Harvest Potluck 2012

This year our church hosted another "Harvest Potluck" the Sunday before Halloween.  It was lower key than last year, but costumes were still welcome and the kids were very excited at the opportunity to dress up and go somewhere.

I didn't have the opportunity to get to the resale shop as I did last year, so this year we decided to be a little more creative.

In the back of my closet I had an Optimus Prime costume that I bought (cheaply) after Halloween last year and J was happy to don this costume.  But, the mask was a bit big, and J had recently completed his first sewing project that he wanted to wear.  So he combined the two and became a Transforming Pirate.  :)

Here's a close-up picture of the pirate hat (complete with cat hair)

Wearing the hat and mask lasted maybe 5 minutes.

P got to wear E's monkey costume from last year.  The costume is still in good condition (many of our dress up clothes are not) and he liked the idea of being a monkey.  Here he is with E before we left home.  

Once we arrived at the potluck, I think the top half of the costume lasted, oh, maybe 15 minutes.  :)  

Apparently R moves a lot, because I never got a great picture of her dressed up.  (That and I'm not the world's best photographer.)  She chose to wear a 'princess fairy' costume from our dress up clothes box that was still in good condition.  I also put some make-up on her, which of course she loved.  Here she is on a swing talking to me about something important.

 E was a tough one as none of the costumes we had that looked nice fit her.  But that's okay, because she always loves to put together creative outfits.  It didn't bother her in the least that she didn't have a 'real' costume.  So here she is in her 'costume'.  (Oh, and she also was allowed to wear some of Mommy's make-up which was a big hit.)

I thought about putting the mouse costume P wore last year on T this year.  However, it looked like it would be too big and I was pretty sure he would NOT be happy with the arrangement, so I didn't even try.  Here he is talking about the balls he found to play with.

 We arrived late and all the formal game playing had already taken place.  The kids didn't mind - They happily started playing them on their own with no care that there weren't any prizes to be won.  Games are fun on their own and don't need prizes, right?  I'm happy that's the way my kids see it, at least!