Thursday, November 16, 2017

Halloween 2017

Going along with my post from Tuesday, I thought I should do a Halloween recap.

You already saw my costumes from the Howl-oween 5K and the Terror Trot, so you know what I did for costumes then.

Aside from that, on the actual day of Halloween I was a ... well, I thought a classic, though I may be wrong based on my feedback from the current generation:




My outfit on that day was thanks to Tipsy Elves.  PRO TIP: look at their pricing on Amazon first, you will likely save 50% or more.


 


Of course, having three costumes over the span of the "Halloween Season" just isn't enough for somebody like me.  And thanks to my little guy, I get to add a whole 'nother costume category to my repertoire - group costume.  Thus 2017's family theme was Muppets, with me being Miss Piggy, my husband as Kermit, and baby boy as Fozzie Bear.

Speaking of my little guy, I have good fun getting to chose his costumes (for now).  With him just starting to pick up on animal sounds, I particularly get a kick out of his snore/grunt impression of a pig that sounds nothing like said animal.

Maximizing on this pig "impression", for my son's Halloween "school" party I sent him to daycare in a pig outfit ... that is technically a sleep sack, which we can reuse for the next couple of years hopefully.




And it wouldn't be Halloween without treats.  So I sent my son bearing treats for the staff on Halloween day.




Yep, even more extra.  Though this treat was far less complicated - just a glass bottle of Starbucks frap in either chocolate or caramel with a one bag each of Target monster and caramel cashew trail mix, wrapped in candy corn printed black tissue paper and tied up pretty with some curling ribbon.





The copper bin was my favorite part of that gift, and is now sitting on my dining room table as an unintended center piece (I guess I better figure out wear to store that thing before Thanksgiving in a few weeks).

So that was my Halloween - in a nutshell.  What were your costumes like?  Comment below!

Tuesday, November 14, 2017

Talk Like a Pirate Day

Since I haven't blogged very consistently on here in awhile, I'm going to expand my net of "acceptable" topics on this blog to include whatever my current shenanigans are.  That means today I am going to talk about how I've become that mom.

You know.  The mom that is just so ... extra?



Ok, I can't take credit for that hair, but how cute is that?!


Sigh.  How did this happen?  How did I become the "SO extra" mom?

I guess it shouldn't be a surprise, because also me:




True story.  I mean - I can't even pretend that's not me.  Heh.

Anyway, I'm writing this a fair amount after the fact, because as you may know, International Talk Like a Pirate day was almost two months ago - Tuesday, September 19, 2017.

For those of you unaware, Talk Like a Pirate Day is one of those "holidays" that's just meant for fun and silliness.  Officially, there's not a lot of history behind it aside from it started as a private joke between to guy friends - and then it accidentally blew up on social media.

In the past few years, for me, Talk Like a Pirate Day has meant sending a friend of mine in Texas random gifts (when the mood strikes me anyway, it's not like I do it on a yearly / consistent basis).  Historically, those gifts have included: having a bouquet I made out of black artificial silk roses and plastic gold doubloons arranged in a plastic skull trick-or-treat bucket couriered to my friend at work, sending a smiley face balloon bouquet with pirate eye patches drawn on them, and ... this year's piece de resistance - ordering a pirate battle royale pool set via Amazon Prime:



 



I know.  An impressive find even for a spaz like myself.  LOL!

High on ridiculousness, I decided I needed to share the pirate love at my son's "school" (daycare) in 2017 as well.

Queue: overdrive mom.

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Of course, being that this was me, first things first for Talk Like a Pirate Day - costuming.

My outfit included a pirate necklace and holiday appropriate dress.  I added to that a pair of tall, black motorcycle boots with chains and buckles that I already owned.



 


For my son, I ordered a kid friendly shirt and a pair of pants cut to accommodate a diaper booty.  He already owned a pair of red Crocs shoes, and was soon to own a pirate hat as well so that was covered ... more on this in a bit.


 


(Interjection - since my husband was traveling on business at the time - no soup for him).  

Alright.  Real talk for a minute.  I know that this may seem like stupid money to throw at a pointless holiday, but hear me out.  First of all, the dress I bought - I can wear that at work pretty much any day.  And the dress with the necklace can be a pirate go-to costume for me for years to come.  As for my son's outfit, it's versatile enough: he wore the entire thing for various Halloween events in the last month, and the shirt itself he can wear to school on whatever day.  Just know that I'm not all about throwing money away, and since I do so many wacky costume things all the time, I have learned how to be smart in my planning to ensure I can use items again in the future.  *end soap box*

Now, you know me.  When it comes to blowing out a theme, sometimes I just can't stop myself.  Which of course means - but wait, there's more!

Being that most of the other kids at "school" wouldn't likely be dressed for the occasion, I found a seller online that offered hard felt pirate hats for $9.99 a dozen and sent them with my son to share with his classroom.  While it is doubtful a room full of toddlers much understood what a pirate was, the end result was still pretty dang cute.




Not wanting the teachers to be left out on the fun, I also sent goody bags for them to be decked out in pirate gear as well.  The "meat" of their costume included a plastic pirate eye patch and a neck gaiter (in assorted pink colors that I thought made the gift more wearable in the future).  The idea on the gaiter was that it could be tied into a "pirate hat", with the possibility of reusing it as a headband or whatever later.





In addition to costume supplies, to show a little love to the staff, I also provided individual bags of Pirate Booty brand snack mix and "gold treasure" (glitter nail polish & chocolate gold coins).





And of course, because there was so much for the teachers to have, I wrapped them up in a nautical looking red polka dot gift bag stuffed with blue and white striped tissue.  I forgot to save a picture of the bag on my phone, but it looked something like this:




To keep things a little more pirate looking, though, I stuck a skeleton straw in the bag so that it poked out of the top, and tied the whole thing shut with white curling ribbon.




So there you have it.  The teachers seemed to enjoy their gifts, and my son came home saying "arrgghhh" almost non stop, so I'm guessing it was a success? 

Which means I guess I better start planning for next year ... LOL!

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Here I am months later cleaning out my iPhone and I found these actual bag pics.  Enjoy!