Halloween

Halloween seemed a little intense this year - but now that it's over and behind us, I have fond memories of the somewhat rushed weekend!

Costumes started about a month ago, and the week of Halloween I kept getting "I just can't wait until Halloween". But apparently they could wait, since they had no choice, and Friday the blessed festivities began.

Thursday and Friday Weston was out of school for parent/teacher conferences. So by Friday we were ready to be busy again and out of the house. Tyler's preschool class had their annual costume party with the kids singing all the songs they have learned then a short trick-or-treating to the neighboring business (singular) then back to the school for cookies and treats. All in all it was 30 minutes. But since I had spent the morning working on quilting plans with a friend it felt like it was all morning long! And since we weren't sure if John was going to make it, I ended up having to drop off Weston to help Tyler get dressed so I could run back to town and get John. We missed all but the last song, but Tyler was just as happy that we were there for the last song as he would have been had we been there the whole time.


(Tyler looking smart in his outfit, Elayna grooving with her cookie (rarely does she even eat cookies let a lone dance with one!, and Weston just chillin in his puffy six-pack ninja garb- at least until he realized I was taking his picture!)

After the party, we headed home to eat lunch and be ready for friends to come over for the afternoon. Once the friends came over with the mom, I left to go get John again so we could go to Parent/Teacher conference for Weston. He is doing great - but likes to always have something very important he must tell his teacher!

After the conference I dropped John back at work and went made it home just to turn around again since Miriam and I were taking the kids to the pumpkin patch on their final day. The kids loved it and ran at least the equivalent of 3 miles or more going back and forth through the straw/hay maze complete with tower, spooky house and slide. They had all sorts of farm animals that Mathew and Elayna enjoyed and then a whole patch of pumpkins to walk through as they were able to pick the one they wanted to bring home. We left as the sun was starting to go down and got home just after 5:00pm. Luckily I checked and saw I had a phone message - from the trophy place letting me know that I had forgotten to pick up the soccer trophies I needed the next day. Luckily they were still there (waiting for me) so I ran back to town to pick those up.


(These are the best I could get, my kids rarely stand still for a picture. Weston's just old enough to understand bribes.)


(That's what I get when I ask them to stand still for a picture)


(they really are the best of friends - what lucky kids)








(And again with the faces... I should know better by now, but since I had bribed them with only going if they would let me take some pictures - I guess it was on their terms I got the pictures!)


We made it home in time to put a frozen pizza in the oven. Then we had to think up and assemble costumes for our Church primary activity (not sure we were going) where the boys wanted to dress up like wicked Lamanites. Laynie wasn't really wanting to dress up so we just grabbed a little cape I had made for her and let her be. Then I ran over to the neighbors house to make an appearance at the surprise farewell party for another neighbor.. Then I ran home grabbed the kids and off we went to the church!







As skeptical as I was about their children's carnival centering around the theme of the Book of Mormon, it was actually amazingly fun, entertaining and spiritual! The kids loved it and we had a great time. We made it home in time for a late bedtime and that was Friday.


Saturday we got up in time to get Tyler dressed in his costume and soccer gear, and Weston in his soccer gear. And then Elayna in her costume since she just couldn't be left out, but she wore an extra soccer jersey so it didn't really matter- cute boots though!! Tyler's game was first so we were able to wait around their field for a while and see the kids show up in their costumes. (Since the final game was on Halloween - John decided it would be fun to let the kids wear their costumes if they wanted too.) I brought my camera to try and get a few pictures of the kids but as luck would have it - it started to rain so the camera went away and the time went quickly too.



Weston, Elayna and I had to run across two football fields and a large, very distracting playground and another soccer field to get Weston to his game. As luck would have it, that's when it really started to pour. Elayna was happily distracted by a few dogs that had come to watch the games. I was able to see some of Weston's game while she played, but as always missed all the parts when Weston did something great that ended with all the parents congratulating me and asking if I saw was an 'awesome X' Weston had just done.


Tyler's game finished first (but just a couple of minutes before Weston's game) so by the time John had walked over to where we were and found a covered spot by the elementary school; Weston, Elayna and I were able to go meet them for their 'Closing Ceremony'! Basically John said nice things to the kids and reminded them of what they learned and did and then we passed out trophies (big deal award for participation if you ask me) and a bag Halloween toys and snacks. The kids loved it and we were able to go home and dry off and eat some lunch.


Then we went over to the High school for their "Haunted Hallways" which was pretty fun and though the kids liked it I wouldn't choose to go except that our adopted sister was in charge and personally invited us. It was great though, they had a sequimopoly game going where the kids had to really go to jail and pay taxes and then buy their own candy at the end. They decorated cookies, had their faces painted (not as great as some I've seen, but the kids didn't care), they could color and watch Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving movie, eating doughnut spiders in the air, cake walks, bean bag tossing, and lots more.



After that we made it home and took a little breather and some short naps before we went trick-or-treating. Weston and Tyler were raring to go, but Elayna wasn't sure she wanted to wake up. We asked if she wanted to go to Mathew's house (Squires youngest boy) and she literally jumped off the couch and ran to the window yelling ma-poo (that's how she says it) and then we were good. We quickly got dressed in Halloween get-up and went to the Squires for our traditional knocking down their streets. Then we rushed back to our house after the kids buckets were so full they were dragging, to go trick-or-treat to our neighbors. Sadly we missed some of them - but with Elayna taking such a great nap we just couldn't get to them any earlier. Oh well!



We were able to show off the costumes to most of the neighbors and the boys had the best time as one neighbor (Weston's personal friend) showed the boys his model airplane collection that was hanging in his garage. The Squires met up with us shortly after so after we made the round of the neighborhood we all went back over for another showing and more in depth discussion of airplanes. He even finish one he was building so the kids could see it put together - and play with the remote control a little. Very cool -and a wonderful end to the weekend.


(The best part is that Elayna still doesn't really like candy so John ate most of it... but while trick-or-treating she would go to the door just because everyone else was and then half the time leave without candy and the other times she would give candy to the person at the door from her own bucket! What a cutie!)


We went home to hot chocolate, pizza (again) and popcorn with coconut oil - very tasty and a showing of Top Gear. We apparently missed all the trick-or-treaters to our house. Which was fine by me - we got Halloween toys instead of candy so all the big kids that come would have only been disappointed anyway!

It was a crazy couple of days, but it was lot's of fun when I think back on it. And the kids loved it! (oh and this all doesn't count the adult costume party John and I went to a week earlier dress as Thing 1 and Thing 2... we have the wigs and we looked so cool! To bad, no pictures :( )