01 Nov
Sleepy Halloween
Just call him
The Sleep Bandit
He comes late at night, using his dashing good looks to throw you off guard and rob you of sleep. I dressed as one of his victims.
The hat is from Poland. Zara to be exact (just as awesome as H&M, maybe better).
This was the Trunk or Treat, held at the church. It’s a common Mormon Halloween activity, where everyone pulls into the parking lot and opens their trunks and dishes candy out to the masses. I personally dislike the idea because it makes it too easy for kids to get buckets and buckets of candy. If you want that much sugar you should have to work for it!
As I am anti corn syrup, and finding candy without corn syrup is nearly impossible, I handed out stickers. I was a bit nervous that I would be the trunk that everyone hated, but they were surprisingly popular. I’m going to make it my thing for future Halloween events, but I need to have a better selection because the choices were kind of girly and the boys weren’t very happy about it.
In between trick-or-treaters I let T1 do his favorite thing. Standing.
A photographer mother and daughter means LOTS of pictures. Makes me so happy.
My mom is a trooper, walking all over Chicago in her boot. (She has a fractured foot.)
Cost of this costume: $0. I did buy the pajama pants at Goodwill, but I’ll wear them in the future so I think the cost doesn’t count.
This is the most accurate representation of what it’s like living with The Sleep Bandit. He thinks life couldn’t get any better, I’m just wishing for a nap.
Those darling pajamas are from Gap, and they were a gift from OMGMom. Isn’t she sweet?
Now, some snuggle time with grandma and grandpa.
Let’s see how he looks without the hat?
Nope, the hat is good.
SO CUTE!!!
We’re having a nice time. 
P.S.-I love so many of your suggestions for the heroes and villains costume, and we were all set to be Lois Lane and Clark Kent but then we went to the ward activity and saw an absolutely genius costume pair that we’re going to borrow for the party. I’m keeping it a secret until then but I promise you’ll laugh when you see it. It’s very clever.
P.P.S.-My cousin is part of a modeling contest. You can vote for her here if you’d like to try to help her win!
P.P.P.S.-I’m going to do an eBates giveaway soon with several big prizes. You’re only eligible for the contest if you sign up through my link (information can be found on this post) and purchase something so get on it if you’d like the chance to win!
Also:
I'm a farm-raised almost-crunchy stroller-pushing picture-taking lifestyle-blog-writing gastronomy-obsessed divine-seeking thrift-store-combing cheese-inhaling pavement-pounding laughter-sprinkling lover of individuality and taking chances.
T1 is such a cutie!! Love the hat.
1Very clever costumes! We went to the ward trunk or treat and it was the first time I’ve ever been a part of one. Yes - we had to WORK for our candy back in the day. This trunk or treat is just too easy ;).
2This is adorable!!! Such a cute idea!
Jessica @ One Shiny Star Reply:
November 7th, 2010 at 6:15 pm
PS: I wanted to add that my Mom is also anti-passing out corn syrup, so she buys bunches of those glow bracelets from oriental trading and passes those out. Always a big hit at the trunk-or-treat. It also makes it very easy to tell which children have come by already.
Jenna Reply:
November 7th, 2010 at 9:58 pm
It means I will have to prepare ahead of time but Oriental Trading Co is a great resource! I’m really excited about all of these ideas I have been given.
So cute! What an adorable idea. I LOVE the picture where T1 is so happy and you’re “trying” to nap.
Your mom sounds like such a trooper, I’m impressed!
Will you take T1 door-to-door when he’s older? I wish more kids came trick-or-treating around here. We live in a courtyard building with no kids, so didn’t get any trick-or-treaters.
4LOVE the costume - and the jumper (or onesie, or whatever you call them, I’m still not hip with the baby lingo for clothing yet - much to learn)! I saw it at Gap this weekend and almost bought it, it is just too cute for words!
5Looks like great Halloween fun all around! I hope you know that Zara has a couple stores in Chicago
Makes it a much quicker trip than to Poland.
6This was a cute idea! Zara has stores in Chicago now - State Street and MI Ave are the only ones I know off of the top of my head.
7nothing beats h&m
only this does:
http://www.vertbaudet.co.uk/
(your family in poland might be able to actually shop there:)
and cute idea for a costume! and so true at this stage:)
8Cute costume idea!
Out of curiousity, why are you opposed to Corn Syrup? Growing up I was highly alergic, re: my lungs would close kind of alergic, to corn, peanuts and their by-products. The candy bards I could eat where: KitKats, Skor Bars and I believe Crunch bars (been awhile).
9cutest idea ever!! you guys look adorable. geniusness
10Cute costume idea for T1! I love homemade/creative costumes! I’m glad you didn’t give away any candy - personally I think the amount of candy kids get for halloween is insane. My nieces and nephew got SO much yesterday and I’d say 99.9% was either full of corn-syrup, preservatives or artificially dyed. Yuck.
Stickers are fun, so are temporary tattoos, pencils, notebooks or we saw someone do pretzels in individual packets.
11Such a gorgeous family! And what comfy costume ideas.
I handed out candy last night, but i felt sort of guilty about it. I noticed some of the trick-or-treaters bags that someone in my neighborhood was handing out top ramen!
12Love the hat!! I bet the stickers were a hit. We handed out plastic fangs with our candy and they kids loved them! I think they were all gone within the first hour.
13That’s such an adorable idea! Also, there are some Zara stores popping up around the US now - get excited. I was in San Francisco yesterday and saw one there and my friend informed me that there is actually one in San Diego (where I live) too - I’ll have to check on that.
Oh, and I was going to say something about how great your hair looks, but I realized that would sound silly since you have it all messy for the costume - what I mean is that I love how the color has faded a bit - it looks great.
14I love your costumes - what a cute idea!
15We didn’t get any trick-or-treaters this year, so I think next year I’ll go with your sticker idea - that can be saved year after year instead of me eating candy I shouldn’t have!
Tres adorable! And I love “sleep bandit” as a costume idea.
16I’m not trying to be sassy or burst your bubble, because it’s a very, VERY cute bubble. But I was just wondering about your thoughts on Zara after reading Cheap? I remember looooving Zara when I was in Europe but now I’m not sure if I’d go back. (To Zara, not Europe. I’d totally go back to Europe.) Or at least maybe I’d only buy something small and super cute like that hat
Jenna Reply:
November 1st, 2010 at 2:51 pm
HAHAHA! Okay, so I haven’t finished Cheap yet. And I may or may not be living it up in the land of cheap purchases because I know that as soon as I get too far into things everything is going to change! So I’m going to seem like such a hypocrite in like a week when I get through more of the book
Sarah for Real Reply:
November 1st, 2010 at 2:56 pm
I’m with you on the hypocrite thing. This book is finally making me admit to myself that I cannot hate/boycott/slander Walmart only to turn around and shop at Target. Sigh… It’s a daily battle.
Sarah for Real Reply:
November 1st, 2010 at 2:59 pm
Wait… I don’t shop daily at Target. LOL Target is actually rare. I meant that making good decisions as a consumer is a daily battle.
Sophia Reply:
November 2nd, 2010 at 1:22 pm
Yes, I have to admit that as an international business masters student I had a few lively debates with my friends who had boycotted/protested Wal-Mart, but then shopped at Target/K-Mart/The Dollar Store
But it’s hard in a lot of places to find somewhere to shop that *isn’t* a “big box store”. It’s all baby steps and it is hard making those daily decisions!
What a cute idea. I love creative costumes. Last year my husband and I were cliches of our own countries. I had a beret on, stripped shirt, baguette and eiffel tower earings. He had a Hawaiian shirt, cap, camera, short and sun screen on his nose.
T1 is so cute and he looks miserable.
18I have a nephew that’s 10 months old so this is going to be BIG, what I’m getting ready to admit: I think T1 MIGHT be the cutest little baby boy I’ve ever seen. Seriously.
19I LOVE that hat!!! Does TH have one too? They’d be too cute together wearing them.
20I love the costume! My church did trunk or treat this year, I just gave candy but another group gave away tiny waters, that’s always a thought.
21I LOVE the Sleep Bandit costume! Really creative and perfect for a baby.
22Oh T1- Auntie Dumpling will have to buy you some more black and gray clothes because you look so precious!! Smooch!!
23Oh dear, T1 looks soooo adorable. Love the picture in which he is waving!!
24Soooo cute! I actually like trunk-or-treat because it’s safe :). Stickers are such a great idea. Someone mentioned that you could hand out baggies of organic fruit/veggie puffs for the people with babies.
25I would totally wear a hat like that. And I love that you stuck to your principles and gave out stickers. I would have been over the moon to get stickers as a kid
26And I second the compliments on your hair color, it looks great.
27Ohhh this costume is too darn cute - what a great idea! I am loving T1′s hat!
28Your AWESOME pictures of you + T1 are a nice reminder that I need to force my husband to take more pictures of me + my baby
As you urged us to in a prior post!
29Stickers are an awesome Halloween idea! I’ve never seen that and love it. Totally going to use this for inspiration when we live in a place with a doorbell and/or front door and/or children.
30