Narnia Halloween!

Well, we did it. After our brainstorming and a lot of costume prep, we had a Narnia-themed Halloween! It especially felt like I triumph because I wrestled with my sewing machine a lot on the day before Halloween, as I tried to get my dress ready. I had never sewn on a machine with the such different kinds of fabrics, ranging from a stretchy white dress, to a gauzy netting, to faux fur. And my sewing machine skills are pretty basic to begin with. I even enlisted Lucy as a helper to help lift up the foot of the machine so that fabric would not get caught in the needle or the bobbin thread. Later that night, I found a little piece of paper next to the sewing machine, where Lucy had been documenting our slow progress:

   1. So far, so good

2. Keeps getting stuk :(

3. Haveing trouble

4. :( The dress is cout (caught)

5. Takeing a while :(

6. Good again!

My friend Katie had sent me some tips on what she did when she was the White Witch, and I followed some of those. I also found a webpage that explained how to make an icicle crown out of crystal clear hot glue gun sticks.

J made most excellent runes on the Stone Table

Here is the final product! I was the White Witch, S was the Stone Table, Violet was Aslan, L was Queen Lucy of Cair Paravel, and J was the Wardrobe.

We had a chili cook-off with our Dinner Group and went trick-or-treating around the Roses' neighborhood. It was the most delightful trick-or-treating experience that my kids have had, I think, because the whole neighborhood was filled with kids, and it was still light enough to see and appreciate the costumes of the kids. Normally we are some of the only costumed people out in the dark neighborhoods.

October is always a really difficult month for me, because I tend to teach more classes in the fall quarter and there always seems to be more going on. THis year was no different. I'm teaching four classes this quarter, helping out with two different art programs at Lucy's school, and serving on the national board of the WMS. So adding Halloween costume prep into the mix always seems untenable, especially because midterms happen the same week as Halloween. But somehow it all came together, after a lot of hard work and late nights, and it is always nice to finally say goodbye to October with a fun evening.

When we were driving home, Sam said, "What family costume theme should we be next year?" And J immediately replied, "Store-bought costumes. Our family theme is that we will all be wearing store-bought costumes next year." Ha!