Friday, October 31, 2008

Popeye the Sailor boy....



Once again my frugality has bitten me in the butt! We have been in and out of town for the last 10 months.... lots of car trips interviewing for jobs, medical clerkship's etc. Not to mention plane trips galore. Never fun for a very active two--now three year old. So I picked up a few new DVD's as fodder for my bribery arsenal. Life savers for those restless moments stuck on a plane, carseat, departure lounge. Anyway, I LOATH buying $20 some odd dollar Disney movies or the like--so expensive. I was enticed by a bin of .99 cent DVD's at K-mart--perfect. I found classics like Woody Woodpecker, Casper, & Popeye. Well Ryan enjoyed all of the "new shows" but LOVED Popeye! Ran around all summer singing the theme song and begging for spinach.

Funny enough he really likes spinach--must have been all of those spinach salads in the womb I'm such a paranoid pregnant lady. Probably because I read most of Brandon's embryology text books the first year of Medical school.


Anyway, Ryan figured out how fun Halloween can be this year and wanted a Popeye costume....great, that's not something you can just by off the rack kid! So I headed to Goodwill to hunt up some Sailor clothes in a toddler size... Apparently there are not a lot of retired sailors that wore a 5T. I had to alter some existing articles of clothing to convince my 3 year old who has such an eye for detail that this was indeed a "real" sailor suit! Phew--all while unpacking from a year of being on the go and out of town.

Not to mention having a baby nursing the baby and making my "Gabrielle Solice" costume....after she had two babies. (so really I didn't have to do much) How is it possible to LOVE being 5 months pregnant and hate being 5 months post postpartum? My MO thus far is to gain like 50 lbs in pregnancy which takes a year to "snap" back into shape uggg! I tried with Ryan and now with Evan to diet right away and work out like a 10 times a day to no avail. When I'm nursing exclusively that's all my body can handle. Luckily this Chubba Bubba gets to start rice cereal soon! So ready for a reprieve. Okay, I have a digression problem it's the Mommy brain.

Want the Popeye look? Take a really bad 80's white shrug jacket and sew up the front and remove GIANT 11 inch plastic buttons--- size to a 5T. Add black head scarf around neck for sailor tie. Bleach out cream colored bucket hat and stitch up flaps. Alter white summer shorts from preteen clearance rack to accommodate a toddler. Finish up with black dress shoes from Wal-Mart that will double as Church shoes and you have convinced a 3 year old that this is a sailor suit. Ryan helped me make the spinach can from a small paint can, we added a label we created on the computer. The spinach was green felt with pipe cleaners we had around the house. What fun!

3 comments:

  1. That's an awesome costume. Aubrey's mom loves sewing so she made both the kid's Halloween costumes. I wasn't about to try making a Cinderella dress or a Pokemon turtle costume so that was sweet. I like the Spinach can! How's little Tony Soprano? I think he was asleep the whole time I saw him.

    I'm probably coming out to Oregon in the next couple of months before school starts, so if you're in town I'll try to get up to Klamath Falls to see you. I didn't realize how much I'd miss Oregon. People here are just so...Utah. And everyone has fake Christmas trees! Ug. I declared that there would be no plastic trees in our house. Chris is against the idea of a real tree but he doesn't get a say because he's a total Ebenezer about holidays. I thought I was going to have to strike to get pumpkins. He was baffled when I asked if people cut their own trees here. Ha!

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  2. I can't believe you sowed his costume. I'm so impressed. I wouldn't know what to do with a sewing machine if there were no other way on earth to make clothes!

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  3. Sweet in the tradition of your MaMa making awesome Halloween costumes. Ry Ry loves Popeye and spinach...an old fashioned hero and nutritious food too.

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