Refused Haircuts and Butter

Did the title give it all away??

If you haven't figured out our costumes, I'll first give you a brief preamble. 

For once, I will NOT complain about the weather! What the heck in the world, we've had thee most gorgeous fall! 

And since you'll not see Patrick again (he's too old, sophisticated and busy for Halloween festivities), here's proof I still have some control over three of four sons--

When was the last time I told you our yard was MADE for the fall?! Was it exactly one calendar year ago?

Matthew got to go on his very first field trip and had a blast at a pumpkin farm! He didn't even accidentally bring home that much corn in his pockets! 

And holy moly, we actually carved pumpkins this year!! Can't even remember the last time we made this happen since we moved to a spot with no trick-or-treating...almost five years ago!

The boys drew their designs, but Matthew required a little carving assistance. 

James and his creation, and Matthew imitating his punkin's face (obviously).

Oh! You wanted to know about costumes? Well, here's another solid hint--as if you needed another:

Like I said, I bought some butter. I was like, "whoa, this box sure would make a great pot o' gold..."

Let us all thank the good lord I was able to convince a kid to be a leprechaun!!

Are you even ready for this reveal???

OK, here goes--

We had the hat because you have multiple St. Patrick's Day hats in your dress-up bin when your last name is Scully. I safety pinned it in half so it wasn't so tall on his little head. Please note that I cut out the butter box to make his belt (attached to some felt), as well as the buckles on his way-too-big-brother's shoes. 

I was dying taking these photos because he suddenly couldn't figure out what face a leprechaun makes!

Is THIS it?!

Sure, buddy. 

Is he wearing old pants with a ripped knee? Yes. But you couldn't tell unless he squatted down! Is he also wearing some old soccer socks and a women's jacket cuz it was greenish? Mmmhmm. My only purchase--OK, other than the butter--was the yarn to make this beard on a pipe cleaner!

I could not believe how successful the pot of gold was! I used the plastic cauldron we bought 1,000 years ago to hand out candy and taped some fake coins to the butter box. This pot was his candy-collector.

Truly, it is NOT like my Halloween track record for such an integral part of the costume to actually WORK for the ToT duration!

At least the impractical shoes were ditched just after our backyard photoshoot!

You probably wanna know about James... He knew in, I want to say, late August what he wanted to be. Naturally, he refused every haircut offer since the beginning of school! #charactercommitment Also, I had this 10-year-old Angry Birds hooded blanket, so it was really a no-brainer... 

Alright, I can keep it from you no longer!

A little modeling clay in a Halloween box from Nonna and a single chopstick were all this wizard needed to craft his wand! But #didyouknow NO amount of air-drying or even several minutes on a hot grill will harden this modeling clay??! OH WELL! 

Did I let James buy a couple of items? I did. I caved on the signature round glasses, and then he BEGGED for the tie, which we totally coulda made. But the Gryffindor house logo? E-Z. On it!

Except... heck if this kid didn't ask me to start freehand drawing the logo at like 10 o'clock at night so I accidentally made it enormous and then we had to start all over again.

No matter. This kid was so in synch with my desire to spend next-to-no money and see how we could create all the stuff. He went trapsing through the woods to find a stick and collected a whole bunch of Black Walnut tree sticks to make his Nimbus 2000!! (That's the broom Harry rides if you're HP-dumb.)

Do you not even remember what he looked like in the first film?? (You see now why James couldn't cut his hair for months.)

BOOM. (Mediocre photo to show you that I made a sign for Platform 9 3/4 for just this photo because why else would we have brick in this house?!)

A few well-placed safety pins in that blanket (to make sleeves) and then an old hooded sweater that I cut all up to cover the Angry Bird, and voila! It's almost too easy! 

James had all kinds of ideas of ways he wanted to pose and photos he wanted to get. My little Halloween heart burst.

I mean, are you dense? Here, he's pretty obviously focused on getting the Snitch in a game of Quidditch.

And spell-casting? Already an expert! (Just take it easy with that squishy wand, woojya?)

We had this old Hallmark decoration that looks like a book, so I made it say, "The Beginners Guide to Candy, Spells & Potions."

The book opens so that was his candy-collector, but we made a backup bag for the SEVEN POUNDS of candy he got! (No need to tell a buncha 5th graders what the assignment is!!) 

I wish to never forget that, while some kids say dummy things like, "Trick or Treat," James NEVER broke character, and with a perfect British accent would say, "Please, sir, can I have some candy?" 

Meanwhile, Matthew was still confused about this whole ordeal. Since James made the rounds with friends, he wanted to be with friends and certainly not his bor-ring parents. I tried to suggest we might run into some of his classmates throughout the night. We approached houses where a smiling and pleasant homeowner was eager to offload free candy, but Matthew would take one look at them and be like, "nope. Not a kid in my class. Let's go." 

Several people asked if he'd trade some gold pieces for candy. We repeatedly practiced saying, "They're always after me lucky charms," but of course he refused to say that to anyone but me. 

He'd also review entire bowls only to tell people they didn't have his favorite candy. Stunned, they actually apologized to this little freeloader. Thank goodness he's cute!!! 

James got to wrap the evening by sorting and making trades on this 65-degree, rain-free night in a friend's driveway. I am truly still stunned at how agreeable the weather was!

Until next year, loyal Scully Spacers! Happy, happy Halloween 2022!

We're baaa-aaaack!

'Round these parts, you know I skip every milestone but Halloween. UNLESS it's 2020. Then I don't even log into Scully Space. SO! Here's a quick recap from LAST year, when Covid zapped every ounce of Halloween energy I had--

We had nuthin'. No trick-or-treat. No creativity. No joy. Until I announced I'd bought full-sized candy bars, and the boys could get two each if they threw on SOME kind of costume. 

But this year was different. This year, we were BACK! Even the ghost was happy about it. 

We made hotdog mummies, and James quickly decided they're delicious, and we need to make these every year. (Eight, as it turned out, was not enough.)

And yippee yahoo, my veggie pumpkin came back, this year featuring extra cruciferous vegetables no one but me likes! 

James scrunched up his face and helpfully questioned, "Why does the pumpkin have hair, Mom?" 

Of course, he's always been a brat. 

But! He's also my most excited holiday helper, so let's dive into his costume reveal first! 

Obviously (and in case you can't read his belt buckle), he's the World's Strongest Man, a staple of any circus sideshow! 

The funniest part here is how much mental anguish I experienced while trying to construct that barbell. We have a set of those big bouncy balls with handles (You know what I mean, right? Kids sit on them and jump/bounce/race. What are they called??) that was my inspiration. I thought I could pop those onto a piece of PVC pipe and voila! Totally wasn't gonna work. I moved onto the idea of spraypainted styrofoam balls, but those get expensive! In the end, I decided it didn't need to be black and that a couple of punch balloons taped to either end of a broom handle would suffice. 

We could absolutely form James' hair into this split-bangs look, but I did need to splurge on a $5 handlebar mustache. 

The muscle shirt was already in our dress-up bin from Patrick's costume a few years back. The tank top is mine--HA! And here's an old laundry bag that said the price of admission is 25 cents OR candy. 

Are you dying at his handlebar smirk?! 

Next, and last since teens are nuthin but Halloween dream killers, is Matthew! 

Multiple people asked me if he was from Peaky Blinders to which I'd retort, HE'S FOUR and a paperboy!

...in Daniel Tiger slip-ons. (Artistic license)

We tried to emphasize the bag to drive home the not-gangster theme. 

I mean, he's basically a dead ringer, right? 

He has no idea what he's yelling here, but I love him for his commitment. 

Bet he coulda sold a half a zillion newspapers, too!

Out in the wild, Matthew found the whole ToT experiment to be a bit overwhelming. (This year was his first!) We made it through one half of one street before he wanted to be done. He ruled out houses that had scary costumes, scary decorations, scary pumpkins, barking dogs, and a couple of maybe-scary old ladies. He much preferred quiet decision-making with no human contact.

But he definitely yelled, "Fanks!" when he heard the prompt! 

This scene never gets old.

James opted to make the rounds with his 4th grade buds. Hilariously, he also declined to trade any candy with those buds, but safely back home, he delighted in sorting and counting his spoils.

That's 231.5 pieces of candy because SOMEone opened a fun size Starburst and gave this poor muffin only one chewy square!

Candy supplies started running low early. It was a bus-y night! And I couldn't be happier. 

Happy Halloween 2021!