We carved three of the five pumpkins we bought at Whistling Well. The big kids drew their designs in dry erase marker and Mark carved them. He did Ellie’s himself. The big kids gutted their own pumpkins too, after only a little protesting by Grace. Ellie helped throw the guts in the garbage for Grace, who was across the table from the trash can. Grace took a bowl full of seeds out to the woods and “planted” them. We’ll see if we end up with anything next year.
We also got all the kids’ costumes. We bought Connor’s this summer at a garage sale. It’s a really nice Scooby-Doo costume. Despite being from a garage sale, it cost more than the girls’ outfits combined! We found a Mulan dress at Neighbors that fit Grace and added a foam sword from Goodwill. Total cost: $3. Our Goodwill gets lots of Target cast-offs that are brand new but can’t be sold at Target for whatever reason. We got Ellie an adorable gnome costume that retails for $20. It was marked $7. The cashier gave me a coupon booklet for local second-hand-type stores. It had a half price for 1 item Goodwill coupon and she let me use it on the spot, so the gnome was $3.50.
If you’re looking for Halloween ideas, check out these posts I’ve enjoyed over the past week:
- Staying home to hand out candy? Make it a little more fun with Costume bingo
- You can hire people to do almost anything these days, including Halloween chores. Ridiculous.
- Here are ideas for Cheap Halloween treats and decorations. I like the makeup idea, instead of buying a whole set and using just a little. I hope to make these Candy Corn Pudding Treats for the kids on Halloween.
- And for me? Hot spiced cranberry cider.
- More links to DIY Halloween crafts and treats here.
- This has simple directions for making three cute kids’ costumes out of T-shirts (with links to other costume posts).
- And finally some tips to make your Halloween safe, green and food-allergy-friendly.
Follow me on Facebook and Twitter for more links to things I find interesting. There may be video of the kids gutting pumpkins coming too.
I tend to let the boys get whatever costume they want because they wear them all. year. long.
But you are awesome; way to be that coupon diva, bargain shopping mom (for most stuff, I am too)!