Halloween Iowa Style! (FREE Printables & a neat Iowa History Lesson)

I found this Cinderella costume at Goodwill for $8, so Kylie ended up with two costumes in 2012

Kylie (ahem... Snow White)
2012- Age 6

I will never forget 1994 and my first Halloween in Iowa. 

My husband of almost 2 years had to work on Beggar's Night so I was left alone to greet the Trick-or-Treaters. I wished Dan could have been with me, but I was so excited to hand out candy to little ones and to experience my first official Halloween in my hubby's hometown.

Kylie's 1st Halloween
50's baby-7 mo. old

After the first knock on my door, it didn't take me long to pick up on a pattern.  Almost all of the children were telling me jokes! I thought it was cute but wondered why.  I grew up in Illinois and Pennsylvania and we NEVER told jokes on Halloween.  

Kylie's 2nd Halloween
Lady Bug- 19 mo. old

When my husband came home and I asked him about the joke phenomenon, he looked at me as though I were a cyclops with a lone eye on my forehead! In an incredulous tone, he said something akin to "What??  Seriously?? you never told a joke on Halloween?  It is TRADITION here in Iowa!" 

Kylie's 3rd Halloween
Cowgirl-2.5 yrs old

Nope, I have never told a joke on Halloween. 

That was a HUGE disappointment to my corn-fed, Iowa-grown husband.  According to him, I had really missed out. (I think he was secretly thinking that my parents had neglected me where Halloween was concerned. Mom, Dad, you can address this with your son-in-law at a later date.)

Kylie's 4th Halloween
Bride- 3.5 years old

This is a GREAT article written by the Des Moines Register telling the history of Joke-telling in Iowa.  It dates back to 1938 and encompassed a way to deter violence (which, back then, mostly consisted of soaping windows) as well as a way to boost the war effort.  It was so interesting and educational for me!! 

I love Iowa!!

Kylie's 5th Halloween
Cheerleader- 4.5 yrs old

(In 2010, Kylie had 2 costumes!!)

Kylie's 5th Halloween
Elmo- 4.5 yrs.old

Fast forward 18 years and we are now prepping to take our 6 year old daughter Trick-or-Treating this Halloween.  Little did we know then that our future Halloweens were going to be a tad bit more challenging.

Kylie's 6th Halloween
A Cat-5.5 years old

Our daughter is on the Autism Spectrum and experiences special needs.  Lights, sounds, textures (sensory issues), feeding and even speech are difficult for her. So in addition to the level of creativity that is required for such a holiday, we had to shift into Turbo Gear and get Ultra Creative!!

We want her to be able to experience Halloween "Iowa Style" but we needed to figure out a way to make the joke tradition work.   

This year, I came up with the idea of creating Prompt Cards.  Using clip art (free from the web), I made 4 cards illustrating 4 different jokes.  I also typed out the wording so she could use it as prompts if needed.  I then laminated the cards and am allowing my daughter to play with them and read them over and over.  

We also spend lots of time practicing by telling each other the jokes (she needs to hear them and watch the expressions and hear the inflection in people's voices.)

If you would like a FREE copy of these 4 illustrated jokes, please click on the photo and you will be able to print the file.

We are doing Halloween "Iowa Style" this year!!

Halloween Helpers - A Love Beyond Measure

Halloween was successful for our Kylie ONLY because we had so many gracious and sacrificial helpers.  These are people who literally poured themselves into our Kylie. 

Proverbs 18:24 says that "...There is a friend who sticks closer than a brother"

That verse applies to this situation - especially since Kylie does not have any siblings.  Our friends and helpers have become our family.  I don't care if that is a conflict of interest in some areas (such as with therapists).  These key people are as close to us as family.  And it is no wonder!!  We are with them up to 4 times a week.  They know intimate details of our lives and we trust them.

These special people in Kylie's life have helped us in so many ways.  They walk with us daily in our Autism Adventure!

Here are a few of the many people who love on our precious girl.  How I wish I could picture them all.


Miss Kimberly - a friend and also one of Kylie's Respite Providers. 
Kylie looks unhappy because she didn't like the sound of the helium machine.
Kylie loves that Miss Kimberly can make her balloon animals - especially pink puppies.

Kylie's friend, Anna. 
Anna has been so patient and sweet with Kylie.  Kylie has had to learn how to be a friend, how to tolerate people in her personal space, how to enjoy the squeals of little girl laughter and delight.  These things don't come natural for our girl, but Anna continues to be such a good and patient friend to our Kylie. 

Kylie's Papa and Grammy Stout
Papa and Grammy's home has become a haven of peace for our Kylie.  She is with them weekly and enjoys every minute of her time with them.  It has been neat to watch their relationship grow and develop over time.   They allow us to dress Kylie for her Halloween Adventures every year at their house.

Kylie and her friend Rebecca. 
Kylie and Rebecca share the same speech therapist.  We often run into Rebecca and her family when we are out and about at various community events.  It is always so much fun to find friends in common.

Amelia and Lauren are sisters and they share an Occupational Therapist with Kylie.  They are also in a social group together.  Amelia, Lauren and their parents have become good friends of our family this year.  We have (too) much in common  =0)
I also LOVE this pic as it looks like Kylie is wearing a fur bra!  (oh, don't be fuddy duddies - it's funny!)

These three (Ellen, Chloe and Elizabeth) are Kylie's helpers at Dance Without Limits (we love them all).  DWOL is a ballet program sponsored by Ballet Des Moines specifically designed for children with special needs.  This program has been such a blessing and joy to our family!  Kylie has class every week at the School of Classical Ballet and Dance and it happened to fall on Halloween so the class was invited to wear their halloween costumes!  It was great fun!  They even did a spooky dance! Monika Peltz is Kylie's Dance Instructor and she is so wonderful with these kids!

And then there is all the staff at ChildServe.  If I have not mentioned it before now, we LOVE, love, love Childserve and all they have done and continue to do for our family!  These are just a few of the special things they did to make Halloween fun for all the children.

Erin (dressed as "Slinky Dog") is Kylie's Occupational Therapist, Julie (dressed as a friendly witch) is Kylie's Speech Therapist and Mary (dressed as Cookie Monster) is Kylie's Feeding Therapist (also an OT)

One of the other therapists (I wish I could remember her name) allowed Kylie to play Tic Tac Toe.  Kylie had a "Cat's Game"... How fitting for a "Pretty Kitty"  =0)

This is Marsha (as Minnie Mouse).  She is another of Kylie's Occupational Therapists.  Marsha is really creative.  You can't see her shoes, but she took old croc shoes and covered them in yellow duct tape and then used yellow glitter glue to make Minnie Mouse Shoes.  Marsha is also the one who came up with the game "Lucky Pumpkins"

And THIS, by FAR, was the best part of Kylie's day...

This is two therapists and one of the gals who work the front desk. 
(I wish I knew their names so I could rave about them).
These gals were so gracious to my Kylie.  They aren't even her therapists and they took precious time out of their day to make her feel special!  Yep!  This is why we LOVE Childserve.

One of the princesses let Kylie wear her crown -
It was a sacred moment for Kylie.

To top off Kylie's day, Her therapists invited her to play her favorite game: Duck Duck Goose!!  Kylie was in Heaven!!

It literally took a village to make Halloween a success for Kylie, but all these people and so many more helped to make her weekend special!!

Thanks to everyone who lavishes their love on our baby girl!  Our meager Thanks will never be enough but know you hold a special place in our hearts and we will never forget!

Halloween Highlights - Our Pretty Kitty

Yes, I am a Christian and I DO "celebrate" Halloween.

(I think the big debate between fellow Christians is how they define the word "celebrate".)

Let me be clear. I do not celebrate witchcraft or Satan. Satan does not "get" a day in my family. We love Jesus, we teach Jesus and we follow Jesus.

To us, "celebrating Halloween" is defined as a big costume party with lots of candy.




This was the first year Kylie was interested in "checking out" her candy.  After every deposit, she would peer into her bag and announce what she was given.  I think she picked this up from the Charlie Brown Halloween special where the kids all do this and Charlie Brown sadly exclaims "I got a rock" - Poor Charlie Brown.
 In any event, Dan and I were tickled to see her do this.


I could go on and on about my personal conviction or position regarding Halloween, but you all are not here for a soap box sermon.

I will however share a link to a really good article that I recently read.  If you choose to comment on it or disagree with it, that is absolutely fine, but please be respectful to me and to my wonderful readers in the way you choose to comment. 

Here is the link to the article: "Hallowing Halloween"  (I think the author makes some really great points.  It certainly made me think)

On the flip side, a friend (and one that I really respect) suggested that I read the pamphlet "The Truth about Halloween". While I am interested in reading it, I really don't think it will change my mind about how our family chooses to "celebrate" Halloween or more specifically "Trick or Treat". 

I have come to realize that this topic is more of a "cultural" issue based on how one was raised or influenced even more than a "religious" issue as I know many truly faith based people who do and who do not "celebrate" Halloween and every single one of them has a very real faith. 

Each of us will be held accountable for our decisions and if we did the right thing for our particular family.  We had ALL better base our decision making on solid foundations.

Can God be glorified in and through the vehicle of Halloween?  I believe he can.

***stepping down from the soapbox***

Hopefully, you are here to see pics of my ADORABLE and super sweet baby girl and to hear about all the cute things she did while Trick or Treating.

This year, Kylie's costume was a cat. You can read about how we came up with this idea and how we made her costume here. We called her a "pretty kitty".

To finish her costume I actually found the perfect mask at Michael's Craft Store the day before trick or treating. It matched her outfit perfectly and was the best $3 I could have spent.

Here she is all warm, cozy and ready to get some candy.

I have to share a story about this next pic.  All evening long, we had been prompting Kylie by saying "What do you say?" she would reply "Trick or Treat". 

Well, we came to this house where this older man was wearing a Jack Sparrow hat (The one from Pirates of the Caribbean.) It was a little intimidating as it had dreadlocks, but as he was not wearing any makeup, Kylie decided he was ok. 

As she approached the house, he stepped out onto the porch and we again prompted her with "What do you say?" She hesitated and you could just see her looking him up and down.  We again prompted her "What do you say?"  

 Kylie stepped up to him and said "Arrgghhh" in her best Pirate voice. 

All three of us adults burst into laughter.  Kylie had totally caught us off guard - it was PRICELESS!!  Such a funny and precious memory!

I just love looking at her little kitty tail!  ha! ha!

After trick or treating at the very last house. 
Chilly and ready to snuggle!!

I'm sure I'll share a few more memories in my next few posts.  I'm so proud of my girl.  Autism makes everything harder and the fact that she had such a successful time is monumental for us!!

Hope you enjoyed this little peek into our life!

A Pretty Kitty - Making Kylie's Halloween Costume!

Usually by September, I know exactly what Kylie is going to be for Halloween and usually have everything ready.  Well, this year, I had NOTHING ready at all!!  I was drawing a total blank! 

So, I began to browse websites, pay attention in stores, look through magazines and NOTHING was jumping out and me.  Kylie wasn't attached to any idea either.

We were quite the undecisive pair.

Then, on a casual shopping trip, we were in a Clair's Boutique (which is Kylie's "routine" when we are in that particular mall) and we stumbled on a cat/leopard set.  It was $12 and came with cat ears, cat tail, cat paws and a gemstone tattoo of a cat nose and whiskers (They must be sold out of it as I can't find it on the website.  I'd post the link if I could find it). 

I knew I had seen leopard print shoes at Target and my brain started churning out ideas faster than I could keep up. 

(I also scored a leopard print coat at the Take2 Sale for $2.50 - cha ching!!  I'm so excited!!)

We immediately went to the JoAnn fabric store and purchased 3 yards of Black, Brown and Tan/Gold tulle, 3 yards of elastic and then some clear (diamond looking) stick-on gems (in the dollar aisle).

I went home, measured my little one and went to work making the TuTu for her costume.

The process is really easy (and a no-sew project:  my favorite!!)

1. Measure your child's waist, Then add 10 inches extra. (This is the excess you need to tie the tutu.)
2. Mark off the actual measurement of your child's waste on the elastic with 5 extra inches on either side.
3. Then measure The length you want the tutu to be and double that number. 
4. Cut your tulle pieces 5 inches wide and make them as long as the number you figured in step #3
5. Tie the pieces of Tulle to the elastic (I like the effect of alternating the colors).  Put 50% of your piece of tulle on one side of the elastic and 50% on the other side.  Tie it in a knot.
6. Make sure you snug up each tied piece of tool to the next one (this will make your tutu extra fluffy)
7. Go all the way around the elastic until you have completed your child's waste measurement
8. Adhere your gemstones to the tulle in random order (I used a hot glue gun as the adhesive wasn't sticky enough)

Here's the finished product! (and I am sure there will be more and better pics to come closer to Halloween)

As you can tell, she LOVES it!!
She has even been practicing her "meow" - so much fun!!

Happy Halloween!!

Amy

Strategies for a Successful and Purposeful Halloween

Kylie's First Halloween - 2006: "50's Girl"

Halloween was never my favorite holiday.  I never had a store bought costume and never really desired one.  My siblings/friends and I always just threw something together (there were LOTS of cowgirls and cheerleaders roaming my neighborhood).  Oh sure, I loved Halloween for the candy I received, but I didn't have any "special" memories. 

That is .... until Halloween of 2005.

You see, Halloween of 2005 is when Dan and I were invited to accompany our birth parents to the ultrasound that would declare the gender of our baby.  I remember holding my breath waiting to hear (and just praying they would be able to distinguish).  After an agonizing eternity, the nurse finally told us that we had a "turtle" (aka: a girl).  I cried for joy - I had wanted a little girl so much!!

Kylie's 2nd Halloween - 2007: "Ladybug"

Dan and I had previously decided that WE wanted to know the gender of our baby, but we did not want to communicate it to anyone else until the actual birth.  It was the hardest secret of  our lives!!  It nearly killed us not to tell. So, to keep from slipping, we named the baby "Boo".  It was so much fun!

From that moment on, any updates we gave to family and friends about our baby or the progressing adoption always included how "Boo" was doing.  At the next ultrasound, one of our friends gave us a halloween card and wrote inside "Hope you get a peek-a-boo" (during the ultrasound) - I thought that was sooo clever!!

Kylie's 3rd Halloween: 2008- "Cowgirl"

Since that special day, I have always had a soft spot in my heart for Halloween and the memories of meeting our "Baby Boo" for the first time.

While Halloween is now a special day to us - it has the potential to be a very upsetting day for any child who experiences Autism or Special Needs.  Our family learned a lot in our first few years of celebrating this holiday and wanted to share with you things that have helped us have a purposeful and successful holiday.

Kylie's 4th Halloween: 2009- "Princess/Bride"

Like most holidays, Halloween is a multi-sensory event.  There is much stimuli to be processed if you attempt to participate in the activities of the season.

Strategies For A Successful Holiday: 

Costumes: Make sure your child WANTS to dress up.  Check costumes for comfort level and eliminate any discomforting areas of the costume.  Make sure children have clear vision and breathing passages through masks.  This seems common sense, but it is amazing to me how many children struggle on Halloween while caregivers are oblivious. 

Set your child's expectations: Tell your child what kind (scary, cartoon, etc) of costumes they might see, let them know that they will be safe with you.  Let them know it is ok to feel nervous but that you will be right with them.  If your child will allow it, hold their hand (especially when crossing driveways and streets).  If they won't allow you to hold their hand, I suggest loosely holding the back collar of their shirt (where the tag is).

Route: Make sure to map out your route ahead of time.  Choose locations that meet your child's particular needs.  In our family, we go to a different neighborhood entirely.  If we tried to trick or treat in our neighborhood, our daughter wouldn't understand that it is a once a year event.  Each day she would attempt to knock on our neighbors' doors expecting candy.

Diet: Eat a good dinner before starting and be sure to monitor your child's sugar intake.  Plan ahead for a way to distract your child (bring along books, a flashlight, glow in the dark toys or spinners and/or etc to keep their hands busy.  Give them sugarless gum to chew or offer them a chewy tube).  Make sure they stay hydrated.

Schedule/Time: Be sure to watch your child's endurance level.  If they are tired, give them permission to take a break or stop altogether.  Be sure to attend to your child's restroom/diapering needs.

Weather: Be prepared for inclement or cold weather. Be sure to wear appropriate footwear.  Keep an umbrella in your vehicle.

Lighting: Choose a location that is well lit.   

Know your child's fears and phobias:  Don't choose the holiday to conduct therapy or teach your child a lesson in overcoming their fears.

Help your child be prepared: In the state that I live, it is tradition for children to tell a joke when they knock on someone's house.  If your child is verbal, help them to memorize a joke or two to have ready.  If your child is nonverbal, you may want to create joke cards to hand to the person who answers the door.  Either way, make an effort for your child to be included in the local traditions.  EVERY activity can be adapted.

Re-inforce Halloween etiquette: Only knock on doors whose outdoor lights are on, only walk on sidewalks (not on grass), follow the time allowed for trick or treating (do not arrive early or keep going after end time)

Kylie's 5th Halloween: 2010- "Elmo"

Strategies For A Purposeful Holiday:

After receiving our daughter's diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (PDD-NOS), we quickly realized that Halloween is a wonderful holiday for helping our daughter to practice the skills she is learning in a very effective, natural and appropriate way.

Manners and Eye Contact: Specifically saying "Thank You" and expressing appreciation for the gift of candy (and the compliments on her costume).   Before Kylie can leave a house with her candy, she must thank the person who gave it to her.  We prompt her to look at the person and then to say or sign "Thank You" - by the end of the evening, she is almost doing it on her own (very little prompting needed).

Taking Turns: When there is a group of children gathering at a home, we have Kylie wait her turn.  This teaches her patience and being kind to our friends.

Greeting one another: When we approach or pass a child on the sidewalk, we prompt Kylie to greet them by saying "Hi Friend".

Boundaries: We allow Kylie a few treats during the evening but we limit them by using the "First/Then" method.  It might sound something like this: FIRST Smarties THEN lollypop  or FIRST Hershey's kiss, THEN book. It sets the tone for an ending. 

Safety: When she was an infant, we taught Kylie a little saying so that she would never "fight" being buckled into a car seat.  We said "Buckle up for Safety" and we gradually progressed to "Buckle up..." and Kylie would finish "For Safety".  When we are out and about, we require Kylie to hold our hands.  We adapt the saying to "Hold hands... For Safety".  This is just an accepted part of her routine.

Faith: We use the book The Pumpkin Gospel to put a faith base to the holiday of Halloween.  (we love the object lesson of pumpkin carving to teach that God can take away all of the yucky things in us and give us a light to shine for him).  Another good book is The Pumpkin Parable

Another costume for her 5th Halloween - 2010 "Cheerleader"

Planning ahead and thinking through a situation prior to the event, is critical for success.  Always look for opportunities to put into "real world" practice the things your child is learning at therapy and in school.  Halloween can be a very intimidating time, but it can also be successful if you put just a bit of thought and preparation into it.

Happy Trick or Treating, and let me know how things go for you!