October 30, 2013

Halloween Festivities

These kiddos make every day, not just the holidays so special.  I love how much enjoyment they get out of the simple things.  I was so worried this year about making an extra effort to make Halloween fun.  Our ward is tiny, so I was worried there wouldn't be a Halloween activity at church, (turns out there was) we live in a small town, so I wasn't sure how trick-or-treating would be, (and I'm not a huge fan of it anyway) and since our kids don't go to public school Halloween parties only happen if we make them.  I've been scouring the internet for things we could do if Halloween happened to be a bust.  I worried for nothing.  Last week we ended up throwing an impromptu Halloween party for some friends who happened to have a day off of school.  I hadn't had a chance to do my shopping yet, (and the store is far enough away I wasn't going to make a special trip) but the kids had a blast anyway.  They didn't care that the crafts and games weren't pinterest worthy or that I didn't have a fancy spread of treats.  We ate PB&J's with fruit salad, played a game of "pin the nose on the pumpkin" that we made ourselves and the favorite was a game of ghost bowling that we made by spraying some tin cans white and rolling soccer balls at them.  They were just happy to be with friends and have some fun.

Lesson learned all over again today when the boys' Mario and Luigi hats didn't come in the mail for their costumes.  I was worried they were going to be so upset at not having them for trunk-or-treat at the church tonight!  They were disappointed, but quickly made do with what we had on hand.  Parker and I covered a baseball hat with tissue paper and glued on a white paper "L".  Drew was content with raiding the dress up box for some pirate gear.  He was not about to do Mario if he couldn't do it right, but in the end had too much fun to care about what he was wearing.  I forgot to have Parker put on his mustache before taking the pics though, and it's too bad.  It totally made the costume!  And the second lesson learned was not to order a product that apparently ships from China three weeks before Halloween.  You'd think that would be a no-brainer, and I'd like to say that was the first time I'd done such a thing, but it's not.

Paige-y girl was hilarious.  Throughout the day as she anticipated trunk-or-treat and the "pop-lup" chili dinner afterwards that she has had her heart set on since it was first announced at church, she tried on about every princess dress she owns, and in the end went in a simple tutu.  She was Angelina Ballerina of course!  (And Ashlee, that is the tutu you gave me just before she was born!)

Here are the crazies all ready to go.  DON'T YOU LOVE EMMA'S FACE?!!  Seriously, it was all I could do to keep it to these few.  She looks ridiculously adorable in all of them.  But in some of the rest everyone else just looks plain ridiculous.  ;)  That girl is a party in a box. Just add Emma and stir.




I made sure to get some shots of the kids with their pumpkins as well.  Drew with his ghost.  What can I say, this kid knows what he likes.  He picked a ghost last year as well!

Paige picked a cat, Claire picked a "Mommy" (mummy) and Emma didn't care what it was as long as she got to hold a picture of something while we carved.  So Claire and Emma were pacified with holding theirs while Paige watched me put hers on the pumpkin.



And Parker picked the Invisible Man.  Pretty cool, huh? Oh, and in case you're wondering, that's his Luigi plunger poking up in the picture. ;)  Handsome boy!


Trunk-or-treat turned out great tonight!  There are seriously about three or four families with kids young enough to attend so the actual trunk-or-treat lasted about five minutes, (which makes it Brandon's favorite kind of activity!)  Since the turnout was small everyone went all out and brought some great candy and prizes.  Then we had our chili "pop-lup" as Paige called it.  I don't know why eating her dinner at the church made it so much better, but that little midge downed two bowls before even asking for cookies!  What a girl!

This is our ward's entire primary most Sundays, plus the young men.  I am really not kidding when I say that our kids make up half of the primary!

We're set to enjoy Halloween tomorrow and than Brandon's birthday the next day!  Hooray!

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