Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween!

This year I was excited to help out with Jacob's Halloween party. Joe stayed home so that I could go to the school and help out. Luckily Ephraim had his own Halloween party to go to, so he actually only had to watch Amelia.

I made it to the school in time to see Jacob walk around the school in his costume. He wanted to be Buzz Lightyear, and I can't say that I blame him. Our Plants vs. Zombies theme was even lost on most of the adults in our ward. I guess our family is ahead of the curve when it comes to popular computer culture items.

It was fun to see Jacob in his classroom, interacting with his friends. This is Jacob and his friend Carly the vampiress.

I didn't take too many pictures during the party because I was BUSY! The kids got to play games (like pumpkin bowling and pin the face on the jack-o-lantern), and do crafts. Then they got to decorate and eat a pumpkin cookie. It was a lot of fun.

I wish I could say my afternoon on Halloween was as much fun, but I went to the dentist. I figured since Joe had the day off, I should get my appointment over with. I had 3 teeth with cavities that got filled and one tooth that needed a crown because the tooth was starting to fracture as a result of an old filling. I was at the dentist for nearly 3 hours, part of which my kids and Joe were waiting for me in the lobby. They gave me a much shorter time estimate, or Joe would have gone off to do some more shopping and whatnot while I was stuck in the chair.

So after my afternoon, I could not eat dinner at all. I was actually still a bit numb when we left to go trick-or-treating with the Esplins. What I won't do for my kids!

Jacob and Ephraim both dressed up in their Buzz Lightyear costumes... just like last year! At least we are getting some good use out of those costumes!

 The boys had a fabulous time trick or treating. The Esplins live on the bench in Lindon, so we had quite the hike at times, but that did not quell their enthusiasm one bit!

Yes, the kids are running up the hill!

We got to go to quite a few houses. More than I expected, actually. But the kids were having such a great time that they just did not want to stop.

It was actually hard to get pictures of them holding still!

We trick or treated until past dark, by which time I was ready to head home. Joe was ready for me to come home too because Amelia was being a crank-pot. She had been without Mommy (or a nap) most of the day, and she was not really happy about it.

I have to say that we trick-or-treated at some pretty posh houses. Ok, let's just call them mansions. When they have three flights of stairs to get to the front door, three garages, and at least three stories, what else can you call them? The boys even got play-doh and full sized candy bars! It was crazy.

I got a milkshake for dinner on the way home. Yum! When we got home we were happy to find an artful arrangement of our ghosts and Jack-o-lantern in the front flower bed. Don't they look great?

Halloween was fun, but it sure seemed LONG to me! I am kind of glad to be done.

Jack o Lantern Sunday

I actually really enjoy carving pumpkins. We did not get around to doing ours until the day before Halloween, but I figured it was a good, family activity.

I don't especially enjoy taking all the goop out of the pumpkin, and it turns out that this is a trait that my boys share with me. They would not even touch the stuff! Jacob looked like he was going to throw up and Ephraim said that the guts, "smelled like poop".

What a bunch of goofs! So I ended up taking the guts out myself. Once that was done, everyone was more than happy to help with the carving. Here is Jacob and Daddy working on the pattern.

The boys both wanted a "scary face", so I let them choose whichever template they liked. They both got to help Daddy transfer the pattern onto the pumpkin, and then we carved it.

I think it turned out to be pretty scary, don't you?

Witch Hat

This Halloween I was excited to be invited to attend Melinda's Witches Brew once again. This year I decided to crochet my hat, rather than decorate one that I bought from the store. I found a cute pattern online and was not sure how the hat would turn out, but since it was mostly single crochet I figured it wouldn't take me that long.

Wouldn't you know, I finished it the morning of the party! Hooray! I added some cute crocheted flowers (thanks Mom!) and went to the party.

Melinda went all out with the decorations and the food. We had yummy soups in witches cauldrons and got to drink out of  "bloody goblets". You can see how fabulous it was from these lovely pictures that I stole from Melinda's post about the event. You should actually go read her post because it is MUCH more comprehensive than mine and includes pictures of all the hats.

My friend Karyn had a white wig to go with her hat (she was doing a "mummy"/mommy theme). I tried it on and decided that it looked spectacular with my hat, don't you think?

Then again, I have always been partial to platinum blonde!

So I won "The Hat you wish you could take credit for making," award and got to take home some lovely Halloween decor. I may have to make another hat like this one, only smaller so it fits the kids. I think they would love playing with one.

So now I just have to decide... what kind of hat am I going to make for next year??!

Ward Trunk or Treat

For Halloween this year our ward trunk or treat was on Friday evening. I was a bit bummed that we couldn't just have it on Halloween, but they don't schedule activities on FHE night in our stake. So Monday was a no-go.

Oh well! Jacob got to go to a birthday party for his friend Micah and then I got to pick him up and dash to the Trunk or treat. We dressed up after one of our current favorite games on the iPad: Plants vs. Zombies.

Here are my zombies:

Ephraim is a balloon zombie, and Joe and Jacob are conehead zombies. All three of these zombies are hard to get rid of!

Joe is especially good at being a zombie. This is my favorite picture ever!

"Brainz!!"

As for me and Amelia, I suppose you could say that my costume worked with the Plants vs. Zombies theme, since I was a sunflower. Amelia was my little ladybug.

I was pretty happy with how my headband turned out, especially since I finished it Friday morning! The kids had a great time at the trunk or treat and carnival. They really enjoyed dressing up with Daddy and getting candy, of course!

Hee Haws Field Trip and Halloween Story Time

This year I did not make it to Jacob's Kindergarten fieldtrip to Hee Haw Farms, but I did get to go with Ephraim and his preschool class! We had a great time!

First we had to check out the enormous pumpkins at the entrance. Wow! They were huge!

Then Ephraim spotted a tractor that he just had to go sit on. Actually, he wanted to get on every tractor that we saw while we were there! Silly boy.

 

 Next we decided to go down the big slide while it wasn't busy. The kids took turns going down the slide on a gunny sack. How fun!

At first I couldn't talk Ephraim into going down the slide, but after he went down once with Clara, he couldn't get enough of it!

Next we went and looked at the animals. Ephraim was not too keen on the larger animals, like the goats... but he didn't seem to mind the ducks and the bunnies.

 After the petting zoo, we tried to take pictures of our little group of animals. Here are the best pictures that I got (where each of the kids actually has their head in one of the holes).

The second one is my favorite: Ty, Ephraim, Clara, Jonathan and Justin (though I may have those last two mixed up as I can't tell them apart).

Next we went through the courtyard and stopped for a while to play in the corn box. Yep! It's like a sandbox, but it has corn kernels in it!

Karyn was kind enough to take a picture of me and my little passenger.

I carried Amelia in the Moby wrap the entire time. I figured it would be easier than trying to push her in the stroller. She didn't seem to mind it, except when she got tired. Eventually she fell asleep, strapped onto Mommy.

Next we went on a hay ride and then headed off to the corn maze.

I got this really nice picture of Clara, Ephraim and Ty... right before one of the twins started chasing Ty and he ran off. Poor Brenda had to run off after him!

But we managed to keep track of all the kids and went to pick our pumpkins. Ephraim loved picking out his very own pumpkin.

By this point we had to run home to get Jacob from Kindergarten. I did manage to snag this picture of Ephraim at the exit. What a tall boy!

After picking up Jacob we ran home, ate lunch, put on our costumes, and ran to the library for their Halloween story time and party. The boys both dressed up in their Buzz costumes. They had a great time playing games. Here is Ephraim with some "eyeballs" on spoons. He was not content to do one at a time, he had to use two spoons!

Here is Jacob working on a skeleton puzzle.

The boys had a great time at the Halloween party at the library. They love going to the library each week to hear stories. I love going too because I know it is good for the kids and I get to hear about great books as well!

Strawberry Baby

I can't help myself. Amelia is so cute that I just have to take her picture! Since it has started to get cold and freeze overnight, I decided that I had better take Amelia's pictures one last time in her strawberry hat before our strawberry plants all die for the winter.

It was much different taking her picture this time. She can actually sit up in the basket, and is much more curious about what is going on around her.

She is such a cutie pie! Jacob came over to watch me take pictures, and he got Amelia laughing. I got so many great pictures!

I should do a cute collage of her pictures from the last time I did this with some of these. It is amazing how much she has grown in a few short months!

Sorry for the overload of pictures, but she is my little doll-baby! (and I can do whatever I want on my blog!)

I still have tons of cute hats that I haven't taken pictures of yet! Guess I had better get working on that! After all, I have a super-cute model!

My three ghosts

I made all the kids really cute applique ghost shirts for Halloween, so of course I had to take some pictures of them. On Sunday after church we decided to go take a few pictures. I found a cool old house that had some really cool colors and textures for the pictures.

Here are  my ghost boys.

Here are my kids being "scary". I think they are too cute to be scary!

Look at those eyebrows on Amelia. She wasn't really smiling for pictures with her brothers, but at least she wasn't crying.She kept wanting to look over at the boys and see what they were doing instead of looking at Mommy.

I had the boys give Amelia a kiss on the cheek, and I love how this picture turned out. She isn't quite sure what she thinks about that!

Here is my little ghost girl. What a cutie! I think the tutu I made turned out pretty well! It is plenty big and will fit her for a long time to come!

Love this smile on her face! Now if only I had straightened up her hair a little bit!

I guess I should see if I can make her hair look a little better in Photoshop, but for now these will have to do.

See, I really did get her to smile for me!

What a cutie patootie!

I also took a few pictures of my three kids together. I didn't really coordinate their outfits, since I did not plan to take their pictures together except for in their ghost shirts, but I don't think they turned out half bad.

If only I had gotten Amelia to smile! Oh well, at least she is looking at me!

I may have to one of these next ones printed to put up in the living room. What a bunch of cuties!