Another Glorious Halloween Week...the leading up to Hocus Pocus Edition

Vampirina is always a fave in our house regardless of Halloween. Spookelele's and ForeverDreamDesign headbands for the win!

As mentioned, EV has gone through several inner monologues of to "to tulle or not to tulle." Currently we are in a not to tulle phase which means readjusting the plans for costumes and pictures because having a miserable, grumpy, not smiling, "dont touch me", three year old does not make for a fun Halloween'ing experience. When you participate in 31 Days of Halloween, you get to make up spooky words. I am not above bribing her for a good pic with a gummy bear or two, but there is no amount of bribing when she doesn't want a sparkly dress. No clue where she gets her stubbornness from ;).

Introducing WhityDarlingDesigns. I absolutely not only love her as a #supportsmallbusiness, but as a human in general. She donates many of her sales to the Cast Member Food Pantry. which for any Disney lover, cast members are near and dear to our hearts (especially one in particular, here is looking at you BIL) and had been hugely impacted by the recent layoffs AND her designs embrace the magic of Disney cosplay for kids with comfy fashion. So basically she speaks right to EV's soul.

Years ago, I was able to score the Haunted Mansion Sally Tightrope Walker DressShop dress for $30 at the Character Warehouse. I love this dress, but do not get nearly enough wear out of it. I had also gotten two DressShop teacup skirts with a matching dormouse cropped sweater (Character Warehouse for the DressShop win). One of the Disney Mama's that I follow on the Insta had tagged WhityDarlingDesigns in her Stories and I just flipped as she had a toddler teacup dress (the pattern that is on the teacups from the ride) that went with my skirt. Be prepared to go down the rabbit hole (pun intended) of all the great kids Disney inspired dresses that she has to offer.

I mean Teacup Tuesday is totally a thing, right?!

And the cutest White Rabbit you ever did see

Annnnnd I digress...as per usual..

Because I am THAT person that hates shipping fees, I would much rather exceed the shipping cost with more product then pay the $5-6 shipping fee (judge me already...just judge me and move on). In doing so, I stumbled across her Haunted Mansion dress for Toddlers. I promise you, my pictures and the pictures on her Etsy, do not do it justice. It is beautifully made and light enough for park days in Florida which is saying a lot! It. Is. Perfection. Add the quality to the cost and you are not going to get better. EV absolutely loved it and it was awesome being able to continue on with our Halloween madness without her feeling as though she had to be in something "too sparkly" to feel good. Since then I have also purchased the land Ariel dress as well as the Christmas Parade Mickey and Minnie ensembles. I love the Tiana one, but I have seen that there might be a Star Wars series, so I am holding off to get everything in one swoop...free shipping y'all!

I did size up with EV's dress only because we are not going to the parks and I did want it to be something she could wear when we did end up going, so I bought her one that I felt could carry well into next year.

Just as a sidenote: that mantle in our bedroom is from the original Haunted Mansion ride in Walt Disney World (fan girl/boy away).

We did a whole Haunted Mansion Monday with the kids. Obviously the dresses were worn, but it was hotter than Hades, so EV and Hubs got to be the ones matching this day (one of the few Disney shirts he will wear) and I donned my awesome Foolish Mortal Supply tank. If you have never bought for them, you are missing out! The quality of their tees and tanks are amazing and of all the small Disney tee shops, these have washed the best in my opinion.

I am going to embrace all the Disney twinning for as long as I can thank you very much.

I had so many moving parts for our Hocus Pocus Day that I moved it from Friday to Saturday and by moving parts, I mean outfits.

For those that know our family, you know that Hubs does a great job of agreeing to my theme-ing whims, but by no means is he a costume person or the idea of wearing said costume. Anyway I can make him comfortable with the idea of costume pictures and where he can have a good time with it is a complete and utter win.

Enter Hocus Pocus...since the Commodore was Gary Marshall's "Master/Devil" character, I had Hubs channel his inner Penny Marshall. This was really easy since she wears a red plaid bathrobe and has green pajamas underneath. Boy does the husband have plaid shirts...yay him and us! EV's costume was awesome, we got it from Costume Supercenter and I was thrilled with not only the quality, but the price (I got it for 30% and it comes with the wig!), which came to around $20 with shipping. I know I just contradicted myself with the shipping, but with the percentage off it not only covered the shipping but some of the cost of the costume as well. My Sarah Sanderson costume was from Target and I believe it was a little less than $30 since I got it during their 30% off sale (apparently 30% is the cool thing to do). I am not a wig person at all, so I just took EV's hairbands and did a slight nod to their haircolor.

I may have bought THIS phone tripod (I have a Galaxy Note Ultra, so I needed a larger phone tripod) for the occasion and I am still learning to master it...tips welcome.

Just a couple of Sanderson Sisters and their Master.

When we were in Disney last year for Halloween I had bought THESE (not the same, but equally as cute) awesome Mommy and Me Hocus Pocus shirts on Amazon, so of course I couldn't pass up an opportunity for us to wear them again, especially since I think that this will be the last year that EV will fit into hers.

I had found THIS recipe for "Boooooook" brownies and for a first-time college try, I think they came out "decent". A couple tweaks that I would have done and will do for next time are; letting the brownies cool for much longer than then 20 minutes suggested in the fridge. I would have probably not have been so anxious and let them sit in there for a good hour (this would have also helped with the cutting aspect) and the second thing would be to not warm the black icing as suggested on the bottle. It was a big ol blobby mess and it took FOREVER for it to cool enough to make a straight line and even then I was not that happy with it. Hence just a singular picture of one of the brownies. Honestly, the learning curve is not terrible, they tasted delicious and I would definitely do them again.

Plus, the best part of our Hocus Pocus day was EV really enjoying the movie. She was so excited to watch a movie with her "girls" in it. Grandma had purchased her the entire set on ShopDisney and they are rarely out of her sight. In general, EV likes movies with a lot of action and villains and storyline (definitely my kid through and through), but if we are watching anything that we think she will not enjoy or may be teetering on the "too scary", we have one of her "shows" playing in our bedroom. That way if she needs a break or something appears too "scary", she can just walk away and enjoy something she likes (or not come back at all ::cough cough:: Nightmare Before Christmas).

Ever have a movie that when you think your kiddo can handle it you are beyond thrilled to show them?! Hocus Pocus is that movie for me...