Howl `n Scream Scram!

I try my best not to over-use exclamation marks because I find it exhausting to read paragraphs that end every other sentence in one—I get breathless just thinking about it. I am rather out of shape right now, though. That being said, it is incredibly difficult not to put an exclamation after the word scram!

Luke and Leia entered this year’s Howl `n Scream Scram Kooky Caper Costume Kids’ Race on Saturday. That’s the actual official name. Can you believe that they squeezed it all onto one t-shirt? Impressive.

Jay did this race last year (in his kilt), so he remembered all about it, down to the green finisher’s ribbon. Jeff and I were the men’s and women’s 5k race winners last year (in our kilts), but we couldn’t defend our titles this year because we’re both out of shape—I’m ultra-atrophied still and Jeff has been battling an Achilles issue since summer. At least our young, spry children did us proud.

First they lined up all the kids and had a costume contest. Jay and Rose got a prize! Everyone loved Rose’s buns—the ones in her hair, of course. The prize was an XL adult t-shirt from a gym that sponsored the race. Kind of lame, but still a prize.

Jay and Rose liked clapping for everyone in the costume contest.

Then it was race time! The “course” was a quarter mile out-and-back on this paved path, so we went out an eighth of a mile, looped around a cone, and ran back to the finish. Jay ran holding Jeff’s hand. They were way ahead of Rose and me—I took this picture after they turned around.

Here’s what Rose and I looked like together. She kept getting distracted by the dirt and rocks on the side of the path so we said “run run run run” while we trotted along together to keep the focus. Her Leia-buns flopped all over the place!

I took this while holding her hand—a tricky maneuver. You can see Jeff and Jay in the background. MAN I love her cheeks.

Jay with his finisher’s ribbon and Dum-Dum pop. The sun was fierce.

We finished at last—not last place, either! Rose didn’t know what her Dum Dum pop was, so I didn’t tell her. It was 9:45 in the morning for goodness sakes! Jay ate his all in one crunchy bite before Rose saw.

I love how her pigtail escaped from under the bun. I have to add that we had a minor costume crisis right when we arrived at the race. Rose had ripped out both of her buns AND her pigtails. Then she threw the clear plastic hair ties into the depths of our not-so-clean back seat. I hunted high and low and only found one hair tie. So I just put one pigtail in and clipped the other bun to her hair without the pigtail—it was very lopsided and kept falling out. But right when we were about to go over to the lineup, I found the missing twisty tie and quickly yanked Rose’s hair up into its rightful place (she didn’t enjoy that part much).

Jay and Rose had a fan club—Grampa Dan and Grama Leslie and Steph all came to watch the run.

We went to Costco after the race, and Jay and Rose charmed passersby with their unique costumes. By the time we made it through Winco, though, the costumes were looking rather bedraggled and Jay and Rose just looked like little ragamuffins—cute ragamuffins, but still raggedy.

One, two, three!

Luke and Leia

We’re all ready for Halloween already! I feel kind of proud of our homemade costumes this year. Star Wars merchandise is super expensive to buy so I got creative at home. These are way better than the matching kilts I made us last year. It was fun for all of us!

Cute little Princess Leia-Rose. For her dress I used our one and only old sheet. People are always saying, “just use an old sheet” for crafts and projects, but we’ve never had any! In our nearly 6 years as a family, we’ve only worn out one fitted sheet. That’s all. Now it’s been recycled into an ultra simple Leia dress. No more free white costumes for another 5 or 6 years now.

THE DRESS: All I did was loosely trace one of Rose’s other dresses and sew around the necessary edges. I did hem it and attempt a little neckband, but it’s shoddy, lumpy workmanship. Halloween is the one day that it’s ok to flaunt poorly sewn clothing and make true seamstresses everywhere CRINGE. [evil monster chuckle]

THE BELT: I cut a piece of felt and glued foil circles all around it. Easy.

THE HAIR: We got a ball of super-fat brown yarn and I experimented with different ways to twist it and attach it to a squirmy one-year-old’s head. Headbands, hats, bows, nothing would stay on! It was a tricky operation, but we finally landed on clip-on Leiabuns. That way we can acknowledge the fakeness of the yarn-buns without trying to make a yarn wig look real. Yarn wigs are NOT easy to make. I put Rose’s hair into pigtails and then added a bow-style clip on the back of each yarn cinnamon roll and clipped them to her pigtails. She called them pretties—they are more like floppy dog ears.

 

We need to work on Rose’s sassy assassin look, but other than that, she’s a dead ringer.

And now for this guy. I tried and tried to arrange that old sheet so I could get a Luke Skywalker tunic AND a Princess Leia dress out of it, but there was that pesky old worn out  holy part that I had to avoid. So I had to search for alternatives.

The answer dawned when I looked in Jay’s “still-a-little-too-big” clothes drawer. A size 5T button-up white Sunday shirt! And while we were at it, his brown Sunday belt! and hey, there was a pair of pale back-pocket-less khaki pants in the almost-too-small stack. SO:

TUNIC: We folded the shirt’s collar under and pinned the shirt into a v-neck. Then we put the belt on top and the pants underneath.

THE BOOTS: I got some khaki felt-by-the-yard at the fabric store, cut two long strips off of it, and wrapped them up Jay’s legs to the knee. Then I fashioned shoe-covers out of more felt, like the ones that come with store-bought costumes. I felt kind of genius while I was cutting, wrapping and taping felt to my child.

THE LIGHT SABER: Long ago, Grama Leslie gave Jay a little mini light saber, so he’s using that. The hilt was once filled with M&M’s.

    

No way was I  going to try making Jay some Mark Hamill hair. His natural blond buzz will do. I think Jay looks a lot cleaner than Luke. When I asked Jay to come over so I could take a picture of him, he said “I’m not Jay right now, I’m Luke Skywalker!”

After we finished piecing and pinning the costumes together, I followed Jay and Rose around, taking pictures, and cracking up at the hilarity of these two baggy whiteguys. Enjoy:

 

These costumes aren’t exactly durable…

 

 

woof woof woof

Grama Meri’s House

Three of us Whites drove up to Bellevue last Wednesday to visit the three remaining Browns (the manly 4th White stayed home and worked). Jay and Rose had a great time playing with Grama Meri and eating oatmeal chocolate chip cookies with Grampa Charley. We saw my sister Mel briefly a few times(she’s a junior in high school and it was homecoming week so she was ultrabusy).

I had a short list of things to do while we were up in the “big city:”

1. Spend time with my family and get OUT of town
2. EAT a LOT of GOOD food at REAL restaurants (E__’s fried chicken, a French Bakery with the best US-made chocolate croissant I’ve ever had, Thai Ginger, and of course, The Cheesecake factory, plus yummy food my Mom made at home).
3. Find a few things at stores (finishing touches for Halloween costumes and a dress for Rose)
4. Watch chick flicks with my Mom from her superb collection (we watched The Lakehouse and Kate and Leopold—time travel makes for wonderful romances somehow).
5. Take our travelworn Civic in for a makeover at the Honda shop. We actually weren’t planning on getting the car fixed, but our poor car has been roaring around for the past year—ask anyone in Grandview! So we acted when the opportunity presented itself. It was WAY easier to get a new muffler and exhaust manifold with my Mom to chauffer me around while the car was out of action—she was great!

Here are some fo-toes

Grama keeps quarters in her purse for when the grandkids visit. Weehaw! A random kid on the other car kind of smiled for our picture.

Jay and Rose loved Grama’s little stroller. It’s much more kid-sized than our big joggers. They took turns pushing each other around Joann Fabrics while I found supplies for their Halloween costumes.

We mean business.

Grama Meri’s famous story reading

While we were at Kohl’s one day, Jay became attached to a small plastic castle in the toy section. It was tragic when we left it there. My Mom is so clever! She made a sweet castle out of a cardboard box that she had at home. This castle was complete with a dragon—that purple balloon had a small plastic dragon head tied to the top. It looked hilarious.

We drove home on Saturday afternoon in a Seattle-Snoqualmie MONSOON. In our small car I had to slow waaay down at times to control the hydroplaning.

But when we got to the other side of the pass, a rainbow greeted us. It’s hard to take pictures while driving, by the way.

Then the sun broke through over Selah. It reflected off of all the water on the ground—the river? puddles? ponds? I don’t know, but it looked beautiful! Another picture taken at 70 miles per hour.

In spite of my reckless high-speed photography, we made it home at last to hug our favorite things. I hugged Jeff…

…Rose hugged ShainaBear and Bunny (or should we say Beh and Bubby).

Side note about the bear: My Grama Brown made this bear and her Shaina dress for me when I was little. I wish I inherited her sewing skills—ha. I’m glad Rose loves this bear. I can’t help thinking of Toy Story 3 when I see my kids love and play with my old toys…

…and Jay hugged all of his “kids.”

Visiting family is good. Coming home is good. Good food is GOOD.
Life is happy.