The Lorax Family Costumes – Onsler (greedy, non-greedy), Swami Swan and Humming Fish

I love Halloween!  I love all holiday’s, but my favorites are Christmas and Halloween!  Last year we did the grab bag costumes since I had just given birth to Baby Boy, but THIS year I wanted to go back to our Family costume themes!  We actually went through a few different costume themes before settling on The Lorax!!!

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It was perfect cause we found something for EVERYONE to be that they were all happy with!  All the other themes one of the kids wasn’t happy!  Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a theme that 7 people agree on?  in the end Bill and I ended up not doing costumes but I am SO happy with how the kids turned out.

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The Baby was an easy choice.  The Lorax!!!  I found an orange bathrobe and bought a size 18 months!  I added a zipper down the center and used my serger to thin out the sleeves, sides and create short legs!  The bathrobe was a tad bit shorter than I’d like the outfit, BUT I figured it’s be a snowy cold winter and he’d be in boots (jokes on me!).  I bought white fur (they didn’t have yellow) dyed it with a polyester specific dye.  I cut out the eyebrows and mustache in felt first – a few versions- and when I was happy with the shape cut out the fur.  I sewed the eyebrows onto the hoodie, and the mustache onto elastic.

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Computer boy was the most excited about his costume!  The GREEN Onesler…  He kept repeating that part, it had to be the one who sang the “how bad can it be” song!  We already had the white shirt and black cords.  I bought adult green gloves and boys green tie.  I made the jacket adding green to a top hat we already had, and added the gold buttons and chains!  It was so so SO much fun to make, esp with his total excitement as I worked on it!  He kept posing (left) in what he calls his Onesler pose!  He has been singing the song “how bad can it be” for weeks!

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I created a list of a dozen options for costumes from the movie and let the kids pick what they wanted.  The DA  jumped on the Humming Fish…  I wasn’t sure how to even begin!  I bought an extra large orange sweatshirt, adding felt stomach, and felt fins.  Everyone of the kids kept bringing up the back fins.  Coming up with them was hard, but I think it turned out okay!  I dyed some jeans orange! and we’re done!

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The Computer Boy didn’t want to dress up this year, so he was the hold out on most of the themes.  So this Onesler outfit from the beginning of the movie that is almost a normal outfit was easy!  I bought some black jeans, taped off some stripes and then sprayed on some watered down bleach to create the faded lines!  Add a white long sleeve shirt, a black vest and a grey hat and your done!  He’s showing off his dance shoes here!

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And The Reader, picked the hardest one, a Swami Swan!  How in the WORLD do you create such a strange shaped Seussical outfit???  I looked up bird costumes and found the idea for the wings.  I used felt for the feathers, and sewed them onto fabric quarter circles.  Then sewed the “wings” straight onto a yellow sweatshirt.  Adding peices of an orange boa for the feather on the top, the tail and around the neck…  Dyed some khaki’s orange and done!  By far the most time consuming, but she seemed really happy with it!

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And the whole family again!  They weren’t allowed make up at school, but we’re planning on doing the girls faces for tonight, hoping adding large eyes will help the fish and birds look more Seussical!

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We spent the morning at the kids school for the parade… first the Kindergartners!  obediently folding their arms…

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The Green Onsler (with his “girlfriend”, the gypsy,  behind him, he thinks she’s beautiful)

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The non-greedy Onesler, look at that SWAGGER!!!  Such a handsome boy!

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And finally my little Lorax!!!  He loved the costume parade, but for some reason one person thought he was a walrus, and 3 people thought he was a pumpkin…  Seriously a sweet handsome happy boy, I sure love him bunches and bunches, even if he won’t wear his mustache!

Autism Awareness Month

April is Autism awareness month, and for us that means a lot of activities and fundraisers at our children’s school. While losing our job and moving in with my in laws almost 3 years ago hasn’t been the easiest experience of our lives the fact that because of those two things we ended up here in UT with one of the only charter schools in the world for children with autism has been the biggest blessing in our lives.

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Our children were diagnosed the same week my husband lost his job, it was not a fun week for us! Of course the fact that we were going through the diagnosis process we obviously had our guess as to what the outcome would be. Our second child, Computer boy, had a miserable kindergarten year, mostly because of a very difficult teacher that didn’t have a lot of patience with our son. BUT while it wasn’t a very fun year, because of it we were lead to getting a diagnosis. And while getting a diagnosis is hard, having answers, support and help is so worth it.

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I love my children, I adore my children, and I love being a mom. While aspergers has it’s challenges but like all children there are also wonderful moments that make it all worth it. My children have different weaknesses than other children but they also have different strengths! But sometimes the weaknesses overtake even the strengths so we’re constantly trying new ways to teach and get through to our children.

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Luckily for us in this amazing day and age there is a lot of help out there. Our school helps us in many way, with tips and tricks we didn’t know about. We’re willing to try anything and everything that might help us teach our children and raise them to be strong and independent.

One of the tools that’s doing amazing things for kids on the spectrum is an ipad! Something that we’d love to give our children, but it simply hasn’t been in our reach. It’s on the list (you all have lists of what you’ll buy when you can, don’t you? Please say I’m not the only one!). But also on the list is being able to move out of my in-laws basement before all our kids are in college (oh and college for all 5 kids is on the list too!)

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And while I can’t do it all by myself I have the most AMAZING friends! Elizabeth from Sew Chatty was the recipient of an ipad fundraiser for her son with aspergers last fall and she’s passing that on to our family, doing a fundraiser for us. It’s humbling, very humbling, to accept help, something I’m not very good at. But while I have high expectations for my children to overcome their weaknesses I need to overcome mine as well for their sake!

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I’m so grateful for friends like Elizabeth, not only for her generosity, but also for their support and friendship. There is so much about aspergers that’s hard to explain, it’s nice when someone else “gets” it. So thank you to all the people that love and support us. And thank you for being a part of my world!