Halloween Fun

I did an excellent job of promptly posting pictures from our October Halloween adventures on Facebook. Which meant that I did not ever get around to posting them on this blog. Until now. (And, since I apparently didn't learn my lesson well enough from the last time, this is another LONG blog post, sorry!)

*Early in the month, our friends, the Lucherinis, invited us to go to the Treehouse Children's Museum with them. It was after school hours, so Andrew was able to join us. They were doing a program called the Enchanted Woods, in which actors told the stories of many fairy tales, while the kids listened with rapt attention (except Alex, most of the time, who's usually too busy to sit still.) Then they received a prize from each character. It was fun for all of us, and I was pleased to see that the majority of the "treats" were not candy.

* On the 10th, my mom brought her grape juicer and her expertise to my house to show Kim and I how to make our own grape juice from the grapes that grow over the fence in Kim's yard. (Thank you Kim for graciously sharing of your abundance!) We canned 14 jars and shared our life stories with each other. It was a great day. The following Monday, I canned another 11 jars myself. Now the challenge is making it last - It's soo delicious!

* As an added treat this month, Mike and I went on a REAL Date - just the two of us! We saw "The Foreigner," a very funny play. It was put on as a dinner theater at the Farmington Community Center. The food was good, and we laughed hard! It's nice to have time just the two of us, away from home, and not have 45 minutes of driving afterward just to take the babysitter home!

* Ethan and Alex got to spend some time at Aunt Carina's house, with Tyler. Carina had sugar cookies all ready to be frosted. Yum! And perhaps a touch messy! :-)

* Most Wednesdays in October, Ethan, Alex and I attended Story Time at the library, along with Ethan's best bud, Elliott and his brother Quinn ("Winn," as Alex says). It's adorable to watch Ethan and Elliott together. Alex, as usual, had me chasing after him throughout the place, trying to keep him from pulling every book off the shelves. It's always an adventure.

* One Saturday, after our family had worked together to clean the entire house in just over one hour, we rewarded ourselves with a trip to Cherry Hill for a round of miniature golf. Carina, Ben, and Tyler were able to join us! We loved seeing all the fun Halloween decorations throughout the course! Mike and I had to laugh when Ben and Carina began keeping score after the first hole. With three kids to keep up with, we haven't kept score for mini-golf in a LONG time! It didn't take long for them to give up on it as well.

At one point, Alex tried to crawl into one of the castles. We turned away for a second, laughing at his attempts, only to turn back and notice he was nowhere in sight! Did he really succeed in entering that tiny doorway? We could hear him, but couldn't see him. We soon found that he had crawled around the castle and was stuck in the bushes behind it. Whew!


* Our Ward held a Halloween Party/Trunk-Or-Treat the week before Halloween. It was our first time to dress up this year. I had a blast getting all ready and then hearing that people could not recognize me due to my excellent makeup job (even though my fake nose wouldn't stick and I ended up just painting mine)! Andrew (Link, from Zelda) won the doughnut eating contest on the round he entered. Alex (a Pumpkin) received several broken bits of doughnuts from Meghan Stott, due to the inability to deny his completely adorable "Peese," he says as he bends slightly at the waist and implores sweetly with his eyes. Ethan (Captain Hook) enjoyed many of the games, but the most fun was being a pirate like Elliott. Mike even dressed up this year, because Ethan's eyes lit up with delight when I casually asked if Dad should be a pirate like him - I couldn't resist buying the adult size costume after that!
* For Family Home Evening, the Monday before Halloween, we carved pumpkins. This is NOT Mike's favorite part about Halloween. He helped out a little when it came to the actual carving, but mostly he helped keep Alex entertained so he wouldn't be in the way. The boys mostly can't stand to scoop out the goop, so I make the deal with them that if they will pose for one picture of them scooping, I will scoop out the rest for them. I just love to watch them get grossed out by the guts! Ethan chose a pirate ship pattern, for which we had nothing but the picture on the front of the pattern book. I think I did a pretty good job of making it up! Andrew chose a spider in the moon. He was excited that this year he was able to use the saw to do some of the carving himself. He did a great job!

* I had the good fortune of holding the Preschool Halloween Party at my house. The difficulty was in deciding which delectable treats to make, and which party games to play. In the end, I chose to make my traditional wassail, which the kids mostly didn't care for; eyeballs made from gummy lifesavers, a raisin, and vanilla pudding, all placed in half an Easter egg (which explains why Alex now calls all plastic Easter eggs "eyeballs."); and cupcakes with spider webs frosted on them. We played Pin the Nose on the Scarecrow, (I was quite pleased with my quick creation of a scarecrow, using Alex's clothes); "Pumpkin, Pumpkin, Ghost," which was fun because only a couple of the kids were familiar with Duck, Duck, Goose, so most of the game was spent reminding the kids of the rules of the game; and we danced to fun Halloween songs! We also had them paint a pumpkin to take home, ruining only some of the costumes they were wearing. All in all, I think they all had a great time - I know I did!




Oh yeah, and did I mention that it snowed during the party? The kids loved peering out the window to watch it come down. At one point there were huge flakes, then tiny ones. Within about an hour of the party ending, all the snow had melted, but it was fun while it lasted.


*Ethan's Preschool also took him to a local Pumpkin Patch as a field trip. The kids played on the playground and in the hay maze, then listened to a story and learned a little about how to grow different kinds of pumpkins. We had already carved our pumpkins at home, but Ethan really wanted to pick a pumpkin from the patch, so I figured it was worth the $2 to bring him more happiness!
* By the time Halloween actually arrived, for the first time ever I felt like I was already Halloweened-out! Still, we did our parental duties to clad our children, and ourselves, in costumes once again, and go through the expected motions of the night. I even made "Brains" (scrambled eggs) and "Worms" (buttered noodles) for dinner. Then, Mike dutifully marched the kids through the streets to gather the candy we would then spend the next few weeks regulating its consumption. I became excited about the prospect of finally having enough trick-or-treaters coming to our house to warrant me staying home to pass out the candy, and wondered if the two large bags I'd purchased would be enough. I'd heard that there are usually many large crowds throughout the night. To my dismay, the neighborhood crowds were mostly nonexistent, probably due to the success of the Trunk-or-Treat. So, I spent the night taking down my Halloween decorations, listening to Halloween music, and drinking my wassail by myself. It was somewhat bittersweet. I was grateful when my family returned for the evening and settled into watching a show together, occasionally interrupted by the few straggling trick-or-treaters.

Andrew Michael Slade and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Morning

This morning, Andrew's mom didn't wake him up until 8:00 a.m., which meant that she kept telling him to hurry with everything he had to do. Andrew doesn't like to hurry.
Then, everyone spent so much time watching his baby brother, Alex get his "pee out" into the potty chair that there wasn't time to make Andrew's waffles the way he likes them - soft on all edges. His mom picked off the crispy edges, but it wasn't enough. He just couldn't bring himself to eat them. It was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad morning.
So, when the clock struck 8:35, Andrew's mom hurried everyone into the car to take him to school. Feeling sorry for him not eating any breakfast, she quickly poured him a bowl of Cocoa Roos - the ONLY cereal Andrew can stand to eat. She told him to be careful eating in the car. He tried to be as careful as he could, but what was he supposed to do when she came to a stop sign and all the cereal sloshed forward? Before he knew it, chocolate milk and soggy chocolate balls were running down his leg, into his sandal, and all over the floor of the car. "Andrew!" his mom said with a sigh. It was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad morning.
Finally, after cleaning off his leg and foot, his mom grabbed him a packaged cup of apples and cream to eat on the way. By now he was late to school. He'd never been late to school before. His mom wrote him a note, but he didn't know who he was supposed to give it to once he got inside. Also, his backpack was carrying two small pumpkins, and he couldn't seem to get it on right. All he (and his mother) could do was hope that the Fairy Tale Friday activity that he looks forward to does not require any dancing with girls, like it did last week! For Andrew, it had been a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad morning. Mom says, some mornings are like that - even in Utah!

Conference Weekend at Island Park

Our family had a wonderful conference weekend! Our friends the Lucherinis invited us to come with them, and the Stotts, another family in our ward, to their family's cabin in Island Park, ID. The atmosphere was comfy and woodsy; the company was friendly and fun; and the talks we heard were spirit-filled and motivational! Oh, and the food was delicious! (Kim made meal assignments so no one family had too much work to do!)

Megan Stott, with her baby girl, Chris Lucherini, Me (I actually got to take notes on most talks, since the kids were so entertained with each other!), Elliott Lucherini, and Mike.

To keep the kids listening, we labelled snacks with "key words" for which they should listen in order to eat the snack. We tried to mix healthy snacks and candy, but we made the mistake of putting "Jesus Christ" on the giant nerd jelly beans - it was totally delicious, but I think it made for a bit too much sugar in the kids! They were wild, and poor Quinn even threw up the next morning.

Of course, there were also other activities during conference:

Wrestling, Some TiddlieWinks,

and, of course, some Napping! (How sweet, Tyler & Megan!)
Before, between, and after each sessions there were plenty of bonding moments too! Between the first two sessions, we went to Big Springs to feed the large trout there. Here, Quinn Lucherini shares his snacks with Alex:

Elliott Lucherini and Ethan never seem to have enough time together! Even after this whole fun weekend, they were both upset when they only had a couple of hours together on Monday. Kim and I imagine they will be best friends throughout their lives! I truly hope so!

At the cabin, there was a totally awesome game room above the garage! I got to play some Air Hockey with Andrew, and show off a few flip tricks on the Trampoline - yes, a full size trampoline INSIDE the game room! I wanted to play some Ping-Pong, but I let my attention turn to visiting or reading my book instead. Oh well. In this picture, Kim was helping Andrew and Elliott with a round of Foosball.

Our only owie was when Alex tumbled down a dark stairwell, trying to chase the big kids who were playing Hide and Seek. He looked like Quasi-Modo for about three days, and his eye stayed purple for a week!

While the men were off to the nearby chapel to watch the Priesthood Session, Kim and I took the boys to the clubhouse pool (somewhat reluctantly - we weren't sure we were up to taking 5 kids full of sugar, but it went well).
Andrew was brave enough to try out the larger pool all by himself!

Elliott and Quinn were quite good at jumping into the pool!
Toward the end of our time there, Ethan got brave enough to jump in too! Alex tried a few times too!

Alex and Quinn may someday be as good of friends as Elliott and Ethan are.

All in all, we had a fantastic time! Good memories to last a lifetime!

Oh, yeah, and it snowed a little on Sunday! I love the changing seasons! This truly is the most wonderful time of the year! (But if you ask me in the Summertime, I may say the same about that season too!)