Batty Wall & Cheesecloth ghosts

I know this is last minute.  Halloween is literally tomorrow. Are we all ready?!  We carved our pumpkins last night, costumes are done, and I even have the candy for Trick or Treaters all ready to go!  But before Halloween passes us by, I've got to share the rest of my living room.

 I have already posted all the tutorials for these projects, I just haven't shown the complete space.   I'll link the tutorials as we go . : )

                      

Projects in these pictures:

Coffee filter wreath/  Decorating with paper/  No carve pumpkins

Projects in these pictures:

Spooky banner/  Book page pumpkins

Did you miss any of our other Halloween posts?  

Tin can Jack-o-lanterns

Spookified birdcage

Spiderweb Wall

DIY Costumes-Minion, Bride of Frankenstein, Scooby doo gang

Yesterday, we shared our Annual Halloween party.  Today, we are excited to share some of our costume how to's!

 I love to piece together costumes!  When my oldest daughter Anni finally decided that she wanted to be a minion from "Despicable Me,"  I was all over it!  This would be easy peasy!  After 8, yes 8 thrift store stops early in October, the easy peasy was gone.  Who knew it was so stinkin' hard to find overalls for a 10 year old?!  I didn't.  

My husband and I went to Wendover for a concert (classy I know, totally fun though,) and on the way home we popped into the Tooele DI (Utah thrift store.)  
                                                    And there they were.  
I jumped up and down and possibly let a small scream and gasp escape my lips!  I couldn't believe it.  Not just overalls, but even the right size and perfect for minion-izing!  
                          Moral of the story, if you have any overalls don't get rid of them 
                                      because you may never find any ever again!

For the rest of her costume:  we matched yarn to a yellow t shirt from Hobby Lobby.  My talented mom crocheted her hat with the minion goggles crocheted on top.  So cute!  

Our cheerleader costume is just a white t shirt with a "cheer" iron on patch and my old cheer skirt and pom poms.  Some things are worth holding on to!

Mermaid costume:  a mermaid tail skirt I totally found at the DI, a white swim shirt and the top is cut out of a dress up shirt we got from my grandma.  I just hemmed where I cut and cinched in the center.  

In the same Tooele DI stop, I found my red Velma skirt.  Ah, success!  I had an orange shirt and hunted down the closest knee socks I could find.  Again, who knew it would be impossible to find rusty orange knee socks in the fall?!  Red with stripes it is.  I added a wig and nerd glasses.  

I can definitely see how I DON'T want my hair! Ha!  

Shaggy:  green v neck, brown pants, scruffy facial hair.  I bought the Scooby costume at Walmart.

We've got to show you how Steffany's costume came to be.  Steffany and I hauled 4 kids around to 4 different thrift stores searching for costume pieces and we found her dress.  It was a wedding dress, we scored it for $9!  

To get it old and ragged looking, we used a lighter to burn holes in it and let the kids stomp on it with dirty feet.  

Perfect.  On a funny side note, Steffany decided she enjoys destroying wedding dresses way more than she should!  Ha ha!

Breken's Frankenstein costume is one that Steffany's mom saved.  I have used lots of different pieces of costumes that my mom has saved, so we're telling you-ask your moms if they saved old Halloween costumes!  (Costumes were made so much better years ago.) And be sure to save your kids costumes!  They will come in handy some day! : )

Happy Halloween Week!

Annual Halloween Party!

It's Halloween week!!  The weather has been absolutely gorgeous around these parts.: )  Here's to hoping it will last at least a few more days for Trick-or-Treating!

So yesterday was our annual Hamilton Halloween Party!  Have I ever mentioned that Steffany is a master party planner?  She rocks at all things party!  (Check out Breken's LEGO party HERE.)  

 Let's start by showing our costumes!  We'll be elaborating a bit more on a couple costumes tomorrow.

Steff and her family:

Dr. Frankenstein,  Frankenstein's monster, and Frankenstein's bride.

Awesome, right?!  Love it!

My family:

Shaggy, Velma, and Scooby Doo.  Then we have a Minion, a Cheerleader, and a Mermaid.

(If you remember, Belle is quite obsessed with Scooby. See HERE.)

(Our Instagram shot for the night.  Do you follow us on Instagram yet?  We're @finditmakeitloveit)

All the kids:

Left to right and Front to back

Lila - mermaid, Gwen-mermaid, Belle - Scooby, Serepta - another mermaid, Breken -Frankenstein's monster, Jack - a dead guy (NOT a zombie-he was very clear about that :), Ivie - cheerleader, Sirius - Pirate, Anni - Minion.  That's a pile of cute kids if you ask us!  We did not plan the 3 mermaids either-it's just the year of the mermaid I guess!

Can't be a good party without good food!

These darling bread bowls are from Harmons.  

Can't go wrong with yummy Chili.

 With some toppings of course.

 We also had Mummy dogs.  Just use store bought crescent roll dough, cut into strips, wrap around a hot dog and bake according to the dough package directions.  Yummy Mummy!

 Veggies and dip all in cute pumpkin dishes thanks to our amazing sister-in-law Janelle.

                         

Marshmallow popcorn with candy corn.  Very festive!  I followed THIS recipe.

 Skeleton bone treats!  See HERE for the how to.  

Super cute-my girls had lots of fun helping with these.

 Candy corn cupcakes.  

 Caramel and apples, one of my favorite treats!

Witches brew (root beer poured over dry ice.)

                         

Now for some Party games!

(My photography skills seem to be lacking here -  the lighting was not ideal in the basement so a lot of these pictures are a bit blurry.  Lame. I'm totally sharing anyway, do forgive me for :)

We split the kids into two groups and they had to race to pop the balloons and collect the candy inside.  This is a fun one!

 Skeleton Scavenger hunt:

 We used Dollar store skeletons that unsnap and snap back together easily.  Hide the pieces and the kids simply find them all and put the skeleton back together.

Mummy wrap:

Good one to get the grown ups involved!  It's just a race to see which adult/kid team gets mummified first!

And last, but possibly the kids favorite - good old Freeze dance to Halloween music of course!

We had this creeper sitting in the corner all night.

Halloween decorations are the best!

After the kids games are done, we send them into the other room for a movie so the grown ups can chat and clean up..... and come up with our own kind of games.  Gotta share some shots of our husbands acting like teenage stuntmen. 

Alex- the oldest Hamilton brother.

Jay- my Hamilton, and the second oldest.

                         

Lee - Steff's hubster, third brother.

Chet - the youngest of the four boys.

It was a huge success!  Good food and great company!

Can't wait to show you how some of our costumes came together!