Learning From Photos Past

Every Picture Tells A Story....

These are some of the most fun posts for me to prepare.

The memories come flooding back as I search for specific photos of days gone by.

I have been reminded about a few things about family photos....

• Make Sure YOU, the mom or dad, are in a few photos once in awhile. I am mostly MIA in most of my children's early photos.
• Dont Crop Too Much Out of Photos...The Background, in many cases, tells another story. It also may help you place the exact time and place you were. On purpose, get cars, houses, furniture, buildings, etc. in the background of your photos without distracting too much from your main subject.
• If you live in the same place for a long time.... choose an area to photograph your family at the same time every year. We did this at Christmas for many years at the West Palm Beach Chapel.
• If you move a lot, choose an item you are planning to have for many years...photograph your children near that item and compare their growth from year to year.
• Take lots of photos...even when the kids complain! Other than the actual people in my life, my photos are the most precious possessions I have. My family complains when I want 20 photos of the same shot.... oh well... I am so thankful for these memories in print.
• Label photos while memories are fresh...especially those with multiple people in them. Trust me, with 27 years of photos... the memory of people and places I "will never forget" are a little foggy as I live this larger than life life.
• Dont just take pictures on holidays and/or special ocassions. The most ordinary days are some of the most fun to have recorded on film. Example...when the kids are sleeping, when our first van turned over 100,000 miles, doing dishes, waiting for the school bus, reading stories, etc.
• Store your photos in a manor you will be able to access and enjoy them often. Acid-free Albums, On-line photo services, CD and DVD, etc.
• If you make albums, keep them simple so you will actually complete the albums and have an enjoyable venue for sharing memories. When my older children and their friends come home, they all like to look through albums and photos. Thinking albums need to be elaborate or detailed stops many people from just getting them in a safe, enjoyable place>
• If you are not good at keeping a journal....remember Every Picture Tells A Story! You can literally tell your life story in photos at every stage.
• Remember-Today's Activities, seemingly average and every day, Are Tomorrow's Treasured Memories... Capture and Save Them Now!

With the above in mind.... Here is my story of Halloween with my little boys who are now, 26, 24, and 21. Married, In College, and serving a Mission. They went Trick or Treating until they Graduated from High School.

Halloween 1982 Curt and Wonder Woman..You did not know she was our next door neighbor. Her incognito name was Kelly. This Dracula theme would carry through many Halloweens...This was at our first Duplex Apartment in Lake Worth, FL. Jeffrey was on the way and I was sick, sick, sick....so sick that I can remember it will just looking at this photo.

Halloween 1984, Greenacres, FL

I made both of these costumes. Jeffrey was 20 months old, Curt was 3 years old. They are in the kitchen and I can see the living room in the background with one of their car seats on the floor. They used to beg for the car seats to come in the house so they could use them as seats for their Rocket Ships.

Halloween 1985
1985, Continued.... It was Super Boy and Super Man
Just seeing that while linoleum floor brings back the memories of how high maintanance it was. I had to strip the wax by hand and then re-wax the entire floor several times per year. No thank you to maintaining linoleum! I am thankful for the real stuff--ceramic and marble--even though mine is cracked and needing to be replaced!
Curt (below) was always very concerned about every detail in his costumes. I sprayed his hair black and it had to curl just right over his forehead. He insisted on wearing his under-roos underwear on the outside of his pants (that is actually how Super Man looks) Curt loved this costume more than I can ever express. He slept in it and wore it ever day...in fact.....
In December...he was still wearing this costume every day... only taking it off to be washed or to wear church clothes on Sunday. This went on for months and months.... I was very very sick while pregnant with Andrew during this Superman obsession and missed several photo ops in very ordinary places. He did finally agree to not insist on having black hair every day.
You Want To Dress As WHAT??????
This is one of those Halloween Costumes where I was wondering how it would every turn out to look like what Jeffrey was passionate about. He wanted to be a FLY MAN.
Halloween 1992...This ended up being our School Project, this was one of the years the boys were Home Schooled. We did a Unit on Insects and Bugs, using the afternoons to construct and decorate the wings and mask for FLY MAN. (See The Wing and Mask Photo below) I used two wire coat hangers, bent and shaped like wings, then covered them with black pantyhose. We then used slick puffy paint to make a pattern on the wings like we observed on real wings via the microscope. A simple black mask was decorated to match the wings. Black hair spray and clothing...voile...
Here are the wings and mask up close. I just attached them with safety pins. Nothing too over the top.
This was Curt's Halloween "warm-up" costume for 1992. He was at Rhineharts just "clowning around"
1991-This was Curt in 5th Grade headed to a Costume party at his friend, Sean V.'s house. He was so excited to be invited to this Costume Party. Again, detail was important. He wanted Black Spiky Hair, A Black "V" on his forehead and a Very White Face. He insisted on a pointed collar (thank goodness I found one on the first search) and a gold medallion.
Halloween 1988-Our First In Royal Palm Beach.
The Garage Door Was still brown (it is white in the above Dracula photo)
Andrew was a pumpkin, Jeffrey was a Dinosaur for the second year in a row, Curt was a Vampire (I think Curt was some version of a Vampire at least 5 times) He looked at this photo below as a point of reference for the detail he added to the costume in 1991 (pointed black "V" on his forehead, spiky collar, gold medallion, etc.)
I made this Dinosaur Costume for Jeffrey and he wore it year round. This was the second year if the costume and the head piece was shot. he opted for Green Hair Spray along with Andrew the Pumpkin.
Halloween 1989
Indian-Jeffrey, Dracula (with Black "V")-Curt, Cowboy-Andrew
This was such a fun neighborhood for Trick or Treating. I cannot remember who the man dressed as a woman is behind our kids. but he was the scariest costume ever!
This one of our favorite Halloween Games... The Mummy Wrap. Andrew wrapped Ron at a Halloween Family Home Evening Activity with the Rhineharts. Andrew's hair was sprayed black for his turn as a Vampire this year.

Halloween 1992- Royal Palm Beach

I loved living on the canal with the beautiful view of the water..even with alligators in our backyard. This was two months before we got our dog, Bagel...how do I know... we have NO fence yet. When Santa brought Bagel in December 1992, he game me a coupon to have a fence installed on December 26. The coupon was in my stocking...when I read it... I thought....now we should get a dog...a few minutes later...I heard him crying in the laundry room. I fell in love with him instantly...thank goodness, because he pooed on the floor within seconds of his arrival.

Curt was Punked out (wearing Ron's famous leather Biker Jacket) Andrew used the Indian Vest I made a few years later and turned it in to a pirate vest. I love recycling and reusing costumes, especially the ones I made.

Happy Halloween Every One! Be sure to take lots of photos during all of your Halloween Celebrations this weekend and next! Remember--Today's Activities Are Tomorrows Treasured Memories... Capture them permanently!

Enjoy!