more, um, "decor" :)  Wait until you see my Christmas decorations!

A Field trip with The Boy

Field trip

10/1

When the permission slip came home, Mr. Ranch said, "oh! A field trip to the gold mine?  I want to go!"  Apparently, being a school field trip chaperone is quite competitive these days, Mr. Ranch had to submit his name and wait to find out if he was "one of the chosen".  He ended up with a group of The Boy's friends...some of us moms wondered what Mr. Ranch had done to tick off the teacher...he had a very active group...

The report is that everyone had a great time, despite Mr. Ranch's fears that he was going to have to fish some of the boys out of the river...