Update on Halloween & Birthday Prep

First, I'm relieved to tell you that we found an Alice dress for Miss Roo! Mike will not have to make one after all. When she was leaving school today Riley told Mrs. D. that she'd be getting a pink Bumbo in the mail. This was an odd and untrue bit of information, but I used it as a segue to remind her that her Halloween costume would come in the mail. When Mrs. D. asked what the costume was Roo answered enthusiastically:

It's "Aah-wis". It's going to come with instructions! First we'll put the black ribbon in my hair. Then the white apron. Then the bwoo dress. We put on tights and black sparkly shoes. Halloween is coming soon after my birthday.

Luckily for us older brother changed his mind(phew). He no longer wants to be a realistic looking machanical man. He decided a squid would be better. That's more like it. I'm completely confident that Mike and I can make an awesome squid. I will say however that I greatly miss the movie character costumes (Ghostbuster, Marty McFly and Anakin Skywalker) these creature costume are trickier.

Here's some of our favorite inspiration shots.

Needless to say, Mike is on the case hardcore. We've been discussing suction cup options for the tenntalces. I've seen bubble wrap, buttons, cut up bath mat, Nerf darts and plain old paint. LOVE the creativity you find image searching squid costumes.

I've got everything for Riley's party except food and balloons at this point. It's gonna be a great party. Here's what we've got so far on the Minnie Mouse front:

My photographer friend gave me a roll of pink fabric with white polka dots. I used it to cut flags for the Circus baby shower invitations. I'm going to hang some as a backdrop and I got Riley a giant Minnie Mouse. The guests will pose against and with those when they enter (hopefully in their Minnie bows/bowties they got with the invitations). Bless my sister-in-law for happily accepting that job. I'll keep a set of "photo booth" pictures to make album for Miss Roo and send the rest with thank you cards.

I got plain colored paper bags with handles for favor bags. I wanted them to look like boutique bags. I'm going to glue paper bows on them and write Riley's boutique in pretty font. As for filling them I really liked giving all the kids a book last year. So, I picked up some Minnie Mouse and Mickey Mouse paperback books. There's the usual goodie bag fair as well, minus candy or whistles. It's parent friendly swag. Everyone also gets a Minnie or Mickey cup too.

I was going to paint cups, but I decided I had alot on my plate with cup cakes and decor. More updates to follow. This is such a fun marathon-of-events time of year!