gumball machine

When I was in New York a few weeks ago, my friend Sara Clifton was telling me about her daughter Lucca's request to be a gumball machine for Halloween. Sara had no idea how to turn her daughter into a gumball machine, but Lucca was adamant, and I was not offering any helpful advice (balloons? a plastic bag?).

Here is her brilliant solution:

1. Make a red skirt.

2. Add gumball machine components (like a coin plate, knob and hole) made from felt.

3. Buy a couple plastic bowls and plate from the dollar store. You'll need one large clear bowl to make the gumball bowl, one plate with the same diameter as the large bowl, and one smaller bowl.

4. Hot glue the small bowl to the center of the plate. This will help eat up some of the space in the large bowl, so you don't have to fill the entire thing with gumballs (which would be too heavy for a little girl to wear).

5. Fill the larger clear bowl halfway with gumballs, and then press the plate (now glued to the small bowl) on top like a lid. Hot glue them together.

6. Glue some red ribbon around the bowl and attach ribbon to help support the weight of the bowl. 

7. Add a red beanie for the lid of the gumball machine.

As you can see, Lucca was quite pleased with the final result. Hooray for handmade costumes! (And thank you to Sara, for sharing her how to with us.)

why we love halloween

Friday night JR and I were busy sewing Halloween costumes for the kids. It was late, too late, and we were tired. A few times I looked over at JR as he was taking measurements and cutting fabric, and thought.. Why do we do this to ourselves each year?

I guess it's just become part of the tradition of Halloween in our family. Some people go all out with lawn decorations. Some people bake delicious pumpkin treats all October long. But for our family, we make our costumes. We try to use things we have already, or will use again after Halloween. And we try to keep the sewing (and cost) to a minimum. We think a clever costume is better than an elaborate one. And we try to convince the kids to be something unique (though we often fail).

There's just something great about homemade costumes. I like rummaging through our drawers and seeing what we can come up with. I love that the kids get to pick what they want to be and mom and dad make it happen. I know they won't always want to have us make their costumes, so we are enjoying it while we can. And when I look back at pictures from Halloweens past, I remember why we stay up late sewing and glueing and tinkering. Is it worth it? Oh yes, and then some.

the bowling trophy

JR's family lives far away from us, so we only get together once every year or so. And when we do... we bowl. No one is very good at bowling, but bowling is an easy-to-organize, not-too-expensive activity that most everyone enjoys. kids and adults alike. We take over a few lanes, usually in the morning mid-week when the place is empty. You jump up to bowl when it's your turn, but the rest of the time is spent talking and helping the kids knock down some pins.

There are great bowling alleys in small towns everywhere. I especially like the old school ones that haven't been touched since the 1970's. Orange and white booths. Color blocked leather shoes. League scores for the past 20 years posted on the walls. A few old arcade games in the corner. (The photos below were taken at one of my favorite places to bowl: Holiday Lanes in Heber, Utah.)

About 10 years back when JR and I were first married, we stopped by a trophy shop and made a Reynolds Family Bowling Trophy. I think it cost us about $10. The trophy is awarded to the person with the highest score, and the lucky winner gets to proudly display their trophy all year long until we bowl again. No one will admit that they actually want the bowling trophy, but I think it makes the game a little more exciting. Uncle Troy was the winner this year when we played in Oregon, but we think we can take him down the next time we play.

a beehive for bee

It was "Crazy Hair Day" at school a few weeks ago, and I remembered this cute story we did at Martha Stewart Kids with a beehive (which seemed appropriate for Bee!). I know some schools don't allow costumes on Halloween, but maybe you can get away with some fun hair?

The hair gets divided into 5 ponytails and braided with yellow yarn. (I found this video tutorial very helpful). One tip: Don't skimp on the yarn, it says you need 50 pieces, but I got tired of cutting and only used about 30. As a result Bee's beehive was not as tall as it should have been, the yarn is adding color but also volume to the hair.

Then you pile the braids on top of each other to form the beehive, securing them in place with bobby pins. (a LOT of bobby pins!)

Add some paper bees attached to pipe cleaners (or make your bees out of pom poms if you happen to have some around) and you'll all set. The whole thing took about 20 minutes from start to finish, and made Bee a very happy kindergartener.