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!
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.
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.
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?!
