Follow the yellow brick road

"We're off to see the Wizard, the wonderful Wizard of OZ!"

(Elaine as the Cowardly Lion, Peter as the Scarecrow, Natalie as Dorothy, and Puppy as Toto)

Iowa City had their Halloween Carnival tonight. The kids were pretty excited to wear their costumes. It helped that we watched the Wizard of Oz recently. Natalie loved being Dorothy! It was perfect that her favorite stuffed doll, Puppy the dog went as her Toto. Peter was so excited to be the Scarecrow - kept asking when his costume was coming in the mail (I won it off of ebay). The costume just fit him right. Elaine stayed nice and warm in her lion costume. I even added a little red ribbon for the Wizard of Oz touch!

I'm so happy that I got these costumes together without paying an arm and a leg for everything! I scored last fall when I found those red ruby shoes on clearance for $3. I'm lucky that I guestimated her shoe size a year in advance! Then, I found the Dorothy costume at a consignment shop - total luck and quite the find for $7. Peter's costume was an ebay find for $15. Elaine's lion costume was also an ebay deal for $5! I'm working on finishing up my Glinda good witch skirt (making from scratch without a pattern) and Sam's Tin Man outfit for next week. I'll post pictures of all of us together - if we manage to get a good one of us five!

At the carnival, the kids had fun with all the activities that included an inflatable castle bouncee, games with prizes, and a haunted hallway. Peter's favorite part was the haunted house and he enjoyed it so much that he wanted to go through it twice. Natalie wanted out halfway through the first time, so she had nothing to do with a second time! Instead, Natalie's favorite part was the castle bouncee.

They played several of the simple kids games. While she enjoyed the games, Natalie didn't really like the little game prizes, which mostly were plastic spider rings. She wouldn't even touch one!

We all had a great time. It was wonderful that the Iowa City Police and Fire department were there. Peter was excited to see Sparky, the fire department mascot for Fire Safety Week, especially since we just did a few things in his Sparky activities book earlier in the day! It's great that our community can put on a fun family free event.