Batman Lives

It took a whole village to make Benny's costume this year. I consulted the interweb for an appropriate model for Batman. Most of the costumes in stores are based off the new Batman movies. I decided to throw back to the Adam West model.

Plus, the grey, yellow and black seemed like they were the easiest to work with. I started with grey long johns. A mom from school mentioned that she had worked with felt and a hot glue gun for a costume and that seemed like the easiest route for a Batman logo. No sewing required! I traced the bat and cut out a yellow oval and black bat.

A friend kindly sent a black cape my way, but I wanted the logos on the shirt and the cape to match. My good friend Jen suggested that I make a cape out of a shirt. What? Could it really be that easy? It is! I followed these directions.

While the costume looked good, it wasn't very exciting. My neighbor mentioned that she put a light on her son's robot costume and I decided that Benny definitely needed a light on his belt. But, given my uncraftiness, I didn't know how to make that happen. I consulted with another neighbor who has a knack for constructing things. She had everything I needed to make a lighted belt! I used fun foam, leftover felt and a cheap battery-operated light (Benny added the sticker at his class party).

The light definitely made the costume. Benny rocked it!

Old-School Batman - What I Used

Grey long johns - from Hanes.com

Black boxer briefs - on super sale at Target

Felt squares (1 black, 1 yellow) - from Hobby Lobby

Batman mask - from Party City

Yellow fun foam - borrowed mine from a friend, but available at craft stores

Battery powered light - from Target

Hot glue gun - from Hobby Lobby

Men's large black shirt - used one of Nate's old shirts

Velcro - borrowed mine from a friend, but available at craft stores

Since I had over a month to make the costume, I gathered materials as needed. For example, one day I was at Goodwill and there was a Party City right next door. I decided to check it out to see if they carried Batman masks. Sure enough, they did. I made one special trip to Hobby Lobby. Otherwise I just looked for stuff while out and about. 

Lila's costume is a hand-me-down from Benny, which is a hand-me-down from a friend. Halloween wouldn't be the same without my friends helping out with costumes!

Butternut Squash Feast: Mac 'n Cheese and Muffins

Have you noticed a theme on the blog lately? Lots and lots of butternut squash going on up in here. Because I have butternut squash puree stocked in the freezer and fridge and butternut squash stored in the basement closet, I decided to incorporate it in our Halloween festivities. Turns out that butternut squash is a perfect compliment to macaroni and cheese.

Butternut Squash Mac 'n Cheese
(adapted from a recipe on Two Peas & Their Pod)

Ingredients

1 large box macaroni noodles
2 cups butternut squash puree
2 1/2 cups milk
2 tbsp. butter
3 tbsp. flour
1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 tbsp. chopped rosemary
1 cup aged white cheddar cheese, shredded
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
3/4 cup whole wheat bread crumbs

Method

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Prepare macaroni noodles as directed on package, drain and set aside. In a small bowl stir 1/2 cup of milk into the butternut squash puree and set aside.

Melt butter in a large skillet. Whisk in flour and nutmeg and cook for 2 minutes. Stir in the remaining milk and  simmer until the it thickens. Add butternut squash and milk mixture and cook for about 3 minutes.

Pour butternut squash mixture over noodles and stir. Grease a casserole pan and pour in half of the noodles. Sprinkle half of the shredded cheese on top. Pour the remaining noodles in the casserole dish and top with cheese and bread crumbs.

Bake for 25-30 minutes.

Fresh from the garden/cellar: Butternut squash and rosemary.

Friends brought over apps and salads to add to the feast. We topped everything off with Butternut Squash, Chocolate Chip, Walnut Muffins. Sooo amazing! I would highly recommend that you run out and buy a butternut squash, roast it and make these muffins. STAT!

Butternut Squash, Chocolate Chip Walnut Muffins with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
(adapted from a recipe on Take Back Your Table)

Ingredients

2 eggs, beaten
3/4 cup cane sugar
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup applesauce
1 cup butternut squash puree
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tbsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Method

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a muffin pan.

Beat eggs in large bowl and add sugar, oil, applesauce and butternut squash puree. In a separate bowl combine and stir all of the dry ingredients - except the chocolate chips and walnuts. Stir wet and dry ingredients together until just combined. Fold in chocolate chips and walnuts. Spoon into muffin pan and bake for 20 minutes.

Check here for the Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting recipe.

Spooktacular Celebration! (aka Halloween 2012)

Happy November! I can't believe we're starting the 11th month of this year. Boggles my mind.

Halloween was a success again this year. Benny is at the perfect age for Halloween - he picks out his own costume, trick or treats without our constant supervision and generally has a great time. Lila is a little trickier. She loved her costume, but was in a pretty foul mood for Halloween. She refused to put her candy in her bag and preferred to carry it in both hands - along with a sippy cup of milk.She also refused to have her picture taken. She'll "get it" next year.

We continued the tradition of trick or treating with friends and neighbors and then gathering for a Halloween dinner. The kids had plenty of energy from all the candy they inhaled during the night. It's been fun to continue this tradition. The first year (2009), we just had two little boys dressed as Dumbo and a monkey. Then we had two little boys and a baby. Last year, there were six kids in the mix (from the original two!). Our neighbors moved with their two little boys. Our new neighbors have a little boy and girl, which makes the combination perfect. In the picture above, we're just missing Molly, who was also dressed as Dumbo.

Long story short: Halloween evenings have become increasingly chaotic, but have also increased in general cuteness and fun!

I'll post more about Benny's costume and our butternut squash feast soon!

Batman: In the Beginning

Benny's Batman costume is coming together. I've acquired all of the required items to create a superhero costume for my little superhero. The items above must eventually assembled into something similar to this:

The yellow and black patch will be larger and the belt a wee bit smaller. But otherwise, Benny will be a spitting image of Adam West, with the attitude of Christian Bale. OK, maybe not quite so dark.

What I'm using:

• Grey long underwear ($12)
• Felt for Batman patch ($2)
• Glue gun to attach everything ($7)
• Batman mask ($6)
• Light for belt ($4)

Total: $31 - about $10 more than I would have spent if I had just bought the costume. But, we'll use the long underwear for pajamas this year and the glue gun will be added to the pile of craft supplies I use once a year.

Making Batman

It's that time of year! The one time every year that I use up a year's worth of  my crafty brain cells on one holiday: Halloween. I feel strongly about making homemade costumes or re-using costumes. I refuse to buy store-bought costumes - mostly out of principle. Prior to last year, I always used hand-me-down costumes. Benny has been a bee, Dumbo and dinosaur. Last year, Lila was a frog. All four costumes came from generous friends.

Last year, Benny decided he wanted to be an astronaut. We worked on that costume for over a month!

This year Benny requested a Batman costume. Ugh. I can get a bit creative on some things, but superheros - especially an all-black superhero - are not my strong suit. So, I've decided to go old school on it - grey long underwear with bright yellow and black accents. Something a little like this...

I will be using a glue stick this year! The good news is that Benny can wear the long underwear as pjs this winter. It gets pretty COLD in our house, so we'll need some new long johns anyway.

A favor - does anyone have a black cape I could borrow? If you're out of town, I'm happy to pay for shipping.

Don't worry, I'll keep you all updated every painful step of the way!

Final Report: Homemade and Re-Used Halloween Costumes

Thanks for sitting through my homemade costume saga for this month's Green Means Go(od). The real theme for the month should have been: Struggling through the Process of Making a Costume from Scratch by a Mom Who Is Not Creative.

Although the helmet wasn't the greatest, I was really pleased with the rest of the costume. The piece de resistance was definitely the jet pack! And the red tape definitely pulled the whole costume together. Here are the details, in living color:

The front view, complete with a personalized space suit helmet. Toby and Thatcher accompanied Benny on his trick or treating adventures. They were so fun to watch this year!

The back view. Check out the awesome jet pack - set to take off any minute.

And, of course, Lila's re-used costume. She looked absolutely adorable - even if she was completely clueless about Halloween.

Thanks again to Maggie for inspiring me to make and re-use costumes. Just about every kid at Benny's school had store-bought costumes. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I just remember having homemade costumes every year. Now Benny and Lila can have the same memories. AND I feel good about not contributing to more waste - for at least one holiday.

Up for November's Green Means Go(od): Giving Up. I'll focus on giving things up as a way to become a more conscious consumer and eater.

Halloween Festivities Preview

How appropriate that Halloween falls on a Monday this year and we're planning a sustainable celebration! Thanks for visiting the final October installment of Green Means Go(od)! What are you doing for Halloween this year?

Halloween festivities to be complete with a homemade costume, a re-used costume and homemade pumpkin, chocolate chip cupcakes.

Unfortunately, I won't be able to actually comment on our Halloween festivities until later today, but I wanted to give preview for my final October installment of Green Means Go(od).

We're all but finished with Benny's Halloween costume. The helmet and jet pack have been painted, the space suit has been assembled and the snow boots have been temporarily renamed the moon boots. Lila is lucky to have a hand-me-down costume from Maggie, who contributed to Green Means Go(od) earlier this month.

After making Benny's costume, I wondered if it really was cheaper and more environmentally conscious to make it ourselves. Here's the rundown:

• NASA T-shirt: $12
• Blue sweatpants: $5
• Silver spray paint: $2.50
• Red duct tape: $5
• Papier mache helmet, personalized: $1 (the helmet was a re-used snack container with sparkly letters for personalization)
• Jet pack with NASA sticker: $4 (the jet pack was a re-used snack container that we sprayed silver)
• Moon boots: No cost
• Orange paper to make fake "fire" from jet pack: $1

Grand total: $30.50

However, I bought the t-shirt and the sweatpants as actual articles of clothing that Benny will wear again (over and over), so I'm going to subtract $17 from the total. That makes the costume a whopping $13.50. Plus, I feel good about re-using a plastic tub and newspaper and re-purposing a T-shirt, pants and snow boots. And we can use the tape and sparkly letters for other art projects (Benny has already made party favors for his friends by spelling their names in sparkly letters).

On the menu for our potluck sustainable celebration tonight: salad, butternut squash soup and homemade mac cheese. For dessert: pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. Here's a preview of those delicious morsels (with pumpkin from the garden!)...

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

1 2/3 cups flour (I used half whole wheat, half white)
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. all spice (or I used nutmeg, ginger and cinnamon in a pinch)

Mix the dry ingredients together. In a separate bowl, mix the liquids:

1 cup chocolate chips
2 large eggs
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup melted butter (I substituted olive oil because I was out of butter)

Mix all the ingredients together and spoon into greased cupcake pan (no cupcake liners here!). Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes.

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

4 oz. cream cheese
4 tbsp. butter
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup powdered sugar

Use electric mixer to mix the first four ingredients together. Slowly add the powdered sugar. Frost the pumpkin chocolate chip cupcakes and you have a seasonal yummy Halloween treat!

Happy Halloween!

Visions of Halloween

Thanks for visiting Green Means Go(od) this week! A brief update on homemade costume adventures:

Candy, check. NASA shirt, check. Blue sweatpants, check. Silver spray paint, check. "Moon" boots, check. Papier mache helmet, still under construction (round two)...

After realizing that the first round of papier mache was not going to work, I reluctantly started over. We tried the helmet on Benny's head yesterday and it only hit his nose. It wasn't a very convincing helmet for a space ranger. The second try is looking much better. Once we spray it silver, to match the jet pack on his back, I think he will pass as an astronaut. So, if you didn't already guess Benny's costume, there you have it.

We have one week to get this costume put together. Luckily the candy is taken care of. So much for buying "sustainable," healthy candy. Benny and I were at Target this weekend and when i saw big bags for sale, I let him pick out what he wanted to use for trick or treaters. It was amazing to see how much candy was for sale. No wonder Americans consume so much sugar every year!

'Fall'ing in Love Again

The award for the cheesiest blog post title ever: "Fall"ing in Love Again. I couldn't help myself. As the days get shorter and just a bit cooler around the edges, I find myself getting excited for the end of summer and the beginning of fall. It happened quickly this year. We had several weeks of unbearable days in the 90s (I know, I know, it's not THAT bad). And then, pop, the temps dipped into the low 80s and the nights are now cool enough that we have to close the windows.

I love everything about fall. Unlike other seasons, I never want fall to end. I never hope that the temperature changes, unlike winter, spring, and summer (when I'm always looking forward to the next season). Here are some of my favorite things about fall:

1. Layers and layers and layers of clothes and rediscovering my cold season wardrobe.
2. Watching the leaves on the trees prepare to change color. Park Hill is an amazing neighborhood for fall leaves.
3. Halloween!
4. Baking in the kitchen without roasting.
5. Soup! Including Smashing Tomato Soup.
6. Long runs in cool air.
7. Long-forgotten blue jeans.
8. Squeezing in as many dinners, bbqs, and other time outside as possible.
9. Watching Benny play in the leaves.
10. Eating loads of fresh produce from the garden before the first freeze comes along and robs us of our lettuce, green tomatoes, herbs.

The Cutest Dinosaur ... Ever

Halloween 2010

Happy Halloween!

Daddy, Dumbo, and Mommy. Halloween 2009.



Benny loved carving the pumpkin. He liked eating it too!



Best buds: Benny and Toby, the flying monkey!