I bet you think that as a crafty, creative person, and amateur sew-er, I have a hayday with Halloween. I don't. Maybe it's because I'm usually busy planning for other things…Evyn's birthday, now Ashlyn's birthday, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Halloween just gets totally squeezed out. I'm sure as the girls get older, their enthusiasm will motivate me to do a little more with it, but for now I could skip it altogether.
My mom, on the other hand, made it an annual tradition to sew all of our costumes. All of them. She recently sent them back to me to rummage through and store, and just last week she sent a small scrapbook of them:
Most years, Lora and I were dressed alike. I'm not sure how our costumes were decided, or how we came to agree on a costume. If I had to guess, in those early years Lora just did whatever I wanted.
We were flowers, and pilgrims, and cheerleaders. This is as close to pop-culture as we got: remember the California Raisin commercials? Here's Lora (and ((shiver)) our brown couch):
That was one of her most memorable costumes. And pretty elaborate, too – my mom had to create all those raisin-y wrinkles and gathers by hand.
Here's me in my first costume as a baby clown:
Ashlyn wasn't as thrilled about the costume:
It was missing that adorable clown-collar, and it was a little snug. But we made it work.
I tried and tried to get a cutie-smiley picture of her. She was mostly just annoyed with me.
To the extent that she eventually climbed down and charged at me in all seriousness. I could almost hear her grumbling under her breath.
This ended in a sort of camera tug of war between Ashlyn and I. Ashlyn won. Must learn to practice photography skills on still life.
Later in the evening she helped me answer the door in this little costume. She was in a better mood after her nap.
Evyn was a very reluctant Belle.
She loved the costume (actually, a play dress already in her closet). And she literally watched the clock for half an hour waiting for Trick or Treat time with Daddy. But after two houses she got stage fright and told James she didn't want to go to all the houses anymore. My neighbor (who was traveling along with them) tried to coax her and apparently Evyn was insistent that she didn't have to do anything she didn't feel comfortable doing. You gotta love a kid with boundaries.
My mom's little scrapbook reminded me that I want to be better about handing down stories to my children. I stumbled across this FREE online workshop by Jessica Sprague that I wanted to point out to you. Although she's hostess to a digital scrapbooking site, Jessica designed this workshop for everyone and anyone, scrapbooker or not. Her backstory on this workshop will ring true with many of you.
peata says
sweet
Hannah Shaw says
What a great idea keeping a Halloween scrapbook. I love the little costumes! I love the pictures lol.. so adorable.
Adrienne says
What a treasure your mom has passed on to you. Makes me want to get a little more organized!
jax says
I was a crayola crayon too!!!! I was white…but my mom didn’t sew. Instead, it was stapled and glued together. Oddly, I also think we had that same ugly brown couch. And the loveseat and couch to match.
Dylan was a Dallas Cowboy football player – #12, Roger Staubach.
celia says
Oh my God, lol……
She’s cute even annoyed, lol…
Really cute book of memories you have. That’s a great heritage!
Lovely post as always!
Michaela says
What a great scrapbook idea. I would definetaly go ahead and join in free class. Thanks for linking to it.