Halloween, bugs and ER visits

The week prior to Halloween, I volunteered the kids as models for a local photographer to shoot in Halloween costumes at a really cool ranch owned by Paramount Studios. Within seconds of accepting her invite, I realized the costumes my kids were wearing for trick or treating weren't exactly "photo shoot" worthy. You see, I'm not much into dressing up in costume, nor are my kids. Our costumes thus far have involved their day to day clothing with "costume pieces" over it. For example, Sal's poster board "Popsicle" costume last year & Carla's repurposed tights and bathing suit as an aerobics instructor.

This year was no different. Sal's dream of being a magnet and Carla's request to be Rainbow Dash were made with minimal cost. A rainbow dash sweatshirt off Amazon for her, and a $4 piece of craft foam, a couple cans of spray paint from the garage and metal treasures hot glued on comprised Sal's entire costume. Heck, Gino wore the same Skelton pjs Sal wore two years ago as his costume/ pjs this year because let's face it, he wasn't going out trick or treating. What's a 19 month old going to do with a bag of candy? We all know who would've ended up eating his candy had he joined the big kids.

Anyways, back to the photo shoot. I scrambled and scoured pinterest for DIY themed costumes for a group of 3. I fell in love with the Flinstones costumes and knew I could probably make all of them in an afternoon with minimal supplies. The kids and I went to goodwill and bought an oversized orange t shirt and royal blue tie for the Fred costume, a green tank top for pebbles and an old skeleton decoration for the bones we'd need for pebbles hair and bam bam's shorts.

I hacked the orange shirt with scissors to make the zig zag hemline and arm holes, and spray painted triangles onto it. I did the same for the pebbles top and bam bam shorts (I reused some of Sal's old orange shorts for Gino. He's already only one size smaller than sal in pants!).

Here's the final result.

photocredit:Mily Cooper Photography

A couple days before Halloween, Gino woke up covered in vomit. He proceeded to vomit a few more times that night and I had no clue what to do with him. Nick and I survived almost five years without ever having to deal with projectile vomit! I guess we're lucky. Carla followed suit the next night, along with the other end, and it lasted almost a week for her. Then came myself and Nick on Halloween day, and ultimately, Sal. The big kids did trick or treat, but nobody was really feeling it. G stayed with me and handed out candy to the one group that rang our bell.

We spent much of Halloween week just getting through each day hoping the next would be better. By the following weekend we had overcome the barf hug, but a few of us had head colds. Head colds could deal with, vomit. Not so much. I took the opportunity to run errands solo on Saturday, and upon my return home, within minutes, Nick comes in and announces he needs to go to the hospital NOW. Thankfully his dad was here, so the two hopped in his van and off they went, leaving the kids and I wondering what had happened. Turns out, he was helping a neighbor lift something heavy and cumbersome and it slipped and tried to take his pinky off. He's now the proud owner of a broken finger and missing nailplate.


So yeah, we've been busy over here--and are ready for some normalcy again!