Poison Ivy Costume

So we finally decided on Poison Ivy for the girls but I was concerned about a shipping mishap BEFORE I did a Google search for costumes and came across this:

Uhhhh… ew? Fortunately that search also turned up a Poison Ivy Costume Tutorial.

I figured I could do a better job of coming up with something more Uma Thurman and less DC Comic Pin Up Girl.

<—This, not that—>

I’d seen a Forest Pixie costume at Target while hunting for batgirl that I figured would do the trick of giving me a look similar to an action figure the girls begged me to buy:

I read in the tutorial that the original Poison Ivy wore Tomato Red pumps… seeing as Uma’s green boots would probably be no easier to come by than the green tights I wasn’t finding, and the girls are in need of close-toed dress flats now that the weather is cooling, I bought these shoes and went with brown tights, on which I will create vine like patterns with the silk leaves I found in the $1 section…

  

Rather than gloves, I’ll be taking some knee highs and creating vines going up their arms as well.

So there are our costume supplies. I pinned the vine leaves on each of the girls tights last night… there wasn’t TOO MUCH blood involved in that… and figured out how I’m going to decorate the dresses themselves. It’s still undecided whether I’ll use the glittery panel overskirt that ties around the waist or if I’ll just leave them out altogether.

Now I just have to figure out hair and makeup, cuz I’m not buying wigs!

Halloween 2010: Batman & BatMom v. Poison Ivy, Squared

It’s no secret that Halloween is a pretty big deal around here. Not so much for the trick or treating, but for the dressing up. We get really into it and usually have a theme every year… fantasy creatures, wizard of oz, racecars, things that fly, Grease, Pirates of the Caribbean, ancient Egypt… and we trick or treat for a block or two, then we head to some spooky Halloween festival with friends.

This year, we were supposed to be The BatFam. Unfortunately, my Bat-Mom signal was a little off, and I couldn’t find a Batgirl costume in Daija’s size. I debated having the girls be Robyn and Catwoman, but by the time I gave up the idea of finding/creating a Catwoman costume we’d both be happy with, the Robyn costumes in Halle’s size were sold out. So it was back to the drawing board Batcave to do a little more research on the peeps who live in Gotham City.

So now my mission is to create costumes for Poison Ivy. This is an incredible undertaking, because I am not crafty. I do not sew. Thankfully, I found some inexpensive pixie costumes in the girls’ sizes that I could theoretically leave as is. But you know I can’t do that, because it would just ruin my Halloween if people thought the girls were Tinkerbelle or Princess Tiana, who appear to be rather popular for costume choices this year.

The things I do for these kids.

Anyway, I’ll have a blog up about my adventures in Halloween costume creation in the next day or two.

Creepy encounters at Doomtown

So after locking my keys in my car in a store parking lot on our way out on All Hallow’s Eve, we made a late appearance at Doomtown… just me and the curlykidz. This is the first time in years we didn’t go in a big group… but now that most of the group is in middle school, I don’t see or talk to most of the moms. So it was a little strange not to be making a caravan trip… but it was still a really good time. As usual, a kid or two expressed concern about entering the premises, but also as usual, before long they had stopped running from the monster, and were hunting them down instead… making friends, shaking hands (real and fake), and having philosophical conversations. The grim reaper stopped and pointed at Halle… and she deadpans, “You’re pointing at her, right?” and gestures to me. Wow… thanks for throwing me to the wolves!

Later on, a man passing by us said, “Grim comes for you tonight.” I thought it was the Rawhide employee, off duty, and laughed as we walked on.  A few seconds later, the devil on horseback approached and asked what he’d said to me.  I relayed the conversation, and he asks me to please do him a favor and go tell security, because he’s never seen the man before… and moves away.

I’m not sure about this, but change direction and go over to the Sheriff’s office and tell the guy of the request. He doesn’t seem to concerned, and I said I hadn’t really thought anything of it, but the  devil had been concerned… and speaking of the devil (I slay me) he gallops by like he’s in pursuit at this moment, and the Sheriff starts to look concerned. So we walk away, and I’m trying to explain to the kids what the big deal is, when out of the corner of my eye, I see that same guy, just standing there, basically now behind us, even though he had passed us shortly before (if this makes sense).

Now I’m feeling creeped out. So we go into one of the shops and browse around for several minutes, and as we exit, there’s that same guy again, just kinda hovering. Not exactly coming into the store, but hesitating like he’s about to. He doesn’t seem to be headed in any direction, and he doesn’t seem to be with anyone. I start to veer off to the side, and that’s when I see a couple of men in real law enforcement uniforms…

We didn’t see creepy dude again that night… and I left very thankful for good people lookin’ out.

Q1 Report Cards & Halloween Costumes

Tyler has C’s in Albegra & Language Arts and B’s in Science, Social Studies, PE & Electronics Band. Overall I’m happy with his report card; his average GPA is better than it’s been for a while. I’m not happy about the C’s, obviously, but I’m most concerned about his grade in Algebra. He has tests each semester that he has to pass with a 70% in order to get high school credit for the class. I’m having a hard time figuring out how much of his grade is effort (or lack thereof) or subject content. I guess the district has a new policy where kids have to be re evaluated for 504’s every three years. This gets on my nerves for several reasons, one of which is that on the paperwork I have to fill out, they ask me to provide copies of report cards. ?!?!?!?!

Halle has a C in math (what’s UP with math this quarter?) and has herself convinced that it’s soooo hard. I watch her try and use strategies to solve problems that I swear to God add like, three or four extra steps. So we’re working on that, and she’s got A’s in every other subject.  She says she wants to run for Student Congress this year instead of Conflict Manager, which is a relief to me. Iasked her if she was going to join Buddy Club this year, and she said no… if she does Student Congress and Buddy Club it’s just too much running around (all these activities happen during lunch recess). I thought that was pretty impressive… hopefully she’ll be able to maintain that awareness of what she can handle & what’s going to just stress her out, unlike those of us who “should” ourselves to death.

Daija is coming along… she’s got self control & taking esponsibility as areas of concern, and everything else is developing or proficient (she doesn’t get letter grades yet). We’re working on that as well… Mommy needs to be more consistent! We spoiled the baby, and now I’m paying for it (and sadly, so is her teacher).

We went and got costumes last night, and somehow, not one of the kids is a vampire. Tyler is an “underworld outcast” and Daija is a US Diva. Halle said over the weekend she wanted to use last year’s costume (she was cleopatra). So I may be dressing up as cleopatra’s mother again… and we’ll be doing our usual Halloween tradition of trick or treating around the neighborhood for a minute and then heading to Doomtown at Rawhide.

Let’s Get Real About Halloween

I keep seeing twitter comments along these lines: Sex offenders hand out big candy bars, razors, drugs, & hugs, or some such nonsense.  Which is so interesting to me because I live in Phoenix, which is a pretty big damn city, one also known as the kidnap capital of the US, but I can’t think of a time I’ve ever heard of an abduction or other child sex crime on the news around Halloween. So before we all run out and buy The Offender Locator, let’s look at some facts, and CHILL THE FLOCK OUT. Instead of psyching yourself out over something that is highly UNLIKELY to happen, how about worrying about the things that are LIKELY to happen… like your child getting plowed down by a vehicle because you were too busy looking for sex offenders to look both ways before crossing the street… or some of there other tragedies that are far more likely to happen to your child.

Researchers looked at a 9-year period, saying even before increased awareness and enforcement, there were not significant spikes in sex crimes against children around Halloween.

“Reasonable parental supervision and vigilance on Halloween is appropriate, but there does not appear to be cause for alarm concerning sexual abuse risk in particular,” the study found. “Increased vigilance concerning risk should be directed to the summer months, where regular seasonal increases in sex crimes are readily seen.”

The report also notes that it could be more worthwhile to have police focusing on traffic-related incidents on Halloween over monitoring sex offenders.

“The wide net cast by Halloween laws places some degree of burden on law enforcement officers whose time would otherwise be allocated to addressing more probably dangerous events.”

via Sex crimes against children don’t increase at Halloween, says Lynn University professor | Extra Credit.

via Let’s Get Real About Halloween.

Magic Fog & Sky Spit

This morning there was this thick, heavy fog, which Halle has never seen before. It was so thick that I could only see about two houses ahead of me while driving this morning. She asked where it came from; I told her it was magic here for Halloween. Her eyes got sooo big. Which reminds me of when it rained last week; Daija doesn’t really remember the last time it rained. We were outside and some drops fell on her face, and she kept saying ‘eeeewwww’ and wiping her face; I think she thought she was getting spit on 🙂