Grandmother...what a big nose you have!!

[source]

When I was in kindergarten our class was tasked with the job of dressing up as our favorite story book character one day for school. Mrs. Parks, my kindergarten teacher (and my siblings' teacher as well) was THE most amazing teacher in the world. She was inspiring, loving, kind, generous, and made every child feel like they were one of a kind and oh so special to her - because they were. She was the inspiration and influence for my sister to become a teacher (and a wonderful one at that) and she was the inspiration for many other children to love learning. I wish every teacher were like her, because if they were, kids would love learning so much more and every 3rd grade class would have pumpkin math and science day like my sister's 3rd grade class has. (Speaking of which, today is pumpkin math and science day so I'm playing hooky from my real job to go play with a bunch of third graders, my sister, and a boat-load of pumpkins! Yeah!! Ok - back to the original story...)

I chose to dress up as Little Red Riding Hood and insisted my mother make me a red hooded cape. She did, of course, and I carried a basket (I'm quite sure it was a Longaberger - they're made in Ohio, you know!) full of goodies. This year for Halloween, I decided that I was going to dress up as Little Red Riding Hood again, some 20 years later. But we can't just stop there now, can we? No. Because I have this sweet dog who just loves when I dress him up so he had to be the Big Bad Wolf. :)

Yeah. That happened.

I made his granny cap from a piece of plaid fabric I had laying around. I simply cut a circle large enough to fit on his head, sewed a basting stitch (with my tension all the way up to 10) in a smaller circle in the middle, and let it ruffle itself a bit, then I pulled it tighter so there was a 'cap' part in the middle and the ruffle for the 'brim'. I made his glasses out of pipe cleaners and sewed them to the hat, then sewed a piece of elastic to the hat so I could put it over his head. His 'nightgown' is really a terry-cloth shirt that I altered to fit him a bit better, but I had to use his harness to keep the sleeves in check (see picture of him running below).

Grandmother, what a big nose you have!!

Grandmother, what big eyes you have!

Grandmother, what big ears you have!

Grandmother!?!?!?

I made the dress I'm wearing a long time ago from a sheet (sorry for the lack of photos of me in said dress - it's really tough to take a picture of yourself sometimes, and it's not easy to find a dog-less person to take a picture of you when you're at a dog park...heh). Well, it was actually a duvet cover that someone made out of sheets, so I deconstructed their construction and constructed it into something else. Ya follow? :) I partially used a pattern/tutorial from Fleece Fun for the hooded cape, and the wellies are a Target special from a couple years ago. :)

 We went to Akron Dog Park for their Howl-o-ween party and entered the costume contest. Unfortunately, we were beat out by a family who dressed up as a priest with bride & groom dogs and another family who dressed up as Michael Jackson and three zombies (2 zombie dogs, 1 zombie human) from Thriller. Oh well, we had fun!

Here are some of the other contenders:

Lobster Pug.

Where's Toby? and Chicken Pup.

Cow-dog.

Raj chasing a pumpkin.

There is a frog in the background on the left and a devil dog in the middle.

Horse-dog. (Which is kinda funny because the great dane down the street [Petey!] is frequently referred to as horse-dog around here and his owner is 'horse-dog guy'.)

After we played at the dog park, watched a demonstration from Akron Police Department's K-9 unit, and participated in the costume contest, we took our treats and went back home for a nap before the trick-or-treat began. Here's a sweet shot of us hanging out on the porch waiting to give massive amounts of sugar to strangers' children:

There's our handmade Halloween. :) I've already got ideas in the works for next year's costumes!! Gotta beat the Thriller family! We had a great weekend with some extra hiking and lots of family time. I hope you all did, too.

Love from our home to yours!