Peter Pan Family Halloween Costumes

Well we pulled off another year of family costumes together and I wasn't quite sure if it was going to happen with baby 6 due on Halloween. But it seems baby is staying put for a little longer so we headed out to a park this week to grab some pics of our family theme this year: Peter Pan and the Neverland gang. 

Shane as Captain Hook, Mama as Smee, Dash as Peter Pan, Jaelynn as Tinker Bell, Joci as Wendy, Raleigh and Sage as Mermaids. 

Earlier this summer I introduced the girls to this favorite childhood Disney movie of mine. It was when I was telling them stories about when I was little and pretended to be friends with Peter and the lost boys that one of them said we should dress up like the characters for Halloween! :) Since then, the ideas went swirling in my head of how we'd pull it off. I did a lot of DIY on this one, making the tinker bell skirt and mermaid outfits on my own (and teaching myself to sew with a machine for the first time ever). It was a challenge but actually kind of fun at the same time trying something new creatively. The girls were all really into helping me pick out all the pieces and putting it all together. 

We also added pieces that will be worn again in their regular wardrobe, which I always like to try and do so we get multiple uses out of it. 

I know I probably get myself way too into these things sometimes, but this year after looking back on all our previous dress ups it made me thankful that we have kept this tradition going. It felt like the girls were more involved in picking everything out and choosing what we'd do as a family together so that felt really fun to have them be a part of it more. 

And I can't go without mentioning again how thankful I am that Shane goes along with all of these ideas of mine. He's the best dad, husband, and trooper there is--especially trying out that wig without hesitation just to complete the "look" we were at least trying to go for! haha 

(favorite picture of the night right here--flying Peter Pan ^)

Pretty thankful for this crew of ours! And thankful they let me pull off these silly traditions with them each year. Not sure if I'll be in the hospital or not during trick or treating time, but we'll be wearing our costumes either way :) 

Hope you all have a safe and fun Halloween getting full on all the sugar you can handle! 

DIY Quail Family Costumes

I remember seeing a family of quails running across the desert a while back and thinking "thats exactly what we look like when others see our little family walking by"--a mama and dada leading the trail of little birdies hurrying closely following behind. I used that image as inspiration for our halloween costumes this year and the idea of it couldn't have fit more perfectly! 

I'll admit that it took a little convincing for a certain set of twins to get on board with the idea of being quails for our family costume. But when I showed them that we could put pretty jewels on our masks and spruce up the wings with some glitter they became more into the idea. 

It's getting more and more fun each year to think of how we're going to dress up as a family. Especially this year when the girls were excited to help make our costumes together. I'm not a into the scary and dark side of halloween, but I do love creating memories for my kids and making ways for us to be creative together, so thats the part of this holiday that I find fun. 

Running around in the desert for these photos was so fun to see my little idea come to life. The girls have embraced the whole quail ensemble and are giddy about dressing up as a quail family. They tell pretty much anyone they come into contact with now about they're outfits! And the best part of this day photoshoot was seeing a flock of quails scurry by us as we finished up. The girls couldn't have been more excited to see that. 

Each year when I come up with our costumes I'm always thinking of how I can make it as cheap and practical as possible, especially since there's so many of us! I like to find pieces that they can wear over again when the costumes are no longer needed. I made each of their outfits for under $12 and it was super easy to put together. So hopefully this can inspire you in some way to create your own costume without spending an arm and a leg to make it. I'm giving the full tutorial for this below. 

I can't end this post without acknowledging how sweet and amazing my husband is for joining in on the family fun and letting me make him dress up like a silly bird. He embraces it with us and joins right into it, which is what makes doing this whole thing even sweeter for me. He really is the best! I really really love this quail covey of mine! 

 QUAIL COSTUME TUTORIAL:

I used all the supplies listed in the illsutration above. I purchased all the items I needed at Walmart which made this a super cheap project over all. 

-Long sleeve shirt: $3.88

-Leggings for girls: $3.88

-Felt sheets: $0.39 each (I used 12 sheets for all of our outfits and masks)

-Elastic for head bands: $2 (I used less than half the roll for all of our masks)

Extras:

-Diamond jewels we used for the mask: $2 (for a pack of 300)

-Glitter spray adhesive: $3 for one can

Step 1:

-Outline a feather shape on your felt sheet. I made up 2 different sizes for the feathers and used the larger size on the bottom feathers on our shirts and smaller size on top. 

Step 2:

-Cut out feather shapes on felt and repeat until your have enough feathers to fill the back of the shirt

Step 3:

-Place your feathers in rows on the back of the shirt and layer them on top of each other. I started with the bottom row first and layered on top of each row going up towards the neck. I shifted them around on the shirt until I liked how they looked. Once I liked a row I used the hot glue gun to glue it in place onto the shirt. 

Step 4:

-Outline a bird face shape and cut out. 

Step 5:

- Cut out eye holes (if you're going to wear them on your face, we ended up wearing them as headbands mostly). Paint, decorate, stick on feathers to your liking. 

Step 6:

- Measure the elastic around your head to sew or hot glue onto the mask. Once your bird mask is finished attach the elastic to your mask. 

And there you go! Super easy, cheap, and simple halloween costume. Hope you all have a safe and sweet halloween with your little ones this year. Thanks for following along!

photos take by: Monica Mae Photography

Pumpkin Day

We celebrated our first annual pumpkin day this year. Any time there is a reason to celebrate and plan a day of fun activities, I'm AAAALL in! The girls and I were at the grocery store one day and saw a mountain of pumpkin flavored things in the middle of the aisle and came up with the idea together to have a day, "pumpkin day", consuming all the pumpkin-y things and making an activity day out of it to welcome the fall season. They were ecstatic about the idea as we loaded the cart with pumpkin spice everything! 

It was a simple day. We started with pumpkin pancakes followed with a trip to pick out pumpkins to carve and paint on. Every year we have a day of painting on pumpkins together so it was fun to keep that tradition alive and add it to our day. After the girls rested, we made this delicious pumpkin dutch apple pie, ate pasta with pumpkin cream sauce and finished the day watching "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown". There were more things on our list that we didn't get to (maybe I was a liiiiittle over ambitious), but it only meant that we had more fall activities to do together on another day!

Before I had kids I knew that creating traditions and memories like this would be one of my favorite things to do as a parent. The best part is watching them get into it and be so excited for the day and tradition too. By the end of the night they were all saying that they didn't want pumpkin day to end! I love that these girlies of mine are just as into celebrating as I am. Doing it together is what makes the tradition so special anyways. 

In case you are wanting to start your own pumpkin day traditions I came up with some more fun ideas to do for the fall season. I'd love to hear more if you have more ideas that come to mind too, so please feel free to share!

PUMPKIN DAY ACTIVITIES:

-Go to the pumpkin patch

-paint pumpkins

-draw pumpkin pictures

-make pumpkin shape cookies

-carve a pumpkin together as a family

-play pumpkin bowling

-play pumpkin ring toss

-play hide and seek with pumpkins around the house

-bake pumpkin pie

-bring a pumpkin to someone you love just because

-make a fall garland together

-make pumpkin spice apple cider

-watch pumpkin/fall themed movies 

(Its the Great pumpkin, Charlie Brown, Winnie the Pooh Boo to You too, Curious George Halloween)

I also created this free download coloring page for you to use with your littles whenever you start your pumpkin day tradition too. Click here to grab it:

I LOVE YOU PUMPKIN COLORING PAGE

And if you do, I'd love to see! So please share and tag @coleykuyperart/ #coleykuyperart so I can see how you celebrated too!

Happy Fall!