Here's how it went down in our household... pray.  pray.  pray.  vote & pray.  pray.  We know that all existing authorities have been appointed by God; He is the one who sets up kings and removes them.  And through it all, whether my choice for president wins or loses, God remains sovereign.  So we did our little part in history today, exercising the priviledge that has been afforded to us through the sacrifice of many, and voted.  The rest is up to God & we take full comfort and peace in trusting that no matter what Wednesday morning's news tell us, He is still good.  God is sovereign.  And the Gospel remains the true hope-- yea, the only hope-- for this earth. 

Growing up, we always did Halloween but it wasn't really that big of a deal.  Some years, my mom would sew our costumes (I dream of Genie! it snowed that year, and I was in lace pants and a crop top. Brrrrrrrrr....) and other years we would just pick something up (the dreadful french maid).  It was always a good time.  But in my husband's family, Halloween was a big deal.  His mom LOVED it... she would decorate the house and she made most of their costumes.  She loved dressing the kids up... a mouse, a ghost, a ninja.  Its fun to look back at pictures and see the costumes recycled through Sean's brother and sister as the years went by.

Sean's mom is no longer with us.  And its hard to know how to adquately incorporate her legacy into the life of our daughter.  Just like with teaching Gia about Whitney, we're learning as we go, and tell Gia about her Grandma Jill from time to time.  So Halloween is one of those times when she can know about Grandma Jill, and how much she loved the dress-up holiday.  And that's why I try to put a lot of thought and love into making Gia's costumes.  I think Jill would have loved dreaming up costume ideas with me, and of course seeing Gia in the final products.  Anyway, that's a little back story on why I like making Halloween special in our family.

Gia is all about Dora the Explorer in our house. When she wakes up, she says "Doda!" Then proceeds to run down the cast of characters: Boots!  Backpack!  Map!  Diego!  Its super cute.  I never thought I would let my kids get into cartoon characters like that, but I've learned a lot about saying "never" in parenthood.  For one, its just so darn cute when she says "Doda!"-- how can I withhold that from her?  And secondly, I think its near impossible to keep kids from being interested in cartoon characters.  They're made FOR kids, so that's obviously why the little ones like them.  So, I've swallowed the "my-kid-will-never-be-obsessed-with-a-cartoon-character" pride and am guilty of mildly indulging the cuteness.

I wanted to do family costumes because, lets get real- how many years will that possibilty be here?  It goes in the soon-to-be-extinct-upon-puberty category, along with ruffles, bows, leg warmers and fluffy dresses.  So I came up with the idea to make Gia Boots and Sean and I would be Dora & Diego.  Here's what we were going for, incase you're unfamiliar with them:





Our costumes would be pretty easy to pull together, and I knew we could use a lot of stuff we already had.  But Gia's proved to be a little more challenging.  I needed to find a good "base" for the costume, and was thinking I would find a light blue hoodie and sweat pants.  Its always cold in Indiana on Halloween so I knew it had to be warm.  I also knew that Gia will NOT wear a hat, but she will keep a hoodie on, hence the necessity for a hooded sweatshirt.  I kid you not, I looked at every single store in our town and the surrounding areas that sell kids clothing: Wal-Mart, Target, Kohl's, Children's Place, etc. etc.  I could not find light blue or light purple anywhere.  I found a couple other colors that might work but I wasnt' quite satisfied.  So I turned to Amazon and after a quick search for "hooded blue romper" I found this little gem from L'oved Baby.  Thanks to Amazon Prime, it was set to arrive in just 2 days.  And at only $17 (with free shipping, again thanks to Prime) it was still within the budget.  When it arrived, I was almost sad to cut it up and add to it, because it was so soft!  I seriously need to remember this line of clothing because the outfit felt so good, and you can tell its really well made.  So, here's how the costume making went down:

 Then, for the belly I just cut another piece of felt to shape and sewed that on.  This was a little tricky, trying not to stitch through the back layer, but it turned out great.  I also made a tail out of felt and attached it to the backside with just a saftey pin.  (I forgot the tail for our church Fall Fest, but remembered it for Trick or Treating!)  So here are some close up pics of that:



And then, the boots... I knew I couldn't find red boots anywhere, but I read somewhere that someone needed different colored boots for a costume, so they just put colored socks over an existing pair.  GENIUS!!!!!  It won't permanently alter the boots, and it was super cute!!  So I found these red socks at Old Navy for $1.  I bought them a couple sizes bigger than her shoes.





I thoughts she was just the cutest little Boots I'd ever seen!! :)  What did you dress up as for Halloween?







  

The final part of our Little Man Mustache Bash was the "photo booth."  It wasn't really a booth at all... just a length of fabric hung in a door frame.  But it was so much fun!  {almost} Everyone got in on the action, even both grandmas (scroll down for those fantastic photos!).  This part was pretty easy to set up.  I created this sign:

    

There were several people who had the same number corret, so for a tie breaker for the prize, we had them guess how many days pregnant Heather was on that very day.  (We found a calculator online that did the math for us.)

Our prizes (though I forgot to take a picture) were coffee cup cozies with mustache designs on them and $5 Starbucks gift cards.

The other game we played was Baby Shower Trivia.  I put together this trivia sheet, and had the guests answer them.  The tie breaker for this game was the traditional shower game of "how big is mom's belly."

One of my girlfriends is having a baby!  And I love a good excuse to throw a fun party, so this occasion was no exception.  Heather said she had seen some cute mustache parties on Pinterest, so with that in mind, we (the other girlfriends and I) set out to cook up a fantastic Little Man shower.  Heather is also planning to use the colors red and a slate blue in baby Jack's nursery, so I took her theme and those colors and came up with these invitations:



And here are some pictures from the shower and how it all came together.... For centerpieces we put coffee beans in the bottom of some tall vases (since it was a brunch, this was fitting), then added some felt mustaches on a stick along with a "Welcome Jack" stick that I made.  I had the blue woven placemats from Pier One, then we layered that with some mustache paper that we mounted on plain red cardstock.  We made mustache confetti from a paper punch I bought and scattered that around.  Then, for the favorite part of the party, the sticky mustaches!  I bought a bunch of packages of these from Target just before Halloween ($1 each pack of 5 or 6!) then mounted them on matching blue chevron and red cardstock papers.




Here's a better look at when I was putting everything together in prep for it... you can see the sticky mustaches better in this pic:



For the food table and windows behind the food table, I made some big mustaches from black posterboard.  Here's a look at when I was making them:


And here are some shots of the table.  The table cloth is 3 yards of red chevron printed duck fabric that I found at Hobby Lobby.  I think they'll make great pillows for our playroom after this! (I really need to learn my camera better... this room is only lit by backlight coming through the windows, so these pictures did not come out very good at all.  But you can get the idea...)





For the food labels, I stuck with the same colors and chevron and mustache.  Our menu was biscuits & gravy, egg souffle, apple butter muffins, fruit cups, cucumber sandwiches, a delicious green salad and for some sweets, these adorable little "eggs & bacon" chocolates and blue velvet cake!



 For drinks, we served this amazing Mocha Punch.  It takes a bit of prep work but it is seriously the most delicious thing ever!  You should really try it!  We also had coffee and water bottles wrapped with mustache duct tape!  Also for added interest on the food & drink tables, I put tissue paper in a tall vase, along with another one of the "Welcome Jack" sticks.





Finally, for the "thanks for coming" take-homes, my friend Jess made these awesome chocolate mustaches.  I added a tag that I designed to match everything else, and tied it to the sticks along with some finger mustache tattoos that I picked up at Wal-Mart.




So there are the basic details.... up next:

• Baby Shower Games
• Photo Booth Fun