We Have a Winner!

The firecrackers and bottle rockets are flying far less frequently this week and most of our kids have lost interest in all the crap they filled up on after trick-or-treating. Yay! Thank you for your entries, your emails, your comments and memories...and we have found a winner for our Cheapest Costume Contest! Lurene, your son's $3.00 Snake Charmer takes the prize! Thanks to your mother's hoarding instincts (and the power of parachute pants) you've won our Autumn Basket of Fall Treats to help you weather the season!

Rachael, your kids' 0.00 grocery bag masterpieces made us glad to be alive. They couldn't qualify 'cause of their lack of Hallwe'en-ness but they make the ultimate statement about what kids are capable of without a trip around the Costume Store. The rest of us, who shelled out $ to Toysrus or similar, are skulking behind our very expensive wastes of fabric and hoping we can squeeze another year out of the thing...Thanks again for participating and stay warm and cozy this weekend, all!

Hallowe'en & Cheap Costume Contest

So, how was your Hallow's Eve?  Ours was Good Times, considering the boys were recovering from strep throat.  And that Dawk Vader wiped out face first in his helmet right out of the gate in broad daylight.  He spent most of our trick-or-treating time in his stroller, helmet-free.  Cody from StarWarsCloneWars brought home a heavy bag of loot.  And Daddy and I went as lazy pirates.  Camille's girl was a wizard!  Don't call her a witch or a fairy, she hates that!

that is not me in a thong

THANK YOU for your pics for the Cheapest Costume Contest!  Here are a few entries!  TWO DAYS LEFT to win our secret prize, so if you're reading this, use the email button in the sidebar or just email me directly from your address book and attach your pics and prices!  Contest ends Friday November 5th!
From Grace, we have:

The witch was 7.00, hat and dress from the thrift shop. Indiana Jones was: Total $11 , $2 hat at Thrift shop, mint condition GAP boys cowhide jacket Value Village $9 (will be used as a jacket for some years as it’s big! LOL) whip was from Santa last year rest was regular clothes and some brown makeup for 5 o’clock shadow

 Adding to show you my ghost and vampire from about 4 years ago, shredded sheet, cheesecloth, and makeup, regular clothes and $2 thrift shop vest + generic cape from VV did the trick!! Those were my cheapest yet.  And the scariest actually, kids at preschool found them a bit too scary....Grace(yes, Grace, they scare the crap out of me, too!)

From Rachael:
                                             

Ha! Well written, that made me laugh both in rememberance of my own Halloween years and also for the irony of your post and how closely it resembles my own sentiments  about our excessive consumption as a population in general. I'm frugal like you, for the most part. Costumes for my kids usually come from Value Village.This kittie costume from a couple years ago cost $4.99, all second hand.  

The picture of the kids wearing shopping bags are not Halloween costumes but they were costumes the kids made for fun, which I realize may me look like I am too cheap to buy toys but the truth is they did this themselves. I do feel that  kids have more fun creating imaginary play than they do playing with painted plastic, that's why they play

 with the box at Christmas time....Rachael

and From Lurene:

Rock Star.  $7 total.  Wig $7 (USA yeeeeeeeeears ago....) / vest $0 (mine, from my closet yeeeeeeeeeears ago..) / pleather pants? $0 (MINE ...from yeeeeeeeeears ago....) / electric guitar? $0.  His Dad’s (from 1983) 

Snake Charmer / Aladdin.  $3 total.  Vest $0 (again,...mine...) / pants $0 my sister Shannon actually WORE these in the 80’s  - God love my Mother “the Hoarder”!  Shoes. $0 They were a gift from James on a recent trip to India.  Turbin. $0 it’s my favorite scarf.  Sword. $3 Value Village (yeeeeeeeeeeears ago).....Lurene

And we've got a surprise posting from our own mama!  I am busted for not remembering my costume correctly--here is the real deal and some perspective from when we did it Old School:

Here’s an archival photo of the blogging sisters (Saf & Camille) dressed up for Hallowe’en the old fashioned way.  Not a sheet but a really nice (but old and stained) tablecloth sacrificed for the occasion and the Christmas tinsel on the end of a chopstick was not to be sneezed at either...  Cost: $0, result: a fairy or an angel?  A bit of makeup to paint a big smile onto our clown, a minor investment for a red bowler hat, a borrowed tie and the cost probably came to $2 on that costume.  Every Hallowe’en there was a scramble to cobble together something.  Imagination was a key ingredient.  It was fun! Mama

Halloween Used To Be All Mine

My daughter as Richard Simmons. Remember when we could live our Halloween fantasies vicariously through our children? (The Princess/Enchantress/Fairy thing is getting a bit tired these days.) PS No, I don't plan on scooping the wicked surPRIZE from y'all (immediate family is exempt, of course), but I'm proud to say it cost me $0 and provided more entertainment than a jug of wine.

Dawk Vader and The Costume Woes (send pics for a prize!)

                                            Ghost in Damask Standard Pillow Case
Camille and I are from an era where there was no massive online vacuum sealed Hallowe'en Costume Mecca.  Grew up in a house where your folks would take a holey sheet, belt it with some Christmas tinsel, tie more tinsel around your head, cover a chopstick in tinfoil, stick some of the above-mentioned tinsel on the end and BAM!, you're an Angel Fairy!  Later, rich teenagers would rent from the costume store, or wore their parent's work uniforms and spilled drinks on them at parties (not me, I swear).

 By the time I got pregnant with our first son, not only were Old Navy and the Gap pumping out adorable, plush, probably slave-laboured costumes with tails, ears and padded feet for a pretty penny but, though we hadn't installed MacOS9 yet,  the flimsy online costume craze was quietly gathering momentum.

Now Hallowe'en is totally out of control.  Yards are decorated and lit with the same holiday fervor as at Christmas time.  Peanut free chocolate is shoveled into plastic pumpkins with handles...what happened to paper bags and pillow cases?  And, strangest of all, online stores and Hallowe'en warehouses are selling scads of mass produced licensed costumes from tv/movie hits of the moment---Avatar, Star Wars, Jersey Shore (what the heck is that?), Buzz Lightyear...Do you know how hard it was to find a size 8 in the Cody from Star Wars Clone Wars costume?  And that my 8 yr old was not only willing to be clothed in head-to-toe white spandex, but was also willing to wear a half-helmet with an elastic across the back? Once he says thank you for his candy and turns around, it'll be painfully clear we could only afford the 19.99 package.

...weapon not included

I'm not sure just what I'm getting at, but I needed to write a bit about Hallowe'en so that I could:
1) post this picture of The Duck, who is going to be Dawk Vader (though there were a few dawk moments where he changed his mind back to Michael Jackson and then a Scuwvy Pirate AFTER we bought the 40.00 talking helmet).  I can't quite get over how much he looks like Rick Moranis in Spaceballs.  And he's not afraid to use the fowce.

  On the night he'll wear dawk shoes, of course.

2) (way more importantly) ask you to send us a picture of YOUR kid(s) in costume, along with the grand total $ you spent on their outfit.  The lowest cost costumer will win a prize!!  Not telling what, and hand-me-downs don't count.  Please use the "email" button on the right side of our blog and attach a picture (jpeg) along with your comment.  Your child will be cooed over on our blog, and I'll get to see how the other parents do it.  Contest ends on November 5th!  

Total Recall

OK, this time it’s not about lead or cadmium content, it's about… wait for it… a perfectly rounded plastic ignition key (see the purple nub?) and it's outrageous potential for danger. I have to say, this massive Fisher Price recall kinda makes me laugh… and I do realize that’s a tad inappropriate. I can’t help but regret that I didn’t come up with the brilliant idea of letting my daughter ride her Dora bike at 100 KM unattended! I’ll just have to get brainstorming for an even more creative lawsuit... CA-CHING!

Now, I do understand the ‘small parts’ concerns, although how many of us have actually banished all items smaller than baseballs from arms reach for fear of choking the chitlens? The grapes from the crisper? Felt circles on dining room chairs? Buttons on OUR clothes?? Signed, Safety Goose (might have to pass the crown soon)

Free $ or Child Labour?

How do you administer the dole?

There seem to be 3 schools of thought:

1) Make them work for it

2) Make them divide it up responsibly

3) Just give it to them and let 'em do whatever they want with it - sheesh.

I, being a near professional fence walker, have decided to apply a combination of all of the above.

When it seemed like time to give our girl an allowance, a few very debatable questions arose. First one - should she have to work for it? My initial instinct was, heck ya. How else will she know the value? It was then pointed out that WE don’t get paid to clear the table or to make our beds. Perhaps these tasks could be framed as “Household Responsibilities”, things that are expected of us and don’t hold monetary value. So in order to avoid committing to any one school of thought, we've kept her allowance meager in order to allow for ‘work opportunities’. So if she wants to save enough to buy a WII, she can scrub spots off the walls. For a long time. (OK, I’ll admit it. We’re cheap. And we’ve found a way to feel good about it.) Bonus dough is there to be made with little extra jobs around the house. Cleaning her room and clearing the table remain mandatory.

In my search for kiddie finance wisdom I came across the 3 Jar Method. I need these jars! (May seem elementary to some of you, but I’m financially challenged and am one step away from storing my savings under the mattress.) This brilliant system just seemed too responsible not to explore, although enforcing it feels a tad controlling… But really, I have so many other enticing areas of her life to micro manage! With fingers crossed, I presented my daughter with the 3 Jar Method and thankfully she was game. But in retrospect, what 6 year old wouldn’t like the idea of decorating jars and playing banker?

As it stands, our daughter puts $1 in each jar every weekend and is responsible for cleaning her room and clearing her spot at the dinner table not because her allowance depends on it, but because…well, it’s a hard knock life. Has she bit the carrot and made herself rich with endless odd jobs while her dad and I lounge in our spotless palace? Far from it. Turns out, this girl doesn’t have a capitalist bone in her body. If a clean bedroom wasn’t an absolute requirement, her Dad and I would be navigating boas and Barbie combs to kiss her good night while she lay in her pigsty bed, gleefully broke.

Of course, our system is very much customized to our daughter’s personality (and my half-assedness). So when it comes to the dole, what’s your deal?

The ball, The Chain, The Homework

                                                      

Ack!  As we review the limp and rather stained lunch box, assess how many inches from the floor the bottoms of Mr The King's jeans are now rising, and search for last year's pencils in the folds of the couch and car, our thoughts turn to the most harrowing of all back-to-school revelations...here comes HOMEWORK!

Unlike many of you, I have not been pulling out workbooks all summer and preventing the draining of the brain.  Mr The King has been spoiled in true style with wading pools and grandparent visits, bicycles, playdates, squirt guns, barbeques, baseball, popsicles, concerts and water parks...and he's realizing that it's all about to come crashing to an end.

"I'm not going to grade 3.  Won't be there.  Can't make me...I'm not scared of school...I'm scared of TEACHERS!"

Hmmm...you know,  I think I am too!  I'm already stressing (privately) about how we'll get our student shackled to the table and get down to business.  Second Grade homework was a bit of a Gong Show.  He didn't bring it home half the time,  and when he was forced to pull it out of his backpack and uncrumple it, he looked at it in horror as if it were his toothbrush (whole other story).  I'm talking 45 minutes of 'process' for a 15 minute task.  Am I alone here?  Many children I know have much more of a work ethic.  I liked the accomplishment of homework,  my husband just didn't bother arguing with his parents,  and most of my friends' kids are much more task-friendly than our guy.   Much, though not all, of his learning problems are about this unwillingness to just plain Work.

This year needs to be very different.  I need to give homework a solid spot in our schedule and I need to work it around the school day, dinner, soccer practice, cub scouts....somewhere before bedtime...hmmmm...when do you pull out the homework chair and play prison guard?  Am I being overdramatic?

The Value of Prunes

Motherhood is a neurotic time, and I'm not one to miss out on opportunities for self-inflicted torture. But really, it's our job to keep babies alive (No pressure!) and as a result, us parents spend gross amounts of time imagining their demise. Or at least I do. These days, the seasonal nightmare that loops in my subconscious involves drowning. #1 cause of accidental death for kids, after all. Knowing this you'd think I'd have my daughter in swimming lessons but they've never been convenient for us, she's never begged for them, and frankly, I don't want to have to wax my bikini line that often. Have I mentioned that I'm a bad mother? Good news is I've discovered a single wax approach that's way more fun than the bi-weekly gridlock to the petri dish! It's called...wait for it... The Family Vacation! With limitless access to a hotel pool, we racked up a good 24 hours of consecutive swimming time (breaking only for snacks and naps) while our daughter went from a terrifyingly weak dog paddler to swimming laps with the breast stroke and scavenging pool toys 7.5 feet under just for kicks. As long as she loses the high-pitched dog whistle that squeaks from her nose (chlorine anyone?), I think we've come out ahead and have one more great reason to take family vacations.

A Bad Wrap

Aw, crap.  This morning I saw a headline that made me panic: "Get Rid of Plastic Wrap".  I mean, I did have an idea that it's not great for us or the landfill.  And I've not only stopped using any plastic in the microwave, but have also stopped using the microwave 90% of the time....but upon reading the article in question I realized many more of my plastic/aluminum sins.  PVC (polyvinyl chrloride) has the worst environmental problems of all plastics!  Apparently Glad Wrap and Saran Premium Wrap produce less dioxins, but are obviously still a major disposable threat to the environment.  Giving up plastic wrap and freezer baggies altogether would be so hard.  Impossibly.  But when I hear the words ~Hormone Disruptors~ I do have to think of my two boys getting boobies or not being able to have children of their own one day.

photo found at aboutmyplanet.com

Solution?  I'm going to try to hunt down some non-toxic wrap.  If it exists.  And I pledge to use actual containers even more (I like to store food in the fridge in a ceramic bowl with a plate on top, or in metal).  And I highly recommend reading the article--much of it you already know, but perhaps not all.  It's a good primer for detoxing your home and yourself, as Natasha Turner, ND (author of The Hormone Diet) urges us to do.  I think she has some good points.  And I bet mom agrees!

Sleep, The Holy Grail

This guest post isn't just about getting your little one to sleep through the night....it's also for those of us grown-ups who just aren't getting our rest while everyone else is snoring contentedly.

Our mommy friend, Cea, wrote this note:

So my lovely friend Tish tells me about this stone called haemetite; you put it under your pillow and you are supposed to sleep better. I tend to be sceptical about such things, but I am also the mom of two and therefore desperately sleep-deprived...so willing to give it a try! Well, it has only been two nights, but I can tell you that both {hubby} and I have slept better, and even more valuable than this, both boys slept through the night (ok, baby was up once) until NINE OCLOCK!!...Pick them up cheap at any shop that sells crystals and stick them under all pillows. Thank You, Tish!!

And thank you, Cea!
After a  few nights of post sleepus-interruptus insomnia  (after the kids did their nightly wake-ups I couldn't get back in the zone), I am going to dig through the jewelry box for the piece of haemetite I used to wear around my neck for 'grounding' in the early 90's.  Hope Cea's sleep rubs off on us all...and of course we invite your success stories!