Halloween Party

The Shakespears and Allreds hosted our annual Halloween party this year and once again, it was a scream! 

Dinner was delicious soups and breads.  Desserts flooded the kitchen and everything tasted delicious.  

 

Costume Contest

Whipples, Shakespears, Eckersleys, Walkers

Crops, Allreds, Hathaways, Honeycutts

Afghani Allreds and Swaseys, Thorntons, Priors, Heatons

Okudas, Nebekers, Oldhams, Stuarts

 

 

Donut-eating Contest

Mummy Wrapping Contest!

Costume and Character Acting

Love these people.  We have so much fun.  Another great party!

Just the Start: Halloween Activities 2011

Halloween lasted about two weeks at our house with school carnivals, fall festivals, performances, parties, pumpkin pickin' and carvin', apple dippin', and just dressing up in costumes over and over again.  I love this time of year!

The kick-off was a Hollywood Kids performance at their Oh! What a Fright! Night carnival.  Clark and Katelyn performed a medley of songs and dances that they have been working on this fall.

After their performance we went to the pet store to pick up an aquarium and some fish.  The night before, Clark and Jacob E. went to the middle school's fall festival and they both just happened to win a goldfish as a prize for one of the carnival games.  Clark was thrilled that he finally got to have a pet again.  Since we didn't have a place to put the fish, we had to buy an aquarium and of course, each child got to pick out their own fish to take care of.  Luckily, fish are cheap but the equipment to get them "housed" is not.  But I'm not complaining because it was less than a quarter of the cost we paid for our dog in Texas (but that's another story).  Once we made our pet purchases we headed to our home to get their home set up.

In the weeks since we bought some fish, four have been flushed down the toilet due to Ick, getting caught in the tree, being eaten by Carlee's "really cool fish" and other reasons we aren't sure of.  Three are still alive and Clark's prize is the biggest and hungriest fish of all.

The following week was the Fall Festival at the elementary school.  We grabbed Clark and Katelyn's old friends, Roman and Lilu,  that have since moved to another part of town to join us in the festivities.

Lilu, Katelyn, Sara

These girls were supposed to go with me through the haunted house but they got too nervous at the last second.  Lilu stuck through it along with some of our little neighborhood girls that I don't really even know but they certainly clung on to me the entire time.  The middle-schoolers did a wonderfully frightening job and the makeup was incredible.

Cole and Jake signed up to help run their class booth for about 45 minutes.  Doesn't Cole look thrilled?

Kate is picking someone's nose for a prize.  Hopefully it's a good one and not a handful of boogers!

Carlee's favorite game played over and over but not so lucky tonight

The Little Mermaid

For Family Home Evening we took the kids out of school early and drove up to St. George to see The Little Mermaid at Tuacahn.  It had rave reviews and we decided to jump at the chance to go.  True to high recommendations and it's reputation, Tuacahn didn't disappoint.  It was wonderful and the kids loved it.  The special effects were incredible and our favorite parts included flooding the stage with water and the waterfall curtain for "under the ocean" scenes.  Steph and Jim met us for dinner at the Pizza Factory before the show.  Our kids had never eaten there before and they loved the giant breadsticks, of course.

 

 Pictures weren't allowed during the production so these were borrowed from a website promoting the Tuacahn Theater.

    

This Child Never Ceases to Amaze Me

Just when I think I'm in the clear from some typical craziness of young children--putting on makeup, cutting your own hair, painting your house and furniture with fingernail polish, putting things in electrical outlets, drinking/eating something poisonous, etc. that my other three children never did! my little sweet youngest daughter never ceases to amaze me.

Saturday night she had her bath, brushed her teeth, we read stories, and I tucked her into bed.  I noticed her hair was a little ratty but I thought it was just twisted funny as she lay on her pillow.  I kissed her good night, turned off the lights, and left her to fall asleep.

Sunday morning we had breakfast, Joe left for church early with the boys and I was just starting on Carlee's hair.  As I started combing it, I noticed a big clump that the comb wouldn't go through.  As I looked more closely I noticed a nice juicy soft piece of white gum.  Lovely.  I had about 15 minutes before I had to leave for church.  I still had to get on my shoes, pack my bag, and now de-gum Carlee's hair.  We started working through it with the peanut butter a few strands at a time, slowly from the top of the wad to the bottom of her hair strands.  About 10 minutes later, it was almost completely out and I thought I could comb the rest out gently.  Back to the tub to wash her hair.  I combed through her clean and gum-free hair and quickly pulled it back into a braid.  Into the car and off to church!

She even got to snack a little bit while she sat there!