Halloween 2009

Last year for Halloween Lucas was an Indian. I made the costume myself, and I just loved it. I have so much fun with planning the costume, finding what I need for it and making it. I thought his indian costume turned out soo cute, and I wanted him to look as cute again this year. But I didn't know if I would succeed in doing so.
A couple of months ago, I asked Lucas what he wanted to be for Halloween, but he didn't know. He loves playing his DS and especially loves playing Super Mario. So I mentioned that he could be Mario or Luigi. He kept going back and forth between Mario and Luigi, until he decided that he
wanted to be Luigi for sure.
As I did last year I wanted to make the costume myself. I guess it's a tradition I started last year when I was shopping for Lucas's costume. I think that the boy's costumes all look so cheap made and there's nothing special about them. And then they ask so much for them, and I just knew that I could make it cheaper myself or maybe for about the same price.
The Luigi costume was being sold at the stores this halloween season for a whopping $40. I knew I could make that cheaper, because this costume don't consist of much - pants, shirt, hat, gloves.
I was planning on making the pants and buy the rest. I started searching for a Luigi hat online, and the best one I found was on Ebay. The seller was located in Hong Kong. I could not find a single hat that was located in the US. The hat was very cheap - $1 and the shipping was $7, so $8 total for the hat. I'm glad I was planning his costume early, because the hat took 3 weeks to get here.
I bought the fabric for the pants at Joanns for $8. And I only used about 3/4 of the fabric for the pants. I had a pattern for pajama pants, and I used that and I then freehanded the bib part of it. In order to get two yellow buttons for the pants, I had to buy two packages of different colored buttons. (They only had one yellow button in each package). So it would end up being about $5 for two buttons - too much. Instead I bought two plain wooden buttons and painted them yellow.
The hardest part was finding a shirt that would match the hat. The shade of green was hard to find in a shirt. I looked at Walmart, Target and gave up. I decided to make the shirt myself. I went to Joanns (again) and was searching for fabric that would match. They didn't have any. But then I thought of looking in the clearance section. I couldn't believe it ! They had fabric that would match for $1.50 a yard and a yard was all I needed. Now that's cheap for a shirt.
Last was the gloves which I bought at a halloween store. After that though I saw white gloves at Walgreens and Joanns.
So I think the costume cost about $25. A lot better than $40 and I plan on selling it on Ebay next halloween just like I did this year with Lucas's indian costume.

Catching Up

It's really been a long time since my last post. I've kinda been discouraged about writing. I started this blog, so my family and friends could keep up with us. But it seemed like no one was reading it, because they never commented or never said anything about what we had done. Then a few friends wanted me to start writing in English, so I did that, but still I don't really know who's keeping up with me. But a friend told me to keep at it, since it will be a wonderfull scrapbook to look back on...so here I am.

We went to Denmark in August to attend my brother's wedding. We had the best of times. It was just awesome to be with family and friends. It was wonderfull to meet my little niece, who's not so little anymore - she's 2 already. I feel like we bonded and we got to know each other as well as you can do while visiting for two weeks. And really weird that this little person I don't know as well as the rest of my family ended up being the hardest one to say goodbye to. I truly miss this little girl, she was so much fun. It was so much fun to see Lucas play with his cousin. Even though they didn't speak the same language they still had so much fun. The only thing I tried to get a good picture of the two of them together, but I never did. Oh well, maybe next time.

The wedding was so much fun. A lot of tears were shed, but still so amazing that we could be there. I had the big honor to be placed next to the groom at the reception. That was a huge honor, and I did not see that one coming at all.

The day of the wedding my mom and I went to the hairdresser to get our hair all done pretty. And no, no real picture of my hair from that day. I totally forgot to take a picture. That was fun - my mom and I of course don't get to very often do any mother-daughter things together. It was so nice that it was just the two of us hanging out - even if it was to get our hair done. Also, we went to my hairdresser that I used before moving to Missouri. I haven't seen her in probably 10 years - at least. So it was fun catching up with her.

When I came back, Lucas was awake. Dwayne spend the night with my brother and dad, so Lucas stayed home with my stepdad. I was wondering how he would feel, that neither his mom or dad wasn't in the house, but no big deal. All he said when I came back was "where have you been. I looked everywhere for you". Yeah, right...he was sitting and watching tv the whole time.

I got Lucas ready, and he looked so handsome in his suit. I think all three of us looked pretty good. It's not everyday you get to look so glamorous, so it was a lot of fun.

The rest of the day went by so fast. The nuptials were beautiful. My brother and his wife was such a handsome couple. You could just see it in their eyes how much they love each other.

The reception was a blast. One big party and Dwayne really got to see how a Danish wedding is done.

I'm not very good at speaking in public. But being the sister of the groom, I had to do something for them. So I gave a speach along with my brothers. At least I could lean on them for support. I was really stressing about this speach for a long time. Every now and then while driving back and forth to work, I would try and think of things what to say. But it was really hard. My brother and I didn't grow up together. He stayed with my dad after our parents divorced and I with my mom. I had finally gotten my little brothers to commit to do this thing together. They are in the early twenties, so they are typical young men...do I have to say more ? ;-) The only time my brother's and I could get together to write the speach was the day before the wedding. Talk about last minute. I will truly treasure that day for years to come. The three of us met up in one of my brothers apartment, and we just had such a good time talking about good ole' days. And I think we got an excellent speach written. It truly came from our hearts, and we wanted people at the party to let them know how our brother was to us while growing up. And I think we accomplished that.

But back to the reception, I was sooo nervous about this speach. I figured I'll just drink - you know that gives you a little bit of courage, but I couldn't even drink, my stomach was in knots. Finally it was our turn, and I think we did good. I had a hard time saying a few things because of emotions, but then my brother's were good to jump in. I love them! After that speach I could finally relax and have some fun.

It was a long day, and I can't remember the last time I stayed up so late. Lucikly the reception was held at an old hotel, so we could stay the night right there. That was awesome that our bed was just down the hall. The next morning it was wonderfull to wake up and look out the window and the view was the ocean.

It was truly a beautiful wedding - thanks to my brother and his wife.

The rest of our stay in Denmark went by wayyy too fast. We had a good time with a trip to Legoland, the ocean, shopping etc. Which hopefully I'll tell a bit more about later.