Halloween 2015

Well, we did it again.  Another Halloween Party in the books.  We opened it up to the entire ward again this year.  Here is the dessert table.  Audrey provided 150 cupcakes.  I didn't think that there would be enough, but I managed to find 5 leftover cupcakes to take to my Sunday School class.  #score

Last year we provided hot dogs and bun.  This year we did potluck soup.  It was a little risky, but I can say that the neighborhood stepped it up this year and really delivered.  Lots of yummy food.

Amara brought a soup and corn bread.

I made 4 loaves of bread, too.

Here's the bish and bish wife:

Kelli, Audrey, and Amara.

The firepit turned out to be a great draw this year even though the weather was PERFECT!!

This is Halloween

Just needed to document that Halloween really did actually happen.  

And this picture is really scary.  Messy counter.  Honey harvest in the works.  Cactus on the counter.  Pantry door open (what a mess in there).  Mess by the back door.  

She wore this to school.  Seriously.  Oh well.  She didn't get kicked out.

Ever since my MS days, Halloween has been a big deal.  In a fun way.  Not like my neighbors growing up--the Rose family--who celebrated Halloween like Christmas and didn't celebrate Christmas at all.  I've enjoyed having neighborhood parties and Street of Treats.  I kinda think of myself as the Halloween Queen.  (or something like that.)  At least until a couple of years ago.  The year of the anonymous note and other overwhelming issues like bullying and stuff.  Which is why I checked myself out of Halloween last year.  No Halloween Queen for me in 2013.  But, I was back in 2014.  It's kinda hard to put myself out there like I used to.  First I was afraid of another hate note.  And second, I was afraid that nobody would come.  But, thankfully, we had 70 degree, recording breaking weather on a beautiful Halloween Friday night.  A handful of people brought treats.  I set up a table with snacks and water (instead of the planned Hot Chocolate--it was plenty warm without the hot chocolate).  And lots of people came.  My street is more busy now that it is not a dead end street.  So, we went across the street and filled up the Shmule-de-sac.  I passed out flyers to the ward members a couple of weeks earlier (with the help of lots of friends).  It was a great night of visiting with neighbors and exchanging candy.  The kids love it.  And there was still plenty of time for folks to go out and get more sugar by trick-or-treating the old fashioned way.  I had a great Halloween.  It was a good way to end October.

Happy Halloween

I had such sweat friends in Mississippi that introduced me to the "Halloween Party"

I met the Joyners at Flowood Elementary, the twins--Noah & Graham--were in the same class as Summer.  Being new to the area, we had no friends and yet they were considerate enough to invite us to their party.  We knew no one.  But, it was the beginning of a great tradition that we have carried on ever since Summer was in 1st grade.  (except last year when I took a leave of abcense) 

Amara, Audrey and I have taken turns hosting now for the last 7 years.  We usually do it inside and send out invites.  Usually about 1/2 of the people come that we invite.  It's easy to estimate the numbers. But this year we decided to have our party early because of conflicts between the first of October and Halloween.  So, October 11 was the week that worked out.  We gambled that the weather would be good and planned an outdoor party...with an open invitation on our neighborhood Facebook page.  (we told everyone to spread the word)

The weather was fantastic.  It was actually perfect all week.  What a beautiful Fall season we have had.

Lots of people showed up.  We asked folks to RSVP so we would know how many hotdogs/buns to purchase.  A few more people showed up than we had on our list, but we planned for that.  We did pretty good--2 hot dogs left over.  Hooee was happy with that.

Amara told people that if they didn't dress up that they would be singing Karaoke.  The threat must have worked...lots of costumes.  Rick was serious about it, too.  He had the sound system set up and was rocking the neighborhood long before the party started.  I thought for sure that someone would call the police before we ever had anyone show up.

It was too hot for the fire pit until the sun went down. 

Rick had a work party at the very same time.  Conveniently it was in Mapleton, so he took Cole and Summer.  Summer was happy to go because we told her that some of Rick's work partners had boys her age.

Sierra created this cute skeleton for our "pin the bowtie on the skeleton" game for the Littles.

I am going to have Sierra paint one on canvas so I can hang it up all year round.

Oh yeah! Another neighborhood witch.  Glad I was not the only one.

This is actually one of my favorite neighbors...she waves every time she drives down the street.

Another favorite.  Favorite costume.  Favorite RM.  Favorite craft buddy.

Favorite horse.

Favorite Friend.

And it wouldn't be a Halloween Party without the traditional Mummy Wrap.  

We did Youth vs. Bishop.  Not really sure who won.

Suddenly every kid in the yard had a roll of TP and it was everywhere.  That game ended quite abruptly.

I guess that's a wrap.  Until next year.

Halloween 2012

 We walked down to Sage Creek to see Cole's Halloween Parade.

He really couldn't care less that we were there.  

His big concern was giving all of his friends a big high five as they walked past.

We had this tradition in our neighborhood when we moved in called the "Street of Treats".

I think it started out as a ward thing, but as ward things always go, someone didn't like something about it and "Street of Treats" became a neighborhood thing and not a ward thing.

Valeree was the original chairperson of this event.  

But, Valeree was preparing to move to Australia last October so she handed the responsibility over. And I gladly accepted.  

I asked around and the feedback was that we start the earlier the better in case the weather is bad and so the kids can get off their sugar high and into bed within a reasonable amount of time. 

So, Sadie helped me out last year and we fried donuts and handed out hot chocolate.  

It seemed like a hit because we got a lot of positive feedback.

So, we decided to do the same thing again this year.

I started at the beginning of October by making up flyers and spreading the word.

Everything seemed fine until I got this note in my mailbox on October 29.  

Seriously?

Thanks for signing your name.  

thanks for your input.  a month ago when it mattered.

Next year, YOU can be in charge.

Sadie and I decided to dress up like 50's ladies.

We made our own skirts.

From the same pattern.  How stupid was that?  

Mine was so long it was practically dragging on the ground.

Sadie's skirt fit just like it was supposed to.  

We even made a fluffy tule petty coat to wear underneath--mine just made my butt look bigger. 

I wore my poodle skirt (minus the poodle) to the school and one of the kids asked me if I was a pioneer.

Oh well.  At least I'll be ready if I'm ever asked to go on Trek.

and, of course, my eyes are closed.

(note to self:  make sure you are never in the same photo as Sadie.)

 

Still not any better.

 So, 2 days before the big day, right after I got the note in the mailbox and right after I checked the weather...I decided that we should grill hot dogs.  Rick had the day off and agreed to help.  

He was happy to test out some of his new toys (his pellet grill and his solar generator).

So here we are grilling and frying.  I felt so at home around a hot grill and hot grease.

Altogether we served about 120 hot dogs.

1,000 donut balls.

And about 160 cups of hot chocolate (next year we might need lemonade--it was too hot for hot chocolate)(if there is a next year)

 Summer and Sierra had a few of their friends show up...

Summer had the camera so we lots of pictures of Summer's friends and no pictures of Sierra's friends.

 Then Jon and Teresa surprised us by showing up with Lillie.

Scott got bored with the usual donuts he was serving.  

So, he grabbed a hot dog, rolled it in dough and threw it in the hot oil.

He made us all taste a little piece.  I have to admit, with the right amount of ketchup and mustard, it was  pretty darn tasty.

Here are my cute trick or treaters with Little at the end of the evening...

Halloween Past...

A few years ago, when Cole looked like this...

he said something that we cannot get out of our minds...

"Happy Hell-No-Ween"

over and over and over.

playing in the leaves...

a couple of cute witches...

Scooby Doo

Dad and Scooby...

Flashlights

Have a Happy

Hell-No-Ween!!

Halloween 2011

This is Summer LAST week dressed as Taylor Swift.

I must confess we got that skirt at DI about 5 months ago.  

It was $6.  Which I thought was too much considering the fact that it was too "big" and too "glittery" to actually wear in public.

But it did make for a nice costume.  She only had to wear her hair in curlers for 48 hours to get the look.

This was Halloween evening.

Sadie and I dressed up as 1950's housewives.

I asked Summer to take pictures of everyone and everything since Sadie and I were busy making homemade donuts for the neighborhood.

Awesome.

Summer took 3 photos.

Didn't even get one of her siblings.  or the homemade donuts.

I might have to dress them up in their costumes and make-up tonight so that somewhere down the road a few years when the kids want to look back on pictures of 2011, they will actually believe me that I let them dress up and beg the neighbors for candy.

Rick participated in the festivities by dressing up  adjusting the temperature of the hot chocolate.

And speaking of temperature, we couldn't have asked for better weather.

When the evening started, we should have been serving ice water instead of hot chocolate.

But, as the evening wore on, more and more ghosts, goblins, witches, etc. appreciated a nice, warm cup of hot chocolate.

Here is a picture of the flyer that we passed out to the neighbors...

Apparently not everyone gets my sense of humor.

I really confused a lot of people with the "costume check".

So much so, that most of them didn't even keep reading to the funny parts.

oh well.

This morning I was getting Cole some breakfast. 

(Cereal, which is really just code for a bowl of sugar, but we were running late since we were up all night eating...sugar)

Cole asked me to wait before I poured the milk on his sugar cereal.

I asked why, and he said that he needed to finish his chocolate bar and he didn't want the cereal to get soggy.

His poor Kindergarten teacher...

Time to take down the decorations and move on to Christmas Thanksgiving.