Halloween 2015

Halloween was fun this year.  It was much different from our "Halloweekends" in Los Alamos for the last several years.

I didn't even think about costumes until the start of Halloween week.  Kate and her friends had plans to dress up as nerds.  She spent some of her bread money on suspenders and a bow tie.


I saw an idea for Jack online and made his mask and shirt on Friday while he was at school.  Finished just in time for the ward carnival that night.  I thought I'd just use an extra white tshirt that we already had and paint some stripes on it and iron on some prisoner numbers.  The painting took a little longer than planned, but Jack loved it.

Ty was happy to reuse his Yoda costume from last year.  He did ask me to make his ears perk up so he "didn't look sad."  I ran out of time and he was happy being Sad-Eared Yoda.

I wasn't sure if Nick really understood the costume concept.  He wore a dinosaur Old Navy top to run errands with me on Friday morning, but didn't want to put it on later.  I went outside to take pictures of the kids before the ward carnival and Nick yelled that he needed a costume.  So we went to the dressup box and I started handing him hats and giving him options.  He was happy with the cowboy hat.

Watch out for these two!  They're very much alike, for better or for worse.

Friday after school, Kate had a Halloween recital at her piano teacher, Angela Jacobson's house.  She left early to go to the ward carnival with Claire.  Nick fell asleep on the way home from dropping Kate off at the recital (it was for piano students only).

Friday evening we went to the ward carnival at the church.  Kate took her friend, Claire.  Jack took his friend, Jack, and our neighbor, Jon.  I didn't get a picture of the boys.  But the lots of the girls planned to dressup as nerds.  They were pretty cute!  

Claire Zettlemoyer, Kate, Audrey Good, Kaylee Memmott, Brianna Brooks, Aleah Farris

These girls are best of friends. 

Saturday (Halloween day) was pretty busy with Kate's jazz band festival and Ty's football game and normal Satruday chores.  We finally got around to carving pumpkins at 3:00.  Kate got everything set up.  Jack and Ty gave up after a little while since Jon was over here playing with them.  

Ty chose his pattern, a bat, and I carved it for him.  I did easy faces for Jack and Nick's.  Nick thought it was great and kept talking about how his pumpkin had ears.  

Kate did a great job on her cat!  

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It was fun to carve the pumpkins that we grew in the garden. They were pretty easy to carve because they've been picked for a month now and we already had to throw eight or so away because they were rotting before we even picked them.

Nick fell asleep on the way to buy doughnuts at Krispy Kreme with Dave at 5:00.  I thought he'd wake up and want to go trick-or-treating.  He did wake up, but he wasn't happy, so he went back to sleep on the couch.  

Dave took the boys trick or treating with Blake Farris and his boys, Jackson, Weston, and Ty.  Aleah and Kate went around the neighborhood together without the boys.  Our neighborhood doesn't have streetlights, so it was pretty dark, so the kids were extra careful.  They got plenty of candy and even some full-size candy bars.

I stayed home and handed out candy.  It was fun to see kids from church come.  I gave everyone two pieces of candy, hoping that I'd get rid of it.  I bought way too much.  Nick woke up and I took him outside to see the jack-o-lanterns.  He said, "Let's go stand back inside." because it was raining and cold.  So we did!  He didn't care that he missed trick-or-treating.

The Farris family all came over after trick or treating.  Amber brought hot chocolate.  I'd made taco soup and hot dog mummies for dinner.  We had Krispy Kreme doughnuts instead of making our traditional doughnuts.  The kids played, mostly Lego wars (throwing legos at each other???) and then cleaned up while the parents and Aleah and Kate chatted.  The kids counted and organized their candy and ate plenty.

Halloween 2013

Halloween celebrations were spread out this year.  The kids got to dress up several times.  Kate was a clown (our neighbor gave us the clown costume that she made 20+ years ago for her kids).  Jack was a policeman.  Ty was a dinosaur (even though he is convinced that dinosaurs are real and is really scared of them).  Nick wore his lion costume a few times, but I guess I didn't take a picture of him.  His blue full body coat has ears on it, so I guess he was a bear too. 

Our ward trunk-or-treat was two weeks before Halloween, but I didn't take any pictures.   Then we went downtown trick-or-treating the weekend before Halloween. 

 

On Halloween day, the kids had parties at school.  Ty actually had a "Where the Wild Things Are" book party and got to wear his pajamas to school.  Nick and I got to go to Kate and Jack's parties for a little while.

 

After school we went to visit one of my favorite people, "Grandma Ruby" or Sister Mason.  I visit taught Ruby for a few years.  When the ward was split in June, the kids and I have tried to visit her often.  She reminds me a lot of my Grandma Cox.  She is from Aurora, UT and has lived in New Mexico 10+ years.  My kids love to visit her, play her piano pieces, play with her dog, Piper, and have a treat when it's time to leave (usually a Dum Dum sucker or two). 

After we visited Ruby, we went home and got ready for trick-or-treating.  Ty took a nap on the couch.  Kate did homework and then helped Jack and I make mummies out of little smokies and crescent roll dough.

When Dave got home we went trick-or-treating in our neighborhood.  Ty ended up in the double stroller with Nick after a little ways.  After a while Kate and Jack decided that they were cold and had enough candy, so we went home. 

Pumpkin Carving 2013

We carved pumpkins the night before Halloween.  Kate and Jack did a great job of carving their own.  We started carving kind of late in the evening, after Kate's swim practice, and they finished their pumpkins at 9:30. 



I helped Ty carve bats in his pumpkin.  It was my first attempt at carving something other than a jack-o-lantern face.  Ty loved it.

 Nick was "cheesing" it when I pulled out the camera.

 

 Ty and his bats..

Jack and his jack-o-lantern face... 

 Kate and her owl...

 

 

 

4th Annual Doughnut Making

We've been making doughnuts once a year around Halloween.  This was our fourth year.  I mixed up the doughnut dough and Kate and Jack helped with the rest.  They cut them out and laid them on the pan to rise.  Then after I fried them, they were in charge of their "dipping stations" and made sure the doughnuts were properly glazed. 

Thumbs up for doughnuts!

 Nick cheesing it!

Mmm...chocolate is my favorite.

 Or maybe vanilla...

 All gone!  Can't wait until next year to make more.

Pumpkin Carving 2012

On the Sunday before Halloween we carved pumpkins and made delicious doughnuts. 

Kate and Jack drew faces on their pumpkin and had me cut them out.  I carved Ty's first and the kids ended up wanting their's to look like Ty's. 


Kate's, Jack's, Ty's

Halloween 2012

Halloween was on a Wednesday this year, so the kids got out of school at noon.  At 10:15 I went to help in Kate's class during her Halloween party.  Ty got to come too.

 

Then we went to Jack's class party at 11:00.  They did two readers theaters for the parents.  Jack got to be in both of them. 

After school, the kids had some friends over for a playdate.  It was a beautiful day, so they played outside all afternoon.

After dinner we went trick or treating around our neighborhood.  I forgot to take pictures.   We went trick or treating with another family and they were waiting for us to clean up dinner so we could go.  The kids got tons of candy from going around our neighborhood.  Their favorite things were the little windup animals that our next door neighbor, Brooke, bought just for them. 

Ty had so much candy halfway through our neighborhood that he stopped trick or treating and said that he didn't want to get too much candy.  I think his bucket was heavy. 

Downtown Trick or Treating

After Jack's cross country race we went downtown trick-or-treating.  We didn't stay long, only about ten minutes or so...for several reasons.

1. It was cold!  Ty was wearing shorts at the race (because he refused to wear pants) and he got really cold.  The kids bundled up to go trick-or-treating, but Ty was still shivering.
2. Our ward had their trunk or treat the previous weekend and so the kids had already had plenty of candy.
3. It was crowded.  We waited in line to get these nice flashing glasses from our dentist friend's table.

We decided to meet Dave at Smith's (Dave had been at work).  We bought stuff to make hot dog mummies and rented a movie and went home. 

I guess you can't really tell from the pictures what the kids were dressed up as because it was cold...Kate was a gymnast, Ty was a pirate (he'd only wear his pirate hat, but it got in the way of his glasses, so he took it off) and Jack was Ironman.

Halloweekend 2011

Halloweekend was a busy one again this year:  school parties, performances, downtown trick-or-treating, ward trunk-or-treating, pumpkin carving, doughnut making and neighborhood trick-or-treating.

Friday -- Downtown and hospital trick-or-treating...

 Check out Jack's look on his face...

 Taking a little drink/candy break at the hospital...

Saturday -- Ward Trunk-or-Treating

Jack and Ty getting ready for the costume parade around the gym.

Ty and Kate with her friends, Ada and Sophi

Sunday -- Pumpkin Carving and Doughnut Making

The kids got the privilege of helping clean out their pumpkin's guts.  Kate was not very thrilled.

 Jack was...because he and Dave decided to leave all the guts in their pumpkin to make it look scarier.

 Ty got to color on his pumpkin...

Jack's and Kate's jack-o-lanterns 

We made Aunt Shaunna's recipe for buttermilk doughnuts.  The kids dipped them in the glaze.  And ate some, of course.

 "YOU need to eat a doughnut, Mom."  I'm sure that's what Ty was saying.

 And, just one more picture of Ty eating a doughnut.  I couldn't just pick one picture, he's so cute.

Monday -- Actual "Halloween" Day

Kate's Halloween Extravaganza was in the morning.  The three second grade classes practiced for weeks for this Halloween program.  Kate was SO excited for it.  Jack's class got to come in and watch the performance along with all the families.

Walking into the gym doing the Monster Mash.

 The kids took turns telling jokes, reciting poems and singing songs.

 

 After the performance, the parents/siblings got to stay while the kids had their Halloween party (aka food).

 Sophi and Kate

I didn't take any pictures of the kids trick-or-treating around our neighborhood on Halloween night.  It was dark.  Our neighborhood doesn't have many kids in it anymore, but a lot of people went all out with their decorations and treats for the kids.  We felt like we should share our kids with those people that love Halloween.  We trick-or-treated for an hour and a half until the kids were very tired and cold and we didn't even make it all the way around our neighborhood.