It’s the Modern Kiddo Costume Parade!

Holiday Kiddo, , , , , , , , ,

Step right up folks, it’s time for the Modern Kiddo Costume Parade! We said wanted to see yer best homemade costumes—the good, the bad, the semi disastrous. And you delivered! Of course I should have known that Modern Kiddo readers don’t play the Craft Fail game and ya’ll turned it out with some spectacular costumes. Take a look at some of these fantastic creations. Seriously you guys….

Our fave girl Shutterbean’s sweet boy Cooper rockin’ the octopus. Love this!

Cutie brothers Max and Beck got inspired by Where the Wild Things Are and dress up as Moishe and Max. Mama Jenn (The Blueberry Hill) whipped together these amazing costumes. I especially love the Moishe costume! So unique…I’ve never seen one before.

Here is Max all by his lonesome tonight, as a stylin’ Elvis….

I love a good box costume and I’m dying over this picture of Finley as a Mini Cooper:

Sweet little Beatrice Bird makes a darling little lady panda:

And the hills are alive with the sound of cutenesssssss…….Bea as a fetching little Heidi:

Aw, the awesome Baby Olive is sweet as can bee:

And Baby Olive as an adorrrrrrrrrrrrrable pirate! (OK….HOW DID YOU GET HER TO WEAR THE HAT???)

Wolfie’s best bud Miles does the funky robot….woot woot! We hear he’s going as an ANGRY BIRD this year. Love it!

Awww, look at sweet little Baby Pia as a quirky butterfly!

This retro photo of my sweet “blog nephew” Henry as a Pirate melts my heart (Jenny, I can’t believe he’s younger than Wolfie here!)

Oscar is as utterly adorable as Max but it’s his mom Suzy as the BOAT that is EVEN MORE AWESOME:

Everyone was swooning over hipster Billy as our Weekly Kiddo a few weeks ago, check out the rest of his cute family! Billy is a bat, his sis Harriet is one of the Andrew Sisters (!!!! CUTE) and baby Arlo is another sweet take on Max.

Sweet little Oscar and his folks are awesome as the Gnome Family! These smart “no sew” costumes were created  by his cool mama Kate (of Troolie). They all look so cute!

Sayer is another Modern Kiddo sweetie and here he is with his papa Chris as the dynamic Robot duo:

Sayer’s amazing mama Kristin(of klt :: works) hooked him up with this cute costume— Plankton from Sponge Bob. Genius.

Seriously flipping muh wig over Piper as a 50s Diner Twin!!! Those glasses are so fab!

It’s a bird, it’s a plane….it’s SUPER PARKER!!!!! So stinkin’ cute, eh?

Modern Kiddo reader tipped me to the amazing Sarah who made these Woody and Jessie from Toy Story costumes for her and her little boy Max—AMAZING!

People you are going to D-I-E. You loved Miss Sasha as Weekly Kiddo, Here she is with her brother as a wee widdle cow….

But NOW check out the fabulous costume the super creative Inessa came up with for her sweet little girl Sasha (Diaper Style Memoirs). Eddie Munster? Bananas!!!!!! So good.

But how about her papa as Grandpa?? Just as amazing.

And yes, she hand crafted a grown up wig just for the occasion. BRILLIANT!!

I’m exhausted just looking at all that fabulousness. I hope you are inspired to create your own masterpiece this year. And even if you don’t make one by hand, I don’t judge. As we all know my own little Boy Wonder is not a fan of costumes (let’s relive the magic of my pain in last weeks post “When Yer Kiddo Hates Costumes“).

OH! And apparently a lot of you were inspired by my Crazy Vintage Mask post from earlier in the week (over HERE ) because I got some awesome old skool family photos. Like this amazing one from reader Chris:

Awesome reader Marcie as the pink bunny and her friend as a suspicious “Yoda”:

And finally, Modern Kiddo fave, Lishy Loo,  sent in her own vintage kiddo photos. Check out the adorable lil Lishy…but then thrill to the site of her DAD as….um…..honestly I don’t know what the hell he’s supposed to be, but I’m sure diggin’ it!!!

AMAZING STUFF! Hey, if you sent in a photo and don’t see it please let me know! I’ll be happy to add you to the parade!

PS: This late breaking entry just in! One of our fave Kiddo readers RocketGirl just completed an insane hobbit costume for her little cutie Eliza. Nothing beats a toddler with a pipe, friends.

Crafty Minx :: Googley Eye Cupcake Toppers.

Crafts + DIY

I was browsing the adorable blog scrumdilly-do and stumbled upon these super cute googly eye cupcake toppers. The fabulous Jessica graciously let us reprint her tutorial so you could try ’em yourself. These lil suckas are so cute and really easy to make, I think you’ll love ’em.  Take it away Miss Jessica!

Hi everyone! Jessica here. If happiness came in a bag (and it wasn’t chocolate) I do think it may be googly eyes. There is just so much one can do with these little guys. It being fall and all and almost Halloween I think a little extra googly eye fun is in order. Yesterday’s post is a perfect example of how easy it is to play with these kooky things. Today, I want to show you how delightful a pack of eyes, a few toothpics, glue and paper punches or scissors can be. Viola…googly cupcake toppers! So, what are ya waiting for? Whip up a batch of pumpkin cupcakes or gingerbread muffins and while they are baking, let your kidlets loose to make all sorts of spooky-fun toppers. It’s an impromptu party! Yay for Halloween!

MATERIALS
* toothpicks
* scrap paper, printed paper, newspaper
* paint of your choice
* paint brushes
* cup o water
* glue and/or glue stick
* various paper punches or scissors
* googly eyes
* markers (optional)


To make the same style of toppers I made here, set out newspaper or phone book pages and watercolors or other paint and have your wee ones paint away. Set aside to dry and let them give a stir or two to whatever cupcake or muffin you are baking. I made gingerbread cupcakes from this recipe. Make sure to work in an area that is happy for spills and mess, use a splat mat or wax paper to protect your table top if you need to.

Once dry, use a large scallop punch to punch out newspaper shapes, set aside. You can let your kidlets go to town here or you can give your paper a couple of folds and punch out multiples at a time. Use a smaller circular punch to cut out shapes from your printed or scrap paper. A solid page would be better for this but you can use whichever you want. Colored paper would be nice, and/or cardstock. I used an old library brochure.


Use the gluestick on the back of the scalloped circles and sandwich a toothpick between two of the. I found it easier to use a large gluestick and to put the circle on the gluestick rather than glob the gluestick all over the back of the circle. If your tots are going to use the gluestick like a pen, use a sheet of wax paper underneath to prevent extra sticking.

Next up, repeat the gluestick process with the smaller circles, one circle per topper. You can do both sides but you don’t need to.

Finally, use a small dab of glue to anchor a googly eye or two to the center of each paper circles combo (try saying that three times fast). Lay flat to dry.

When cupcakes are cool and yer ready to serve, plop a google-eyed topper into each cake and admire. Yay for impromptu party fun!

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YAHOO LADY JEK! These are adorable.
Friends, Jessica is a talented crafter and photographer and has a super fun Flickr set under Jek-A-Go-Go. You may also remember her super duper cute niece Beatrice Bird who was a Weekly Kiddo! THANK YOU SO MUCH JESSICA!

Real Life :: Chasing Fall into the Apple Orchard

Real Life, Real Life : Alix

Every year we go to our favorite pumpkin patch at the Western Railway Museum. You take a little vintage train out to the patch and they have bales of hay, games, music and yummy treats. It’s really awesome. But as charming as it is, it’s not reeeeeally a pumpkin patch. They schlep the pumpkins in from somewhere else and you get to cruise around and pick your faves. Don’t get me wrong. I love it. But this year we decided to mix it up and try something a little different.

It all started with me craving a little bit of Autumn. When I left Prague, the weather was like this:

It was full-on fall. Crisp and lovely. My favorite time of year. When I got back to San Francisco, I was thrust back into summer. Our weather is decidedly fickle in September and October. We had a HUGE heat wave with temperature in the steamy 90s. Lemme tell ya, I was not feelin’ it. Who wants to be sweatin’ their butt off in October?? As a result, I have been craving AUTUMN. To help me out, Greg had a great idea. We decided to head towards Tahoe….to an area called APPLE HILL. Apple Hill is a winding scenic road with FIFTY different apple orchards, ranches and pumpkin patches. I was in apple-lovin’ heaven. We decided to pick 3 or 4 to go to. The first spot we hit was one of the most charming: Willow Pond Organic Farm. Super sweet!

Yep. There really was a Willow Pond.

This little farm was an honest to goodness pumpkin patch, with punkins on da vine! I loved it.

Wolfie specializes in picking extra huge punkins.

Of course the other big sell was the sweet  little apple orchard. I love picking apples and drinking cider. My favorite apples are Honeycrisp—which you can only get during a small window in October. They are a little sweet, a little tart and you guessed it…..crisp. Mmmm.

With two pumpkins in hand, we kept on driving. It was a really pretty drive. And while these are redwoods, we DID see lots of trees with changing leaves…and the air was perfectly crisp.

The next place we went to had an awesome corn maze…..and of course more pumpkins. We got two more at this place.

Each apple orchard was different and unique. Some were a little bit of a circus—overcrowded and had more of a cheap carnival vibe. I wasn’t that into those. Neither was Wolfie.

Of course he *was* thrilled to have a little Sno Cone action. I was on the prowl for a caramel apple. Caramel is one of my favorite things and caramel apples? Fuggitaboutit. As a side note, I don’t recommend getting a caramel apple when you go to the movies. I did that one time and it was a mess. I kept trying to eat it quietly and it was all crunchy and juicy….I had to wait for the loud action scenes to take a bite and then it got all dribbly and messy. Yeah. Definitely leave the caramel apple at home.

We finally got back on track and hit the orchards that were more off the beaten path.

You may notice a shirt change on Wolfie. We had a little exploding sno cone action and his tee was a sno-cone mess. Miraculously I found a spare shirt in the back of the van. Yes. I said VAN. I drive a Jetta and Greg rolls the Honda Odyssey. Woot woot!

The last apple farm we went to had a HIGH-larious name. Something like “Ken’s Apples and Laurie’s Dolls”.  We weren’t going to go (the name kind of scared me….I was expecting lots of soft bunny dolls and “kooky” ragdolls) but then we saw these gorgeous flowers and had to pull over.

The dolls were as bad as I expected (L-A-M-E…..sorry Laurie), but the place was really pretty and manicured and Ken turned it out with the apples.

They gave away free apples that were peeled into a curly cue. This was a big hit….

We definitely had a super awesome day…..the guys listened to the GIANTS game on the way home. (GO GIANTS!)

Now to carve the FOUR pumpkins we walked away with…..and make some apple crisp. And come to think of it, I never DID get that caramel apple. Hmmm.

Please swing by later today as we will have a couple of fun (and easy!) crafty posts for ya!

Coming Soon::Real Life Goes to the Pumpkin Patch

Real Life : Alix, Uncategorized

Coming Soooooon!
OK, so I’m running a little behind on today’s post….but today we’re talkin’ pumpkin patches. We hit a really cool area here in California this past weekend and I wanted to share some photos with you. But I kind of fell asleep WAY early last night (I’m a night owl, which is when I get this crazy bloggin’ stuff done….but last night I conked out at 9:30!!). Anyway, never fear it’s comin’! Also, today is the LAST DAY TO SEND ME YER HOMEMADE COSTUME PHOTOS! The Costume Parade is going up this week! Did you make an amazing homemade costume that you are dying to show off? Or did things not go quite as expected and you have a spectacular craft fail? Send ’em all my way! Alix [at] modernkiddo.com. Read more about it HERE!

Besty of Etsy: the Halloween Edition

Etsy Love, , ,

If there is one day of the year we should be most appreciative of Etsy, it is Halloween.  Because sometimes the thought of making your kid’s Halloween costume is just too much. Yet, you don’t want to do the run of the mill boxed costume from Target.  Well, here are some gems for you all!

There is always the one kid that raids his home’s toilet paper supply to do the Mummy right? Well, save yourself some grief and just get them this brilliant mummy costume by Etsy seller, Hello Avocado.

Orca costume or turtle costume are available as kits so you can still say you made it! by Etsy seller, DIY Costumes.

The classic ghost from bedsheet costume sounds like a good idea until you fall down your steps because you can’t see. Well, this clever Etsy seller KidatHeart01 improved upon the ghost costume and even upped the cute factor!

I’m sure the tutu trade is getting a real work out right now as girls and frothy tutus seem to go together. But check out this great spider web tutu.  For the little goth in any girl.  If your child is delighted by this, I would suggest you hide your Morrissey albums stat. From Tiara’s Tutus.

Sometimes all you need is a good accessory to get your costume rolling.

Like this great wolf hat.  All you need is a pair of brown pants and sweater to finish it. Easy Peasy.

And it’s great with Little Red Riding hood costume, like this great cape. Both from Corduroy’s Closet.

Look we’ve all been there. The cute ballerina costume worn with a turtleneck.  Afterall, this holiday is at night in fall.  Any mother worth her salt is gonna try to keep her kid warm. Best solution I’ve seen so far?  This great Tinkerbell leaf wrap. Love it. Again, from Corduroy’s Closet.

I love this little lamb costume.  Great reason to get your self dolled up as Mary in some rocking cute outfit.  And check out the floppy ears of it all!  From Charlie Designs.

I gotta admit I love the old Willy Wonka so much more, than the Johnny Depp one so I was a complete fool for this genius Halloween costume. From Frogs & Flowers.

I hit the jackpot with seller, photo117!  Check out this great Elvis costume.  Or help your little one get a head start on rocking the Ren Fair with these great costumes.

But really, why should all the kids have all the fun? I had to include these.  Let your inner Sasquatch roar! Or you inner Loch Ness monster, if you’d like. I would totally go have drinks with Etsy seller, Miss Nessa.

Happy Halloween Etsy shopping, folks!