// A Halfway Homemade Halloween

Toby's Halloween - KaelahBee.com
Halloween with a 4 year old is pretty intense. Last year was super laid back and we spent a few hours trick or treating, but this year was pretty bonkers. Toby had a Halloween party in his Pre-K class yesterday and we had to bring/make something for him to share with the class. Of course we took the required bag of candy, but I was feeling extra festive so we nabbed some Halloween-appropriate plates/napkins/etc for the party. Then I also decided to make cake pops. Okay, so I know cake pops are "so 2008" but eyeball and pumpkin cake pops for a party?! That'd be so fun! Naturally like most other kitchen endeavors, I severely overestimated my skill and ability haha! We made cake pops for the holidays 2 years ago and we swore we'd never make them again. The chocolate dipping is bane of my existence and I'm not even going to admit how many batches we ruined (and are currently trying to melt out of our nice pans). They weren't perfect, but surely they'd do... then I had to walk with them to his class in the rain... because the gel never set. So they were totally smeared and gross looking by the time we got to his classroom... but luckily the kids still ate them. They were red velvet and cream cheese pops... and they were delicious. Hopefully the 4 year olds didn't judge me too harshly... yikes!
Toby's Halloween - KaelahBee.com
Toby's Halloween - KaelahBee.com
After his party was over we started to venture home. I realized that we had yet to find Toby the perfect TMNT costume. (He wanted to be a Ninja Turtle, but then saw a Power Ranger costume and decided to get that. Then my parents surprised him with a big ol' TMNT shell + sword so then he changed his mind again... Naturally. haha) All of the costumes we could find were far too big. In a last ditch effort to make something appropriate, we headed over to Walmart. We picked up a little green long sleeve shirt and a yellow polo that was on clearance. I had no clue how I'd do it, but we went home and I started cutting. Luckily what we ended up with was actually kind of perfect. Toby already had a bright green! pair of jeans from H&M, so all I needed to do was fashion the front of the shirt. Toby had a TMNT mask but it was too big for his face, so I just whipped up a little two-ply red one and attached it to an elastic headband. I also made a little belt out of felt to put on the shirt, too. I made sure to cut up the sides of the shirt so I could sew everything easily, and so I could also take it in a few inches so it'd fit. In the end it worked out perfectly! The shirt was the perfect length, but also a nice, slim fit. And he was in heaven. The weather was so bad last night. We had a tornado watch for most of the evening. Luckily there was a break in the rain long enough for us to take him to about ~a dozen houses or so. We promised him we'd take him to the next town over tonight since they moved their Halloween to Friday. 
Toby's Halloween - KaelahBee.com
Toby's Halloween - KaelahBee.com
Ever since Toby came along I feel this insane desire to be some kind of "super mom." That sounds like a load of crap when I think about how I fail so often, but it's true. I think it's easy to beat yourself up over what you should/could/would have done in every instance of every day, and a lot of times I do just that. It's hard to feel like you're "enough" when you feel like your child deserves the world. I don't know, maybe that's silly. I see these opportunities to do something amazing for Toby and I want to take them all. And then they often fall a little flat or don't quite turn out the way I had hoped. I know that doesn't make me a bad mom (duh!), but sometimes I wish I could just knock one out of the park, ya know? Luckily I have his whole life, right? haha I know that at the end of the day it'll be more about the memories we made than the perfect execution of the cake pops when he was 4 years old. But gosh darnit I just want to make the perfect cake pops, okay! - To be honest, I've wanted to DIY his Halloween costume all along, but felt intimidated by the store bought ones he was always asking for. I'd love to whip up fun DIY costumes for all of us, each year, but I also never wanted to force that on Toby, if that makes sense. While it may have only be an $8, 1 hour DIY job, I'm pretty tickled with the result and knowing that he is too totally makes my heart swell. I guess that was a pretty good compromise, right? And at least he can totally wear his TMNT shirt with regular jeans and feel awesome the whole day. 
Toby's Halloween - KaelahBee.com
With all of that being said, I'm excited to see how our future Halloweens pan out. Maybe we'll make it a family tradition to DIY our costumes each year (or at least go the "halfway homemade" route). Maybe we'll get better at not procrastinating. Maybe we'll just be a disorganized mess each and every year.... Whatever the case may be, I'm glad I get to spend these messy, disorganized days with my two favorite fellas. Today I'm going to pour me a cup of coffee (or three) and enjoy the view from our front porch. Isn't it nice? I'm heartbroken that all of those gorgeous yellow leaves will be on the ground in less than a week. Autumn, I wish you'd stick around a little bit longer. xo

PS; Truth bomb - When I first started sewing Toby's t-shirt, I totally sewed the front and back together. Yeah... I did that. We can't all be winners, right?!

27 comments:

  1. I love this homemade outfit!! You did an amazing job girl!! How amazing that the town decided to move Halloween so that the kids could still got trick-or-treating!! A tornado watch sounds absolutely frightening!! PS Red velvet cake pops sounds amazing right about now!!! :)

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  2. I'm not a mum, but I get that urge for things to be perfect too, I don't know you irl of course but you seem to be doing such a great job with Toby, your love for him really shines through your writing
    http://ahandfulofhope.blogspot.co.uk/

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  3. You are such an awesome mom! Such an inspiration to me as a mom myself :) Toby looks like he had a great time and all your hard work was well worth it <3

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  4. i live in huntsville, and we had horrible weather as well. but i live in a neighborhood where the houses are really close together, so we were able to use an umbrella and sprint between houses. we were lucky that everyone seemed to decide to trick or treat early (around 4:45) before the weather got too bad.

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  5. That "truth bomb" cracked me up because that was the first thing I noticed about the photo with the sewing machine.

    I wish my cake pop "fails" turned out that well; check out my awesome fail, it will make you feel better:
    http://flyingpurplehipposcom.blogspot.com/2012/09/cheesecake-bites-meme.html

    As a side note, does gel frosting ever set up? I have never used it but assumed the texture stays about the same.

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    1. apparently it does not! haha We put them in the freezer and the gel "congealed" a bit and was just a tacky/semi-solid. but then 3 minutes at room temperature and it was gel again. lesson learned! :P

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  6. You have natural creativity flowing out of you. I love it! Whether it be through makeup, clothes, or ninja turtle costumes. I know Toby loved his costume, because even I'm jealous of it, and would probably rock that shirt on any given day. Good job mama!

    P.S. We all feel that need to be super mom, and all beat ourselves up over it. It's natural.

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  7. I love it! And the eyeball cakepops are too cute!

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  8. I set really high unrealistic expectations in my mind -- specifically, I can plan out an entire scenario in my head down to the tiniest of details perfectly, and I want SO BADLY for things to go just as I envision. But with three kids and life's normal chaos, it NEVER goes the way I envision it. Ever. So...I don't know why I keep going that to myself :)

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  9. Woah- I'd never guess the cake pops didn't come out perfectly from this photo- they look great! (And how did I not think of eyeball pops before- sugary veined brilliance.) Toby's Raphael costume is adorable! Awesome job! -steph

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  10. He looks adorable! Great job on the costume!


    Gina Michele

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  11. You did a great job on the costume! And, even not being a mom, I can understand the impulse to take opportunities to make everything "perfect, no doubt heightened by the child involved-- I'm sure Toby will remember and cherish the costume he was made as a little guy someday!! PS cake pops? Total win. I'm too scared to even try them! Yours turned out great (esp the eyeball).

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  12. Wow, that's a lovely custome! I wish I was as crafty so I wouldn't have had to spend a fair bit of money on my 3yo's custome.... maybe next year I'll give it a try?

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  13. Aww... Toby looks so cute! I also so badly want to be "super mom". I was so set on doing things a certain way when my son was born... and when things don't turn out like I hoped, I feel like a failure. It's ridiculous and I know it. It's mostly pressure I put on myself and it's all in my head. At the end of the day, he's happy and he's healthy. I can't ask for a whole lot more than that. :)

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  14. This reminds me of a video I saw on my FB feed: http://vimeo.com/66058153. You should watch it ! (only 3 min long) You're doing an excellent job, Mama. And I'm sure Toby knows that more than anybody else

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  15. My mom always made my Halloween costumes and looking back on them is so fun because they were unique and special. Toby looked great in his halfway homemade costume! You did a great job on it! I'm glad you guys were able to get out and trick or treat despite the bad weather too.

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  16. I totally feel you on the whole "Super Mom" thing. My son had his first birthday in September and I felt like a total failure for not even cooking a cake. I literally did nothing but go to the store and bought one. I felt awful for not putting up some cute decorations and making a fancy cake but I was just too busy and feeling too down. Like you said, I've just got to remember that to our kids all that really matters is the good memories and the fun they had. Same thing happened with the Halloween costumes this year. Luckily I have at least 10 more Halloweens to get it right. And even more birthdays!

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  17. You did an amazing job!!! We all beat ourselves up at times over how we think things are supposed to be, like the dresser repaint my husband and I totally did a big whoops on! It set us back a few hours and I wanted to cry (ok ok, my eyes might have teared up a little) but in the end we just laughed and continued to work on it. He won't remember the messed up cake pops, he'll remember how his mom brought homemade food to the party!!

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  18. Adooooorable costume (and kid)! And the cake pops look awesome to me. :D

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  19. His outfit is adorable and the most boyish and cute character any kid can dress in!!
    And I love how passionate You are about Toby! And I laugh at how flustered You seem, despite You missing the Tiresome Twos and the crying all night of a newborn, You still are a true to the heart protective loving mother and it really warms My heart :)
    Your family is lucky to have You, sweet lady ^^

    Happy Halloween!
    Loads of love, SJay
    www.sweetswithfreaks.blogspot.com

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  20. At least I wasn't the only mom on Halloween night stitching away at a costume. My son was Michelangelo (the orange one).

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  21. ...oh and don't feel too bad about the cake pops. They looked amazing!

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  22. "PS; Truth bomb - When I first started sewing Toby's t-shirt, I totally sewed the front and back together. Yeah... I did that. We can't all be winners, right?!"

    I totally sewed Zak's costume crooked, but he didn't mind one bit and at least the shell covered it up mostly so you wouldn't notice. At least we're amazing moms who want our kids to have costumes no matter what!

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  23. Toby's costume looks amazing!! when I was pregnant I envisioned myself being the mum that made the most amazing costumes for my kiddos and now I am a mum I realised that just isn't my strength. Thank god H&M did some rocking kids ones this year! Doesn't mean I can't take pleasure in seeing such homemade brilliance as this though. Wilf is only two (nearly) and he's already been to three halloween parties, it's just going to get more and more crazy isn't it? xxx

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  24. Kaelah, you seem to be such an amazing mom. It's so evident how much you adore Toby by the way you write - and it's evident how much he adores you, too! I've always thought of being a parent as the scariest thing in the world, but reading your posts about parenting makes me feel so much more comfortable with the idea. Your honesty about the struggles and triumphs are so encouraging and empowering. Thank you for always being so sincerely genuine. Your blog is a joy to read!

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  25. I love this for so many reasons!! My Kiddo was Leonardo for Halloween! He is OBSESSED with tmnt. But he didn't want an entire costume and no place around here had sweatpants???? I painted his shirt instead and it turned out cute, but yours is just great!! he's adorable!!

    Anna Margaret
    MyUnwastedLife.blogspot.com

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HEY! Thanks for dropping by. xo KB