13th day of halloween

Previous posts about the 13 Days of Halloween:  

intro // 1st day // 2nd day // 3rd day // 4th day // 5th day // 6th day 

 7th day // 8th day // 9th day // 10th day // 11th day // 12th day

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Here we are on the 13th day of Halloween. It's been a lot of fun for me to trip down memory lane, so thanks for coming along for the ride. 

 

Over the past several months, L has been very into the BBC programme called Sherlock, so she naturally decided to dress as Sherlock Holmes' BFF, Dr. John Watson. This version of Sherlock is set in present-day London and Watson is a war veteran, recently returned home from Afghanistan. In the first episode, he walks with a cane, so L decided her Watson would need one as well.

 

 

 

 

 

A visit to the resale shop yielded jeans, a plaid shirt and a black peacoat. Since it was super cold tonight, she grabbed John's scarf on the way out the door. The wig was meant to be a "Ceasar" hairstyle, but on a head her size it was a close enough approximation of Martin Freeman's Fisher Price Man Hair. 

 

 

 

 And here she is with her trick-or-treating companion, A, who dressed as "The Night".

John passed them as he was driving down the street and he thought they were A's older sister M and a dude. He thought his own daughter was a dude! Ahahaha! 

Hope you all had a safe and fun Halloween. :)

12th day of halloween

Previous posts about the 13 Days of Halloween:  

intro // 1st day // 2nd day // 3rd day // 4th day // 5th day 

6th day // 7th day // 8th day // 9th day // 10th day // 11th day

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Some of you may remember this costume from last year since I posted about it then. But here it is again, for continuity's sake. Last year L was way into this book series called The Mysterious Benedict Society, so she decided to dress as one of the characters, called Kate Wetherall. The only references available to help her construct her costume were a tiny drawing on the front of the book and the description of the character in the story.

L said it was the most comfy costume ever, and she was thrilled any time someone mentioned the "realistic-looking" blood on her face. She's so twisted. I love it.

Tomorrow's the big day! Anybody want to hazard a guess as to what L's lucky 13th Halloween costume will be? Here's a hint: it has nothing to do with luck, or the number 13. Here's an actual hint (numerically speaking): 221B. See you manana! :)

11th day of halloween

Previous posts about the 13 Days of Halloween:  

intro // 1st day // 2nd day // 3rd day // 4th day

5th day // 6th day // 7th day // 8th day // 9th day // 10th day

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Big fun this Halloween as L decided to dress as Claudia Donovan from the TV show called Warehouse 13. 

L's friend A dressed as Katniss from The Hunger Games (before the movie came out). I sent their pic in to the USA Today blog, and they posted it! I tweeted a pic at the actress who plays Claudia, and she replied: "Spectacular!" And yet, as L and A trick-or-treated around the neighborhood, many of the comments they received referred to them as "Robin Hood and her kinda punk-rock apprentice", or variations thereof. They just laughed it off and rocked on, girl power stylie.

10th day of halloween

Previous posts about the 13 Days of Halloween:  

intro // 1st day // 2nd day // 3rd day // 4th day

5th day // 6th day // 7th day // 8th day // 9th day

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In the year leading up to this Halloween, L was heavy into the Percy Jackson books, which led to a wider interest in Greek mythology. She decided to dress up as the coolest character on the block: Medusa. Since Ohio Halloweens are notoriously chilly, instead of doing full body paint under her toga, we just popped a green fleece under there. The face paint was so effective that she had a greenish pallor during her birthday party the next day. 

9th day of halloween

Previous posts about the 13 Days of Halloween:  

intro // 1st day // 2nd day // 3rd day // 4th day

5th day // 6th day // 7th day // 8th day

 

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You just knew a Potter-related costume had to be coming, right? Well here it is! L is a full-fledged Potterhead these days (she's been sorted on Pottermore and will recite lines from A Very Potter Musical at the drop of a sorting hat), but back on this Halloween she was just your average fan of the books and movies. She decided to be Ginny Weasley, because, well, just look at her!

In order to differentiate herself from Hermoine to avoid the inevitable incorrect guesses, L crafted an "I (HEART) HARRY" button for her robe and put a snake around her neck as a nod to the whole Tom-Riddle-Kidnapping-Her-And-Holding-Her-In-The-Chamber-of-Secrets-Basilisk situation. Unfortunately these clues were far too subtle for most of the people she encountered on Halloween. But this did not dim her enthusiasm one bit. She just kept calm, carried on, and muttered "muggles".

8th day of halloween

Previous posts about the 13 Days of Halloween:  

intro // 1st day // 2nd day // 3rd day // 4th day

5th day // 6th day // 7th day

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For Halloween this year, L decided to dress as her favorite musician. That happened to be our friend Courtney, who plays guitar in a band called EXIT. The costume was super easy to make and comfy to boot. I even used a sharpie to draw a tattoo on her ankle to match the one Courtney has. For her candy bag, I ironed an image of a Marshall amp onto a black tote bag.

photo of Courtney by Michele Lanyzs

re-enactment of top photo

action shot!

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AND NOW IT'S TIME FOR BONUS BIRTHDAY PARTY PICTURES!

L's 8th birthday party theme was ROCK MUSIC. We baked a "record" cake. We asked guests to dress as their favorite musicians and we sent backstage passes with their invitations. They had to get past the bouncer to get in the door.

I dressed as 80's singer Alison Moyet. 

And L dressed as her second favorite musician at the time, Freddie Mercury. Fun Fact: You remember Courtney from the top of this post? When she was 11, she dressed as Freddie Mercury for Halloween. (Edited to add: a photo of Courtney dressed as Freddie at age 11)
 MINDFREAK!

  

what else would you play at a rock party?

7th day of halloween

Previous posts about the 13 Days of Halloween:  

intro // 1st day // 2nd day // 3rd day // 4th day // 5th day // 6th day

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This was the year L finally loosed the shackles of all things pink and princess-y, and there was much rejoicing! She had recently discovered the universal beauty of Hayao Miyazaki and her love of his films inspired a wider interest in Japanese art and culture that lives to this day. In fact, she carries her diabetes supplies in a small bag decorated with characters from My Neighbor Totoro. At the time of this Halloween, her favorite movie was The Cat Returns, so she decided to dress up as the main character, Haru, who spends most of the movie as half-girl/half-cat. I was worried it would bother her when people guessed she was just a cat, but each time she excitedly explained her character to them. And from this Halloween forward, she has continued to choose lesser-known characters to portray each year. Dig it.

big anime eyes

at the end of the party, bow slightly askew

6th day of halloween

Previous posts about the 13 Days of Halloween:  

intro // 1st day // 2nd day // 3rd day // 4th day // 5th day

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This year L was still heavy into pink and princesses, and for Halloween she added a Fairy to the previous year's Princess.

Even Fairy Princesses have to go through the awkward growing-your-bangs-out stage.

5th day of halloween

Previous posts about the 13 Days of Halloween:  

intro // 1st day // 2nd day // 3rd day // 4th day

This was the year L became indoctrinated into the Princess Industrial Complex. Thanks, preschool peer influence! She and I shopped for her Halloween costume at the second-hand store and she picked everything out herself. We found the crown at the dollar store and she payed with it for her own money. Because even princesses need to learn fiscal responsibility.

Bonus birthday party pic! It was a princess theme (obvs) and we played 'Pin the Kiss on the Frog' and L helped me make a Princess Barbie cake and all the guests dressed as their favorite princess/superhero. Also, we had a pinata situation that nearly ended like that one scene in Parenthood (The Movie), but I didn't snap any photos of that.

4th day of halloween

Previous posts about the 13 Days of Halloween:  

intro // 1st day // 2nd day  // 3rd day

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Around the time of L's fourth Halloween, we had been reading a lot of books about kids and their costumes, and she decided to go for the classic old school costume: a ghost. CLASSIC, I SAY. And so easy to make! Then she told me that since her favorite color was blue, she wanted to be a blue ghost. This was well before her gaming days, so she wasn't trying to emulate a post-power-pellet-Pac-Man ghost. She was just a regular, run of the mill, blue ghost.

Spooooooooky.

3rd day of halloween

Previous posts about the 13 Days of Halloween:  

intro // 1st day // 2nd day

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In the months leading up to L's third Halloween, her favorite tv show was Little Bill. Obviously, I was going to have to figure out how to make a Little Bill costume.

I don't know how to sew, so I enlisted the help of my pal Jill, who offered to teach me. Unfortunately, I was terrible at it, so she ended up making the shirt for me. For my part, I did use the internet to find the perfect accessory: a small hamster like Little Bill's beloved pet on the show. Actually, now that I think of it, I needed help from my friend Jenn to do that as well. So I guess what I'm saying is: it takes a village to create a Little Bill Halloween Costume. But look how rad it turned out!

2nd day of halloween

Previous posts about the 13 Days of Halloween:  
intro // 1st day

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For L's second birthday, we chose a "coloring theme" for her party, since that was one of her main interests at the time. It was an easy decision to extend that to her Halloween costume. The color choice was a no-brainer. I bought a metal Crayola wall hanging from Hallmark and used it as a template. I got a few sheets of red and black flannel and some sticky velcro at a fabric store and a quick visit to the thrift shop yielded a red sweatsuit* and cap.

*not this kind of red sweatsuit, but now that you mention it, that would be an EPIC costume, especially for a toddler.

1st day of halloween

Previous posts about the 13 Days of Halloween: intro

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When L was born she had this full head of crazy red hair. As her first Halloween approached, we realized there could only be one choice for her first costume.

I made it myself, as I did with most of her costumes, until she started making her own. At the time, this Dino ride was located in the entrance to our local Toys 'R' Us. Soon thereafter, he was sent off to greener pastures. But not before this photo op.

13 days of halloween - intro

Halloween is a pretty big deal in our family. When I was a kid, my dad would set up elaborate decorations around our house, including a pumpkin-headed straw man on our garage roof and stereo speakers propped up in windows blasting spooky sounds to the trick-or-treaters. I LOVED IT.  I am happy to report that my kid digs Halloween just as much as me and her grandpa. So starting tomorrow, I'm going to post a photo a day of each of her Halloween costumes over the last 13 years. Some require no explanation and others are more obscure, so I will add reference photos where necessary.

To kick things off, please enjoy a photo from what was almost L's first Halloween; she missed it by two and a half hours. Instead, she came on Dia de los Muertos, which suits her personality just fine. This is me and John and our labor & delivery nurse. Luckily she took her costume off before L entered the world. My kid is twisted enough without that being the first thing she ever laid eyes on.

pre-halloweeny

A couple of weekends ago, my family and Pip's family went to a JDRF event at a local haunted house. L dressed up as a Ginja Ninja, and Pip was perfection as a cupcake (with sprinkles!). The girls played some games, enjoyed a "lights on" tour of the creepshow, and visited the face painter.

And of course there were snacks, and the stuff that goes along with snacking.

Ginja Ninja bolusing on the down low

What, you've never seen a cupcake give herself an injection before?

In somewhat-related news, Pip starts on her pump today, so happy pump start to her! :)

diabetes art day 2012 (belated)

I participated in my first Diabetes Art Day about one year after L was diagnosed.  The theme of my piece was "time" and it was inspired those 15 minute and three hour checks, and everything in between. You can see my post about it here.

During last year's D Art Day we were two years into diabetes and my contribution was inspired by the amazing Diabetes Online Community that had welcomed and supported me and my family. I posted about it here.

We just celebrated our 3 year d-versary and this year's artwork reflects where I am in this journey: trying to make sure I am not consumed by it. My daughter's diabetes has a place in my life, but it's not the only thing on my mind. That is both a relief, and something I would have had difficulty saying before now.

So I looked through a bunch of magazines to try to find things that I love and that represent different parts of my personality. Unfortch, there are no pics of my friends in most major mags, so this piece is more focused on pop culture. I think it's pretty self-explanatory, but let me know if I can answer any questions you may have. ;)

Click to make it bigger!

Thanks again to Lee Ann at The Butter Compartment for creating Diabetes Art Day. And be sure to check out this year's gallery to see the hundreds of other contributions from around the world.

no d day 2012

[Thanks to George for creating No D Day.]

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A few years ago, my awesome friend Kyle introduced my family to the super fun activity called Geocaching. One of the first places we went treasure hunting was this cool mirrored building at a local park. Try as we might, we never found the cache. We went back to it last weekend and I was very happy to find it this time around. What a difference a few years can make.

2006

2012

I say, WHAT A DIFFERENCE A FEW YEARS CAN MAKE, right? ;)