My $2 Homemade Thomas the Train Costume

Teddy loves Thomas the Train. I love making costumes. Halloween was approaching. We had a bunch of recycling piling up. It all came together for a perfect storm.

My materials:

1 diaper box
1 box of milk cartons three-pack, cut in half
1 empty tub of Greek yogurt
1 empty tub of broccoli cheddar soup (same size as yogurt tub)
3 dessert-size paper plates
1 dinner-size paper plate
strips of cardboard
4 feet-ish of thick ribbon
1 can blue spray paint
1 can black spray paint
red acrylic paint
yellow acrylic paint
black sharpie
hot glue gun
scissors
picture of Thomas or Thomas toy to look at

The only things I had to buy were the blue spray paint and the ribbon because I wanted ribbon cuter than what I had, It totaled roughly $2, and that's rounding up.

The funnest part about the costume was that I made the funnel be the place where the candy goes. That way he didn't need to carry a bucket or bag for candy. Here's what I did. Maybe it will be helpful to someone out there who likes to throw cheap stuff together for costumes. :)

Started cutting a diaper box

Found this in the recycling

Cut a hole in a box flap and hot glued the container to it-- a spot
for candy!

Later I cut a trap door into this so the candy could be taken out easier.

So the top looked like this and I cut the hole at the bottom a little bigger
for his feet to walk.

Attached the other box-half with hot glue and spray painted it all blue

Spray painted the next container black for the funnel, and glued it around the hole

Cut slits and glued the ribbon down

Painted red lines and let Cal help attach spray-painted paper plates 

I had also spray painted these blue cardboard strips and then
glued them on top of the wheels

Painted my yellow "1" on the sides, drew a face on a trimmed dinner plate with
a sharpie, and BAM. Thomas.

Teddy approved

And so did his Wizard-Brothers

That Time We Let the Boys Watch Star Wars

We let the boys watch Star Wars. It took us about a week and a half about a month ago, but we got through the three original movies from the 1970's- early '80's. They loved them, though they will confidently and a little condescendingly tell you that movie four was far inferior to movie five, because it, "moved so quickly, not slow like the first one. It was the greatest one." The boys are constantly talking about the characters and the plot and acting out every scene they can think of. This includes doing Jedi training upside down and breathing like Darth Vader.

Here are the best, randomly overheard quotes from our Star Wars binge:

"I'm not going to play with you anymore if you don't stop pretending to be R2D2."

"I'm Yoda and I can break dance and play the piano.”

"I will light sabe you in 4..3..2..1"

"Fine! YOU cut MY hand off!"

"Here’s a picture of the Emperor when he was a football player." (freezes into a still shot) "He was SO tall."

Brian: "What do you guys want for Christmas?" Cal: "Everything Star Wars that talks and is plastic."

They have spent time "flying" in duffle bags with their hockey helmets on and arrows sticking out the sides. They beep and move slowly like R2D2 when I tell them to do things. Clark created Darth Vader out of a mortar board and batman mask. I can't find my camera or I'd post a picture of it. So great. Every day there are light saber wars on the way to and from school, usually with dangerously long sticks.

And then there was the night Calvin drew the characters on the board:

Yoda

Han Solo, Darth Vader, Princess Leia 

Jobba the Hut

Soldier for the Empire

For some reason my pictures of Luke Skywalker and Obi Wan Kenobi won't load. It was a fantastic display.

Tonight Cal drew the cover of the DVD case:

Obsession has always been a strong suit of theirs. Ceiling fans, NASA space robots, astronauts, et. al.

I'm going with it and discussing plot with them-- the characters, setting, conflict, and such.

They are getting the newer movies under the Christmas tree next week and there will be a couple little Star Wars Lego sets in their stockings. My favorite is the Star Wars art that I see in my future.

Making Our Dinosaur Costumes

Last Halloween Brian came up with beat-up hockey player costumes which were the boys' hockey pads and jerseys plus some fake blood and messed-up teeth and scars-- which the boys loved. We considered making ourselves into some sort of joint penalty box, but didn't quite make it. The years before that were the more time-consuming astronaut and ceiling fan costumes.

This year Cal and Clark both decided they wanted to be dinosaurs-- T-Rex dinosaurs, to be exact. I tried to dissuade them from that decision because I had no idea how I would make a dinosaur costume without a ton of time and no sewing machine or sewing machine skills. They wouldn't budge though. That's what they wanted.

So I looked up some ideas online and got a good idea for a head and made up the rest. They came out better than I thought they would. I hope this is helpful to anyone making dinosaur costumes!

I used the boys' plastic baseball helmets, but I didn't want to
ruin them, so I first covered them with foil.

Taped it underneath

Duct taped some cardboard on the front

And on the top and sides

Blew up balloons about the size of my fists and taped the tied spots down

Taped it all together so the surfaces could be covered in paper mache

Two dinosaur heads!

Here's where the boys start helping: ripping up newspaper for paper mache

Paper mache explosion! I don't measure anything, just add flour and water
until it's a goopy but spreadable paste.

Requires parental involvement :)

The messy hands are the best!

Done! They dried for a couple days.

We spray painted them green and I trimmed out holes for eyes.

I wedged in Styrofoam balls in the "eye sockets" and the boys' painted
the fronts of them yellow.

And added a black pupil in each.. ta-dah! Wide-eyed dino heads!

For claws: I hot glued brown "claws" that the boys cut out of brown foam
onto some old gloves we had. I eventually also put some foam
green and brown spots on them.

For teeth- poster board-- tape it in a few places underneath

I found a pair of women's camouflage tights and cut the legs out for
the tails. 

Unwound clothes hanger and put stuffing inside

I glued the ends almost-closed and let the hook part of the hanger
poke out a little bit so it can attach to the little dinosaur's pants.

For feet: I bought large gray women's fuzzy socks, put them around
the boys' shoes, and hot glued the same brown foam as claws.

I had to trim the toenails several times to make the dinosaurs happy.

Add one exuberant 5 year-old and a pair of $9 camo jammies
and you've got yourself a T-Rex!

...times 2!

Ready for candy!

May-June-First-Part-of-July Highlights

 I'm going through pictures and want to post some May-June-first-part-of-July pictures to remember some of what we did during those months. Meanwhile the boys are watching Cinderella because they love the story (don't tell them I told you) and Teddy is napping. We'll see how much organizing and uploading I can actually get through.

Potomac Nationals game with Gammy and Poppy
for a birthday gift!

It wore them out.

Best pals Everett and Teddy ransacked kitchen cupboards together

Teddy spent many hours cheering on his tee-ball-playing brothers.

He even got to visit the dugout occasionally!

Cal and Clark had some special guest spectators.

Teddy got to join his brothers on the ice!

On his own personal sled

Wild animals at the zoo for Henry's birthday

More zoo visits-- wild animals with pals Hudson and Grayson

Baby boy growin' up

Secret Father's Day waffle-making and nose-pick staging.

Father's Day P-Nats baseball game

Summer haircuts after three tick incidents. You'd think
they like to play outside or something.

Just another tee-ball practice: Cal in hiking boots and
old man sweatpants shorts-- Clark all serious in his baseball
socks, cleats, athletic shorts, and short stop shirt.

End of season little league picnic: they got to play in the tee-ball
exhibition game!

It was a great season for the Blue Wahoos!

Teddy reacts to Daddy winning Coach of the Year

Something terrible happened to the highchair "car,"
which required fixing with salad tongs, ice cream scoop, broom,
and various other kitchen utensils. 

Babysitting Cousin Clara

Teddy's love affair with the dishwasher began.

Space Age ant farm! Super cool. Learned about
 the thorax and such.

Cool signed up for the Summer Reading Program at the library.

Plenty of pool time so far this season

Kite-flying (They still think they have to run the whole time.
I see no reason to tell them otherwise.)

Sausage-cookin' with Cal

Loggin' some Summer Reading Program books

First camp! Baseball camp just down the street.
Five hours a day seemed like a lot to me, but they did well and loved it.

To my horror, Clark resurrected his superhero,
  Black Groin, to fight with Cal's Green Face with PVC pipe.

We ordered some caterpillars and watched them
hatch into butterflies!

We loved watching them break out and discover their
new bodies.

Teddy still loves the dishwasher.
If we leave it open he climbs in.

Fourth of July at the lake house

Dirt-bathing and then water-drenching
after Dad's softball games- a popular pastime.

Head-first slide into home...aaaaand SAFE!

And here we go sliding into July...Teddy turned 1 on July 5th while we were at the lake house. We celebrated there with a candle in his first ice cream. This past weekend we had a real party for him. I hope to post the pictures before the month is up. Can't believe he's one!