One of my favourite things about new Seasons and Holidays, is the books. I keep a few seasonal books tucked away, and bring them out when the time comes, and purchase a few each season. The rest I take out from the library. They have an amazing selection of seasonal books. Ours are in a separate corner labeled with stickers.  Check out your local library! 

How To Make Friends with a Ghost by Rebecca Green

For the last couple of years, we have have taken this book out of the library. We all love it! The illustrations are so sweet, and the story is so witty and cute. There are so many fun details that you discover each time you read it. This year I invested in our own copy to add to our Fall/Halloween collection of books. I can't wait to add more books from Rebecca Green to our library!

Pick a Pumpkin by Rebecca Toht 

Illustrated by Jarvis

This book is from the same author and illustrator as "Pick A Pine Tree". The illustrations in this book are so incredibly fun and unique. What I really enjoy about this story is how the theme is about bringing everyone together. Whether it is picking a pumpkin from the patch, scooping and carving, putting it out on the step and trick or treating, it really celebrates doing all of these activity together. That is probably one of my favourite parts of Halloween, the sense of community.

Stumpkin by Lucy Ruth Cummins

This is the fist year we have read this book, and it's such a sweet book. The kids adore Stumpkin! This story is about a little pumpkin with no stem on top, and finding itself a home for Halloween. The illustrations are fun, and it has a heartfelt ending.

Trick Or Treat in Canada by Eric James

This book follows a cute little Alien, traveling around Canada. It's a fun book, mentioning different places across the Country. My kids really enjoyed it, and loved that it mentioned Edmonton. The story also includes subtle themes about teamwork and helping others, which I appreciate. 

 Pout-Pout Fish Haunted House written by Deborah Diesen 

                                                               Illustrated by Dan Hanna

The series of Pout-Pout Fish books are always a fan favourite in our house. Mr.Fish is going to visit a Haunted House with his friends, and is a little nervous. This book is great for prepping little kids for Trick-or-Treating and the spooky decorations/houses you might encounter. It's also a great price point, and comes with stickers!

Atlas of Monsters and Ghosts by Lonely Planet

This book follows famous monster hunter Van Helsing as he takes a trip around the globe searching for creepy monsters, ghosts and more. This book is packed full of information, spooky and fun illustrations and more. I would say it's geared more to older kids, as some of the illustrations are quite creepy and might be a little much for younger kids.

Little Blue Truck Halloween by Alice Schertle

Illustrated by Jill McElmurry

Little Blue Truck never lets us down! This book follows Little Blue Truck making their way to a Halloween Party. There are flaps featuring each animal character wearing a Halloween costume. The kids enjoyed guessing who was who under each flap. 

Birdie's Happiest Hallowen by Sujean Rim 

I just picked this book up on a whim at the library and was so pleasantly surprised by the story. Birdie loves fall, and everything that comes with it. She has troubles deciding what she wants to be for Halloween but gets inspired by visiting the Museum with her Mom. The feminist in me LOVES this story, especially the ending. Pick up your own copy to find out what happens!

Little Boo by Stepehn Wunderli

Illustrated by Tim Zeltner

This is another pick from the library! Emery really enjoys this sweet story. It follows this little Pumpkin Seed on the journey of growing into a Pumpkin. It's a great read for learning patience and also for showing how a seed grows! 

The Scariest Book Ever by Bob Shea

I have seen this book all over Instagram, and it's no wonder why. It is the funnest book to read ever! It's witty, cute, and filled with the sweetest illustrations. You know how some books are just enjoyable for kids? Well, this book is enjoyable for kids and adults alike. The main character, the Ghost is fairly dramatic and is sure the woods is filled with spooky, creepy creatures. The ending is fun, and I really enjoy reading this to the kids.

What are your favourite Halloween or Fall Books? I love finding new ones to add to our collection and our list for next year!

Happy almost Halloween!

-Kassandra 

It's been a long time since I've watched the original Anne of Green Gables show, but the other month we got the cutest kids book from Raincoast Books, Anne of Green Gables. She also has the novel version from Rifle Paper Co. on her dresser. A little light bulb went off for the cutest Halloween costume. Of course I will be making these kids dress as a couple for as long as possible, right?

When I saw these floral woodland animal headbands from Land of Lennon, I knew they would make the cutest & easiest costumes for Halloween. I also knew they would be the perfect addition to Emery's dress up clothes. Emery loves playing dress up and make believe, and these little headbands are so easy for her to put on. They would also make perfect stocking stuffers for Christmas. Make sure to tell Santa! 

To create these little costumes, I mostly used things that were already in the house with the exception of the animal tails. For the Raccoon and Fox tails, I went and got some felt from Michaels. I just drew out the tail shape with a pencil (I looked on Pinterest for an idea of shape), and then cut them out. I sewed on the white part of the fox tail first, then sewed the two pieces together. I stuffed them with stuffing from an old pillow, and sewed the end closed. I just used a few pins to attach them to Emery's clothes, but I'm going to sew an elastic to them so she can wear them around her waist. 

For Emery's Outfit I used:

June & January Mustard Dress

Vintage Orange Sweater

DIY Felt Fox Tail

I think you could use any brown/orange/yellow coloured clothes that you might already have in your closet. I used my make-up to make a little fox face. The hardest part was getting a three year old to sit still, especially when doing her nose, haha!

On Emery:

Old Navy Pjs (worn backwards)

Stuffing for Tail

This one was probably the easiest out of the three. I just looked at Pinterest for make-up ideas, again using my own make-up. I luckily already had pjs that worked for the costume. If you wanted to add a little more, you could probably cut out white circles and add them to the pjs for spots. 

This Floral Pumpkin was a #DIY I did a few years ago, you can find it here.

These Land of Lennon headbands are just so beautiful. I love all the details, and the colours. She also has these amazing Unicorn headbands, as well as lots of other awesome goodies!

Haha can you tell Emery wasn't getting tired near the end of taking these photos? The moodiest raccoon you ever did see. 

For the raccoon tail, I used the same technique as the fox tail. I sewed on the grey stripes before sewing the tail together.

On Emery:

Thrifted Columbia Fleece One Piece

DIY Felt Raccoon Tail

What are your kids dressing up as for Halloween? Do you have a bin of fun dress up clothes? I'd love to hear!

Happy almost Halloween!

-Kassandra

If you have been reading my blog for a few years now, then you know that I love Halloween and coming up with fun costumes. Halloween is especially fun now that I have a toddler to dress up. I was really stumped for ideas this year, so I went searching to Value Village for some inspiration.

I usually go there searching for costumes, props and more. I love how they have such a huge Halloween section, even just a few days ago when I went there was tons of stuff left. They have equally huge sections of brand new costumes for all ages and second hand costumes. Including make-up, accessories and decorations.

I went searching in the kids section and found some gems, that just needed a few little touches. Lets start with the most time consuming costume (but not even that bad) Raggedy Ann Doll.

My Mom let me play with her Raggedy Ann Doll when I was younger, so as soon as I saw this little dress I immediately thought of it. All it needed was a few extra touches. I went searching for red yarn for the wig, and found a huge bag of it for less then $5. I actually always get my yarn for crafts from Value Village, brand new yarn for such a good deal. 

 I took the yarn and ended up hot glueing it onto an old beanie of Emery's to create the wig. This was the time consuming part, it took about an hour. The glue does make the beanie super stiff, so in order to get it onto her head I had to cut slits on either side of the beanie. I thought braids would be fun, so I just created two big braids and tied them with some blue yarn. I already had white tights and black shoes for her so that was easy. 

I had some blue ribbon laying around so I tied it around her waist into a big bow for a fun touch. Now I was worried about doing her makeup since she has never had her face painted before. She was actually really into it! Taking it off was another story, haha! I just used some red lipstick of mine for the nose and cheeks and a black eyeliner pencil for the freckles and lashes. FYI I used a baby wipe with coconut oil to get it off, it worked pretty well!

For some reason Emery has been obsessed with Minnie Mouse lately, so this costume was perfect. As soon as I saw this little polka dot dress, I knew it was perfect for Minnie. This costume was a little  bit easier because I already had these Minnie Mouse ears from Disney World at home. I did see lots of Mickey and Minnie Mouse ears at Value Village, as well as cat ones. You could also create some by using an old head band and some black felt. 

This make-up was a little bit easier, all she needed was a little nose and whiskers. 

Minnie Mouse in action! She loved twirling in this dress! I used the same tights and shoes as the Raggedy Ann costume which was a bonus.

Not really sure why she thought this Pumpkin would be tasty? Haha!

As soon as I saw this poodle costume, I knew Emery would love it. She absolutely loves dogs! This is the easiest costume by far, all I had to do was zip her up in it! If you follow me on Instagram and watch my stories, you will seem Em has pretty much been wearing this non-stop since we got it, haha!

This will most likely be the one she wears Trick-or-Treating since we live in Canada and it will mostly likely snow, haha! It's a great costume for layering, so she can stay nice and warm.

Emery is really into dressing up these days so for Christmas we are going to make her a little wardrobe with dress up clothes. I will be keeping these to put in it. I also grabbed a few princess dresses & a hat for less then $10 to add. I would highly recommend checking out the costumes for your toddlers dress up bin!

Which costume was your favourite? I'm obviously biased and think she looks adorable in all of them! Hahaha! Also please tell me what your dressing up as! 

<3 Kastles

*Costumes c/o Value Village*