Making Kiki

Last year, before Halloween was even upon us, Akiko had already decided what she wanted to be for Halloween this year. Fine with me. It gives me a whole year to plan things out.

I decided to get a jump start on costumes a couple weeks ago. Now that the craziness of the beginning of school is behind us, there's a lull where I can actually get a few projects done before the craziness of October and the beginning of the holidays hits. This October is going to be a bit crazier than usual, but more on that later.

Simon and Asher are just using hand-me-downs (saves me time on the costume making). Simon will be a mouse and I will be a cat. Asher will be a mummy and Joseph will be a pharaoh (a costume that I bought, *gasp!*). Akiko will be Kiki and Moses will be Tombo.

Kiki and Tombo who?

This Kiki and Tombo...

... from this movie:

If you've never seen the movie, you should check it out. It's super cute and one of our favorites.

I've been working on Jiji, Kiki's black cat, for a while. I had been looking for a stuffed version to buy, and I know they're available, but I could not find any for sale anywhere. I did find a crochet pattern though at this link.

I altered the pattern a bit. The original pattern makes Jiji into a cone with front paws attached. I wanted him to look more like this...

... when he's standing in for the stuffed cat that Kiki lost during a delivery.

I puffed out his chest and made his body more cylindrical. Then I created hind legs to make him look more like a sitting cat rather than a lumpy cone. The rest of the pattern I followed.

Done, but without the details.

Simon loves him:

I just finished him this afternoon. I also made the radio:

Please try to ignore the unevenness of the speaker holes. I'm not that perfect. And sorry about the phone pictures. I took them to send to my sister.

The radio was a fun project. It's just a large pudding box covered in red duct tape, with a little silver duct tape for the window. The antenna is a black straw. The dials on top are soda caps that I colored with a sharpie and glued on. The radio only took me about an hour to put together.

Akiko/Kiki's dress was an interesting project. I'm not really a clothing/garment seamstress. Well, I've never made a dress, anyway. I didn't use a pattern. I used one of Akiko's shirtdresses as a guide.

I totally winged the whole thing. Even the sleeves. As I worked on it, I kept thinking to myself that the dress was either going to be okay or disastrous. It ended up better than perfect!! I'm so pleased with it!

Really hard to see, but it really did turn out well.

It fits Akiko perfectly. It's easy for her to get on and off. The sleeves and the hem are even. I mean, I couldn't have asked for this dress to go any better. I only had to redo the sleeves once.

All that's left to do for Akiko is to make the shoulder bag and the red bow and find red ballet flats. I'm really pleased with how this costume is coming together.

Moses' costume is pretty simple. I can't find a red and white striped shirt anywhere in his size. I'm only finding them for adult-sized Where's Waldo costumes. I'm going to take one of his white shirts and paint the stripes on, ensuring that it'll look just like Tombo's shirt. After that, I only have to dye a long sleeved shirt yellow (because yellow sweaters are also impossible to find).

Moses and Akiko are going to look so cute this year. I'm so pleased with how everything is coming together.

Joseph thinks I should encourage our kids to be characters that are less obscure. I don't. My kids know who their characters are and that's all that matters to us. I could get into a big long discussion about this debate, but maybe I'll save that for another post.

Oh, and if you're wondering, next year's costumes are in preliminary planning already. What can I say? I really love making Halloween costumes.

Memory Lane

Akiko and I spent an afternoon taking a stroll down Grandpa Fred's memory lane.

I got a negative and slide converter for my birthday a couple years ago and, while it was something I really wanted and was really excited for, I hadn't used it much. Once, when I was in Utah, I convinced my dad to give me all of his slides from his mission so that I could convert them to digital. I finally got around to getting that project off my plate.

Akiko helped me. We had a lot of fun. She had a lot of questions that I couldn't answer. All these pictures were about ten years older than I was. Grandpa Fred, be prepared to answer them if she asks next time we see you.

Once we figured out how to work everything and got our rhythm, the conversion went really quickly. Now I want to go through all our things and find as many negatives that I can find and convert them all and post them on FB so all my friends can reminisce with me. Maybe when I give the slides back to my dad, I'll trade those ones for any negatives he may have.

Anyway, my dad went to Japan on his mission. I love that country. So now, please enjoy some beautiful pictures of that beautiful country that my dad took.

Now, those are real vintage. Not an Instagram effect. Not that I have anything against Instagram or anything. There's just something so nostalgic about 35mm film that digital effects can't duplicate.

To Mom, From Moses

mom yowr the best and i love you so so so mec and i love you 10.00 tims mec

Preschool - Year 2, Day 1

Moses started preschool this morning. He's been so excited. He has asked me every day since Akiko started, "When is it my turn to start school?" Today was finally the day!

Look at how grown up this boy is getting!

Super excited!

We had kind of a hectic morning. Akiko was barely late to school (partly our fault, partly hers). Then I had to drive our friends to the airport. Then we took Moses to school. I was worried we'd get stuck in traffic and be late since it was rush hour. Though traffic was heavy, it was moving and we actually got to school with five minutes to spare.

We waited in the car for a couple minutes. I let Moses unbuckle from the back seat and sit in the front seat while we waited. I checked my email. When I looked over at Moses, he was bouncing in his seat with anticipation. "Okay, Moses. Let's get out of the car." He bolted. "Wait Mose! I still have to get the baby!"

Almost the first one in the door.

I couldn't even get him to stand still for a picture.

Moses told me he made friends at school already. I was happy for him. I wonder, though, how he'll react when he finds out that all the kids in his preschool class are also at church. They all just happen to be in the Sunbeam classes.

I finally cornered him and made him pose for a moment on his rug.

Ready to learn.

it is me moses thes es mi frst day ev pres sgool

My kids get really excited when they see me writing blog posts about them and they really want to write, too.

Anyway, Asher was up really late the night before and was actually still asleep when it was time to go. This is unusual. He's usually the first one up at the crack of dawn. Joseph stayed home with Asher while I took everyone to their destinations. Joseph told me when I got home that Asher was so upset when he found out that everyone was gone but him. Poor kid kept asking for Moses the whole two hours that Moses was at school. He was so excited to go pick him up.

Happy first day of school, Moses!!

In other school news, Akiko told me today that she and another boy in her class are the best readers. She says that there are twelve reading levels. Most of the kids are starting on level one. She and this other boy are starting on level ten. I'm so proud of her.