Making Halloween Costumes without Spending any Money, Part 3

So here is the last Halloween costume for this year. I knew this would be the easiest so I saved it for last. Kaiya asked to be a jellyfish for Halloween this year.  After some internet searching, I found some cute ideas for making a jellyfish costume with an umbrella.  Some of the ideas I saw were quite elaborate and very beautiful. But the one I made is pretty simple. I started with a smaller, purse sized umbrella. This was one that we have had for years stuffed away in the car and when I opened it up, it was kind of breaking anyway. So it's just as well we use it for this costume!

I put a large piece of blue fabric over the top (you guessed it, the last of my curtain fabric!!), but you could just as easily leave it plain. I put a few stitches through the fabric and around the metal wires of the umbrella to hold it in place.

The girls liked it this way and I almost just left the long pieces hanging off the umbrella, but then decided to sew them up to look more like the bell of a jellyfish. 

For this part I just gathered the material and hand sewed through it to create a puffy bottom.  I wasn't sure how it would come out, but I think it turned out looking jellyfish-y enough.

Now for the fun part.  I have had this pink curling ribbon for about 4 years now. I don't remember why I bought such a large spool of it (must have been on sale or something) but it has come in handy A LOT since then. So if you ever see a large spool of curling ribbon and think, when would I use all this?, just buy it. 

So I cut a large piece of curling ribbon and tied it around the the umbrella spoke (is that what it's called? It should be if it isn't).  And then I curled it up.  Repeat about 25 times.  

Here's Kaiya with the finished jellyfish. I may put some more ribbon on for tonight.  She will wear matching top and bottom colors so the focus is on the jellyfish. This is also a good costume for cold weather because she can layer up without covering the costume. It is NOT a good costume for wind, however, which is what we are supposed to have tonight. Crossing my fingers that the weather clears up before Trick or Treat!

Thanks for reading my costume posts! Hope you have a fun and cheap Halloween!

Happy Birthday Kaiya!!

Having cupcakes with her friends

Bowling

My rainbow cake and Patrick's awesome balloon rainbow

The birthday girl!

Wow! My oldest became yet another year older last week.  Seven years have gone by quickly! We had a somewhat quiet birthday this year compared to the last few.  No big party, but we did have fun.  In the morning we met up with our homeschool friends from Klamath Falls and had a playdate and shared cupcakes.  Kaiya wanted to go bowling for her birthday, so we met grandma in town for that. (By the way, taking a one year old to a bowling alley is complete torture.  Don't do it.)  So after bowling, we took Kaiya out for dinner.  She chose Japanese food and had sushi.  Then we came back home for cake and presents.  I attempted a rainbow cake for her, and it turned out pretty well.  She was happy with it anyway.  Then she opened her presents and we called it a day!

 It's amazing to think that we started this blog before she was born and now she's seven! Birthdays are always bittersweet, because if I could I would keep them little(!), but it's also fun to reflect on how much they've grown and learned in the past year.  Here's to another great year for my big girl!

Asia Projects

Henna Hands

Afghan kites. And yes, Leah is wearing a ballet recital costume.

Paper Mache Earth


These are some of our Asia projects.  We are working our way around the world for geography and spent a lot of time on Asia.  I thought I took more pictures, but I guess not. We also made a Ger when we studied Mongolia, made Chinese lanterns, made camels for Kazakhstan, and we also colored maps and flags and made food from some of the countries.