Happy Halloween!

I have Moved! And added 8 more years of DIY Halloween Costumes!! 
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http://kelseyandco.org/category/halloween/



Dressing up was so fun this year! On Sunday we got dressed up to walk in the Howl'oween Haute Dog Parade. Its the biggest dog parade in the world :) And the beginning is kids and families. The weather was perfect so I didn't have to put Kallen in a shirt- which would've killed his costume.

I was beyond excited once we were all dressed! I was a little worried about my costume and how it would turn out...but I was more than pleased with it :) My Dad made Raya and Kallen's costumes. They're so perfect! And Walmart made Gentry's. lol. I also made Barney and Betty costumes but didn't end up using them. If you're interested in being the Flintstones one year, DO IT! They're some of the easiest costumes to make- which is always a good thing. For example, the Wilma costume in a costume store was $40. I made mine for about $10 and, lets be honest, it was way cuter than the more expensive one ;) Towards the end of this post I wrote mini tutorials for the costumes.

The parade was really fun. I kinda felt famous. LOL. All kinds of people stopped us and asked to take our picture. And the beginning of the parade starts on a red carpet and you walk down the red carpet and stop and pose for all these photographers. It was so neat. And Raya waved through the WHOLE parade. It was so.dang.cute!!! We also brought some candy to throw into the crowd but Raya decided to individually pass out each piece so we cut the candy part and just told her to keep up the waving. The night before we turned our wagon into the Flintstone's car and pulled Kallen in that. It was great. I was so bummed we didn't have more places to go!

The actual night of Halloween we went trick-o-treating with the Gordon's. I only dressed Raya up because it was too cold for Kallen's costume. Raya could've trick-or-treated all night long. It was so fun watching her. Then we hung out at my mom's and passed candy out to the other trick-or-treaters. Oh and we finished our night with mexican food from one of our favorite mexican places a block from my Mom's house. Little did we know we'd get FOOD POISONING from dinner. OMG. Worst experience EVER. I thought I was going to die. It was so horrible. So that was sucky!

But all in all, it was my favorite Halloween yet! I'm guessing I only have about 1 more Halloween to pick out Raya's costume (if I'm lucky) so I'm already brainstorming what we can do next year to top this year :)


Here's what I did for the costumes:

Wilmas: Get a white tank top, cut one strap and tuck it down into the shirt so you have a one-strap top. Get a white dress (I used a bathing suit cover up that was a typical baby doll dress), cut the bottom zig-zag. Outfit is done. Get some white styrofoam balls from a craft store and with needle and thread string them together. Necklace is done. I found some white ball-like earrings at Forever 21. I used some of the extra leopard fabric from Kallen's costume to add a belt and make a bow for my hair- both are optional :) And get ORANGE hair spray. The orange hair dye is what really made it 10 times better. I originally had red and the morning of the parade something made me google Wilma and she clearly had orange hair so I went and exchanged it. Best decision ever. And I finished if off with some brown flip-flops. So easy! And I spent, at most, $15 for EVERYTHING.

Fred's costume would be super easy to make too. Its just a big orange shirt/dress that you could make out of some fabric and glue some black triangle pieces of felt on it and put a deep V-Neck in it and you're done! Add a big blue tie and a crazy wig and you're ready to roll.

For Barney I bought a couple of yards of brown fabric and made a shirt-dress like Fred's, cut the bottom and sleeves zig-zag like Wilma's dress. I cut a V-neck in the shirt and lined it with some leopard print fabric to add a little creative touch. And then if you can find a blond wig and cut it short and scruff Barney is done!

For Betty I bought the same dress I wore, but in blue. I added the strap that ties behind her neck with some fabric glue. The original costume's strap is black but I made it leopard print. It doesn't matter. And because the dresses were long and I cut them I used the extra fabric to make a matching blue bow for her hair. I also happen to have a dark brown wig that I was going to cut if we used it, but if you already have brown hair you're set! Wear whatever shoes you want. Pretty sure they're all barefoot in the cartoon...so its up to you :)

BamBam and Pebbles were made by my Dad. BamBam's were leopard print shorts with a matching sash. Its probably called something more manly than a "sash" but you know what I mean. My dad actually found a pair of brown shorts and sewed the leopard fabric to 12month shorts so we could be sure they'd fit Kallen. If you don't sew you could probably use fabric glue and glue the fabric to a pair of shorts. In the cartoon BamBam actually wears a skirt...and a lot of the other costumes are skirts, so you could go that route, but I will say the shorts worked really well for us. You couldn't see his diaper at all, which was nice because it didn't take away from the costume. And hopefully you live in a warm climate because the sash without anything underneath it is SO CUTE on a little chubby baby!
Pebbles was a green tank top that my dad sewed and added the black triangles to. The shorts were actually blue pants that he cut and added some of the green fabric to and also the black triangle. I've also seen Pebbles in a pink outfit and a leopard print outfit, so its all up to you what look you want to do. Don't forget the bow for her hair (which I forgot to put in before pictures :( but did remember for the parade!) And Pebbles had orange hair too, so I sprayed Raya's hair with the same hair spray I used.

Kallen's Surgery- Done!

Kallen's surgery was last Friday (Oct 28th) at 7:30am. We checked in at 5:30 and from the time we got there to the time we left everyone was just amazing. His surgery was at Children's Hospital of Orange County, aka CHOC. Kallen's nurse, Ron, called me the night before to run me through everything and tell us where to park and what to bring. He couldn't eat after 11:30pm, so I was envisioning a morning of a super cranky and hungry baby. I fed him at 11:15 and he didn't even notice he missed his morning bottle :) Once we were all checked in we chatted with his nurse and then let him play in the big play room. He played for about 20 minutes and then took a nap.

When it was getting closer to surgery time we went back to his room and the surgeon and anesthesiologist came and talked to us. I can't say enough how awesome everyone was. So friendly and so informative and so into Kallen! Lol. The surgeon, Dr........ actually came by a couple times to play with Kallen. She even came out and got him and carried him back to surgery instead of rolling him back in his "baby cage." They were all so sweet with him!

The nurses loved him. He'd go to any of them too. He clearly had no separation anxiety or stranger anxiety!

His surgeon is the one in the white coat

They told us surgery would take about an hour. They would give him some medicine for anxiety that would help him calm down and go to sleep- a lot like laughing gas. They give it to him through an oxygen mask so he's asleep when they do the IV and the rest of the anesthesia. That was very comforting knowing he wouldn't be screaming while they held him down to put an IV in. And who knows if thats really how it would've ever happened, but that's how this mom envisioned it :) Surgery only ended up taking about 30 minutes. The surgeon came out when it was over and told us it went perfectly. He'd be in the recovery room soon and as soon as he was they'd come get us and take us back. About 10 minutes later they took us back and by the time we got there Kallen had sat up, looked around and fallen back asleep sitting up in the nurses arm. She let me pick him up and I was able to hold him until he woke up.

Only one parent could stay with him in recovery. We could both be back there for the first 15 minutes, but then Gentry went back to the waiting room. I sent him this video of Kallen after he woke up.

He woke up about 30 minutes later and they unhooked him from everything and took us all back to his room. We had to wait until he ate without throwing it back up before we could go home. He drank a bottle of water with no problem and they said we could pack up and get ready to leave!

Kallen was quite the popular boy. Every nurse that came out when Kallen and I were in recovery would see me and say "Oh that's your baby?!?! He's so cute! He was the sweetest baby." The nurses loved him :) The nurse that was with him in recovery told me to mark behind his ear when we got home to keep him from getting sick. Have you heard that wives tale? I never have, but she swore every time a bunch of people would tell her how cute her son was he'd get sick so you're suppose to mark behind their ear to keep them from getting sick. She told me that with all the nurses that were loving on him I really should do it when I got home (or something like that). If you know the actually tale, leave it as a comment please! I'd love to know it.

All ready to head home! I snuck him out in his hospital gown because a baby hospital gown is one of the cutest things you'll see ;)

It was pretty amazing how fast it all went and how easy it all was. I was expecting Kallen to cry after waking up from the anesthesia, which is a common way babies wake up, but he didn't. He didn't cry once the whole day. He was never cranky or annoyed or scared or anxious....or basically any of the feelings I was having :) LOL. I guess I took care of the emotional side for him. haha. No it wasn't that bad. Actually no one shed tears. There just really wasn't a time I was scared or nervous. I was definitely anxious, but I was anxious from the time I first knew he was going to need surgery, so that wasn't a surprise. The doctors and nurses were just so great keeping everyone calm and informed. The actual surgery was a small incision a little bit below his hip bone. The stitches are actually on the inside and they dissolve and then they use skin glue to close the outside incision and that peels off on its own. They told us he'd probably be groggy and wobbly on his feet the rest of the day, however he started walking more than he ever had that day. Of course ;) I gave him Tylenol once that day, but seriously, he NEVER cried or seemed uncomfortable. Ever. He was up and moving around like nothing had happened. So, a week later, he's doing wonderfully. The glue is still there but looks like it will come off anytime. I can't really tell how big the incision is as of right now because his skin is still creased with the glue over it, but a lot of the moms that have talked about this surgery have said they can't even tell where the scar is.

 Raya spent the night at Nana's the night before, so when my Mom brought her back Raya brought Kallen a toy she picked out for him

So, glad its all over and this hernia is no more! Its nice to change his diaper with out his groin being super swollen all the time. He's doing great and healing like a champ!

Pumpkin Patch(s)

Raya LOVES the Pumpkin Patch. Kallen LOVES eating the hay at the Pumpkin Patch :) We've been twice already and we'll probably go one more time this week. This year Raya can ride most of the rides. Our first trip this year she checked out a bunch of different rides. The second time we basically paid $15 for her to jump in the bouncy house the whole time. Which means I'll need to actually invite kids to her birthday this year because a bouncy house seems like the best present for her!

We really go for the rides (and the cute pictures) We still haven't bought any pumpkins. Last year we got ours at Walmart. Lol. Its like $50 for 2 baby pumpkins at the pumpkin patch. Ridiculous! If we get some this year I will def be getting them for $4 at good 'ol Walmart. 

Of Course I got Halloween Jammies

Trip #2

I'm getting excited to get everyone dressed up. We're doing a Family Costume this year!! What?! Yep :) Everyone's costumes are almost done. I still need to find mine though...Kallen's surgery is Friday morning, so I don't think we'll be able to do much. The little "private community" we live in is having a Halloween party Saturday afternoon. I might take Raya out to that and leave the boys home. Then Sunday, the main event: The Haute Dog Howl'oween Parade. Its the largest dog parade in the world. Lol. Kids walk before the dogs. Its so fun. People are SO creative! Seriously, if you're around Long Beach on Sunday come with us! We'll all be walking in it at the beginning and then stay and watch the dog part after. 

Happy Halloween!!!