Fall Fun

I've been a HUGE blog slacker... honestly, I think it's because I'd rather post my pix on instagram and facebook.  But, since I do know there are a few people out there who may check my blog that don't have instagram or facebook (Libby and Cash), I hope you read my blog... I'm doing this just for you.  So, here's the instagram photos I took in October...

Fall Break from school was a chance to work on some projects around the house... and take the kids out to have a little fun.  We always love Staheli Family Farm.   There are so many fun things to do there.  

We went to Kanarraville to work on Granny's house again.  We got done sooner than we thought we would, so we headed over to New Harmony to pick some apples.  On our way home, Libby sent us on some dirt road from New Harmony to Pinto.  We were hoping to see some fall leaves, but we didn't see many.  We definitely went on a road we'd never been on before!

A lady in our ward has a swimming pool in her back yard.  Her daughter cuts our hair, so when we were getting our hair cut, the kids begged to swim.  It was October and only 76 degrees, but they had a blast!

We got our family pix taken... this is a preview:)  I'm loving the colors we picked!  You can leave a comment if you want to make sure you get a Christmas card!

Monday night before Halloween we carved pumpkins.  The kids were so excited.  Brenner had found his template weeks before halloween on Pumpkin Masters.  He did a great job... with Ry's help as well (left).  Joren insisted on making his own design (middle).  I think Terek really just liked stabbing his pumpkin.  He designed his own as well (right).

For some reason I really got into the trunk or treat this year.  I found some black fabric and a skeleton at a yard sale a few weeks before Halloween.  I thought a "dead end" theme would be fun.  The skeleton was stabbed and had blood (although the kids liked to say that skeletons wouldn't bleed... blah blah).  I used this idea to make the glowing eyeballs....

Halloween was fun.... my awesome principal let me leave work early so I could get to the school for the kids costume parade.  Then we had our ward trunk or treat and still went trick or treating in the neighborhood.

Brenner is a mad scientist (he was going to be a vampire until he wore his costume to a party before halloween and the cape drove him crazy being around his neck.  So we came up with the mad scientist thing kind of last minute).  Joren wanted to be the same ninja he was last year.  Terek got his power ranger costume as a present for his birthday from grandma Rose... perfect!

Ryan and I were bah humbugs and didn't even dress up this year!

Halloween

Halloween was a super busy day!!! In the morning, I took the two youngest boys to my school to go trick or treating. The office had a "spook alley" in the hallway. Then we went around to all of the classrooms to get treats.

In the afternoon, the two oldest had their school parade. It was such a nice warm day.

That evening was the ward trunk or treat.
Ryan and I got a lot of compliments on our costumes:)
Thor
Skull Lord Ninja
Werewolf
We won the "most creative trunk" I think it was because of our cool "puking pumpkin"
After the trunk or treating, we headed over to Santa Clara and did a little traditional trick or treating. It was a lot of fun and we have tons of candy to show for it... if the kids will share.

Pumpkin carving

Brenner couldn't wait to carve pumpkins. We carved them over a week before thanksgiving at Grandma Rose's house.As always, pumpkin carving is fun.

I especially love that Ryan and I end up doing most of the carving.

Kids' Halloween Party

The Friday before Halloween was early out day. The kids had been begging for a Halloween party, so I decided I'd let them have one. A couple of my friends joined me in planning the party.
We played pin the eye on the monster...
We had coloring pages...
We had a mummy relay. The kids got into teams and had to wrap their partner up like a mummy. We had a few other games... Halloween bingo, an m&m relay, etc. The kids had more fun running around and chasing each other... it was a little crazy and hard to get them to settle down to play the games.

We decorated pumpkins... It was kind of fun to be creative. We gave the kids pipe cleaners, zippers, nuts and bolts, push pins, etc. They went a little crazy but it was fun for them.... fun for everyone but Terek who stepped on a push pin with his bare feet.

All of the kids got to invite 3 friends (Brenner a few more). It was interesting to have the big kids there with the little kids. Treyson was a "killer clown" and one of Terek's friends was scared of him.
I had fun making Halloween treats.... eyeballs...
... vampire fingers... I also made witch's brew with a floating hand...
14 little kids was a little overwhelming, but still tons of fun. Thanks to the moms who helped out... I survived!

Happy Halloween!

Next year I vote for costumes that don't require make-up!

Pumpkin Carving

A necessity of Halloween is carving pumpkins. It's almost more fun to see the faces people make while carving their pumpkins....




Can you guess which pumpkin belongs to which person???

Owl... Anisa. Middle... Joren. Mummy.... Brenner
Green... Sydney. Puking.... Logan. Small.... Terek.

Pumpkin Carving

For family night last night we carved our pumpkins. The only part of this that I like is roasting the seeds, so I leave the carving to Ryan and the kids. Brenner was grossed out by the "guts" and wouldn't go near them. But he did an excellent job of carving his pumpkin and did almost the whole thing by himself.

Joren loved "helping" Daddy carve his pumpkin. Or making a bigger mess than pumpkin carving makes on its own. So, there you have it.