in an old house in philly all covered with vines

Last year, after I'd already made our Halloween costumes, I came up with this year's costume idea. Fortunately, Rhoda's just as into Madeline this year as she was last year (if not more so) so I kept it relatively simple and didn't deviate from my plan so I could get started early on our costumes. I found two pretty simple tutorials online to make Rhoda's outfit (this tunic + this cape) and spent a couple of days in October watching Jane the Virgin and going on a sewing frenzy. After scouring the internet for a yellow toddler hat and plain black Mary Janes I felt like I had the perfect ensemble for the tinest Madeline.

I was Miss Clavel and Robbie was the tiger in the zoo ("to the tiger in the zoo, Madeline just said 'Pooh-pooh!'") My veil was just a rectangle of fabric sewn onto a headband, and Robbie borrowed the tiger costume from a classmate. Also, a lot of times none of us were instantly recognizable. I can understand the confusion about Robbie the tiger/Tigger/Tony the Tiger (a little obscure...) and me the nun, especially in a city where everyone is Catholic, but come on! What's with you people not reading Madeline to your kids??

We got a ton of mileage out of our costumes this year. We had a party for the school's kids club, a Halloween party at church, and before trick-or-treating in our neighborhood (which is the BEST on Halloween) we had donuts and cider at our friends' house. Basically by the time Sunday rolled around we were all in a sleep-deprived sugary haze.

Posin'

Talking about important toddler things (candy) with her equestrian friend Harper

The best kid

Making the mistake of waiting too long to take a picture resulted in this episode

PS—further evidence that Rhoda is a mini-Robbie: