Halloween 2012

This year Halloween was a lot of fun. We kind of went overkill on the candy, but the twins really got into it and were practicing saying trick-or-treat for weeks. Halloween was actually so warm this year that all of the kids came home sweating in their costumes and complaining of being hot. That is a first! Here are my not very good pictures of my little trick-or-treaters before they headed out the door:




It never fails that either Cooper or Kale are not looking.





I had fun doing Kendle's hair for her Medusa costume




Riley and Kendle did their usual major trek around all the surrounding neighborhood's after the little guys came home. They always get quite the haul. I'm glad Riley likes to go do that stuff with the kids, because I am much happier in my cozy house handing out the candy.

Trick or Treaters

These were the best pictures I could snap before our kids headed out the door with their cousins for trick or treating last night. To say they were excited would be the understatement of the year.

Mo was a princess

Morgan was a super hero

Maelin was a lady bug

Kendle was Katniss from the Hunger Games

and Zack was Frankenstein

(Cooper and Kale refused to be photographed, but let me assure you they were the cutest little super hero's around)

They all had an awesome time and came home with loads and loads of candy. It was a super fantastic Halloween!

P.S. I am pretty proud of myself that I handmade a faux leather arrow sheaf with strap for Kendle to carry her arrows in on her back. It looked awesome.

Signs of Fall and Halloween

October is flying by and we (really the kids) are on the countdown to Halloween. I have yet to really even start working on costumes so I better stop slacking and get on that. I'm loving the crisp breezes, the chilly nights, and the baking weather, not to mention the falling leaves and autumn foliage that is the perfect back drop for all of the Halloween decor that's been popping up around town. I love this time of year when our grass is emerald green and Riley is trying to get the last few mows in before the sprinklers are turned off for the winter. (It seems like it was just spring and we were waiting for them to get turned on.) We've enjoyed watching the Legend of Sleepy Hollow, making donuts, and reading Halloween books.

I thought I'd post a few pictures of what fall is looking like around our place:

(My new lights. They cast the coziest glow at night.)

(Cooper couldn't miss out on a photo op. Don't you love his Spiderman rain boots?)

Trick-or-Treat

Well, I had a few better pictures than this one, but for some reason it's only uploading them side ways and all weird today so this is the only one that loaded properly. Sorry for the blinding flash. This was right before heading out to our ward Trunk-or-Treat on Saturday.

The kids had a great time. Morgan enjoyed it so much more this year, so that made it easier. He loved being Spiderman and the costume was a great investment since he's been playing in it and wearing it around all the time. I couldn't find any costumes I liked for Cooper and Kale and I knew they'd get really annoyed wearing something fussy for a long time, so I just went the super easy route and dressed them like little football players. I thought the jersey's would be fun to have and wear again anyways. They only had two jerseys left when I bought them and they were a size 3T and 4T. Although I had them layered over a sweatshirt, I don't think they were a smidge too big. My 11 month old babies look like 2 year olds! Kendle cracks me up. I love that girl. All of her friends wanted to be cute and pretty things, but not Kendle. She wanted to be a scary vampire with fake blood dripping out her mouth. Got to love it!

Halloween 2010 was a success.

9 Nights of Halloween, (a spooky story)

I forgot Kendle wanted me to post this on my blog this week. She wrote this little story in school and it's pretty fun to read.

9 Nights of Halloween

By: Kendle Dodson, age 8

On the first night of Halloween my vampire gave to me,

a coffin in a haunted house.

On the second night of Halloween my vampire gave to me,

two dancing monsters.

On the third night of Halloween my vampire gave to me,

three dark brown werewolves.

On the fourth night of Halloween my vampire gave to me,

four slimy green toads.

On the fifth night of Halloween my vampire gave to me,

five stinging scorpions.

On the sixth night of Halloween my vampire gave to me,

six gleaming candles.

On the seventh night of Halloween my vampire gave to me,

seven orange jack-o-lanterns.

On the eighth night of Halloween my vampire gave to me,

eight spooky ghosts.

On the ninth night of Halloween my vampire gave to me,

nine babbling bats.

Happy Halloween!

Halloween Then and Now

As I was trying to go to sleep last night, I started thinking about all of our Halloween activities over the years and how easy it use to be with one or two children and how far we've fallen in the fun department.

Then:  We'd carve elaborate pumpkins with the cool patterns and tools that come in those kits.

Now: Free hand "scary" faces onto the pumpkins and make it up as we go.

Then: Cute and creative costumes planned and shopped for well ahead of time.

Now:  Throwing together whatever the kids decide they want to be totally last minute and convincing them "it looks great".

Then: Elaborately decorate the outside entrance and walkway of the house.

Now: Wreath, pumpkins, call it good.

Then: Halloween night was a party. We'd have lots of finger foods and treats and it was a super cozy fun night. I'd hand out candy while Riley took Kendle around to a few houses.

Now: Riley takes the kids all over trick or treating because he wants a share of all the sweets. Halloween is usually a crazy chaotic night. Kids are tired and cranky.

Then: We'd watch all the Halloween specials and movies as a fun family night.

Now: Oh, were they on? Did we forget to DVR them?

Then:  Fun and cute crafts with the kids and cute treats to take around to friends.

Now: Here, go color this coloring sheet I printed off the internet.


I'm hoping by next year my Halloween mojo will be back in full swing. Halloween used to be one of my favorite holidays and I usually love all of the fun and festivities that go along with it. The kids are excited for our ward Trunk or Treat tomorrow. I hope I can do Kendle's scary vampire makeup justice. :)


P.S. Anyone else out there love the show Community on NBC? If you missed it it's totally worth watching here. Their zombie episode last night was awesome. Speaking of zombie's here's a little Halloween flash back picture from a few years ago:

Have  a Ghoulishly Great Halloween!

Last Week of October

Today is one of those off days. Kendle is home sick, we are all still in our pj's, the wind is howling outside our door, and that whole Monday to-do list kind of blew away with the wind.

This is going to be one of our last really busy weeks, and then hopefully things will slow down for a little while. This family of ours has been chugging along at quite the break neck speed for some time now and I am looking forward to the approaching holiday season which is our little "vacation from everything soccer" time.

We are going to try and carve our pumpkins tonight. That in itself will be a major check off the "have to do" list. The kids don't really like getting their hands in the slimy guts of the pumpkin, luckily I don't mind it too bad.

I made a big batch of homemade caramel this weekend and it is soooooo good. I could eat it on everything or just with a spoon by itself. It is a good thing I only make it a few times a year. I'm thinking some caramel corn is in the cards for a treat tonight.

I still need to finish up the kids Halloween costumes. So far Morgan is the only child to have his complete costume (and he's been wearing the mask every day). He is stoked he gets to wear it to preschool this week. At least I have an idea what I'm needing to get for Kendle, the twins I have no clue. I'm not a big fan of the baby costumes out there.

The kids have been begging us to go to the pumpkin patch (even though we already have pumpkins) so I think a trip out to Country Mercantile might be in store for Wednesday afternoon.

Riley has his last league game tomorrow night that is a must win, so you could say he has been a little stressed. O.k., I'm even stressed. I think we will all be breathing a little easier come Wednesday morning.

Kendle has her last game on Saturday. I am a bit relieved, but also kind of sad since this season has been a lot of fun for the most part. Kendle says she is glad for it to be over, but I think she is going to miss it and miss being around the girls on her team. They had a great group this year and all the girls had a blast together.

Well, I better get going and get the twins out of the kitchen before they pull out every last thing they can get their hands on. Next on my list of things to purchase - a baby gate!

Spooktified

Halloween 2009 will forever be known as the year of the Beautiful Witch and her trusty side kick the Tiny Ninja:

Got Candy? We sure do.

Lots, and lots, and lots.

Pictures

I know you've all been dying to see our Halloween pictures right? (pun intended, you'll see why)


Without further ado, here we are in our spooky Halloween gory, I mean glory:

So what do you think? Would we get your vote for Homecoming King and Queen? We looked so scary, I think we even freaked ourselves out a bit. I had so much fun doing our creepy makeup, it really is amazing what you can do. I think this picture has some serious Christmas card potential, don't you? We had a ghoulishly good time.

Here are some more pictures I took at the party:

Our wonderful hosts Tracy and Edna Turnblad from Hairspray

John McCain and Sarah Palin stopped by for some last minute campaigning

Super-star tennis player Bjorn Borg and his tennis cutie

It was a really fun night and I will never look at fake blood and flesh the same way again. Hope everyone had a spook-tacular Halloween! Anyone want some candy?

Now - on to Thanksgiving.

Trunk-or-Treat and Halloween flashbacks

Last night we attended our ward Trunk-or-Treat and it was really fun. There were a ton of people that came and lots of decorated spooky trunks. Kendle loved the cupcake walk and the spooky maze. I think she went through the maze about ten times! Morgan, true to his nature just wanted to run wild everywhere. Here are some pictures before we left our house:

I could not get them both to hold still to get a very good picture, so as you can see these were the perfect costumes for these two!

They were both just exhausted by the time we got home. I had to wash their hair about five times each to get all of the blue out, and rinse out the shower. By 8:30 they were both in their beds passed out and snoring. Too much fun makes for tired little monsters!

I thought it would be fun to take a look back at some Halloween pictures of the kids.

Here was Morgan last year:

What a difference one year makes!

Here is Kendle two Halloween's ago:

All I remember about this Halloween is that I was puking my guts up while I was pregnant with Morgan. Riley took Kendle costume shopping and this is the one she picked.

This next picture I believe she was 2 or so:

This last picture was from her first Halloween:

Tonight we'll be going to the school carnival and tomorrow will be more trick-or-treating and a costume party for Riley and I later in the evening.

Pumpkin Carving 101

Last night we went and got our pumpkins and came home and carved them all up. Kendle and I had two pumpkins cleaned and gutted by the time Riley joined us. What is it with guys and any available sport that happens to be on TV? Anywho, Kendle was cleaning out those pumpkins like a little pro and we were making a great team. Then came the fun part. The carving! We decided not to do anything fancy this year. I'm usually the one that gets stuck doing all the fancy shmancy designs you can get from those patterns, and my hands could not take it this year. So we opted with just some original jack-o-lantern faces and just free-handed them onto the pumpkins. Mine came out fine, the one I had Kendle help me with turned out fine, the one I did for Morgan turned out fine, but Riley's - not so much. I gave him the simplest one to carve, just two round eyes and a big oval mouth. Pretty easy right?You would think so. Poor Riley to his credit did try pretty hard, but I ended up going back and fixing it later. Is that horrible of me? He told me it's not his fault, it's because he's not artistic. However, I am one of the most unartistic people as well and I didn't seem to have as much trouble. Good thing for Riley he has other redeeming qualities, because pumpkin carving is not one of them!

Little bit of this, Little bit of that

*Every so often good sales come along where you can stock up on canned goods and food storage. This week Yoke's is having their case sale and I came home with enough canned goods to last quite a while. Here are the prices if you are interested:

Western Family canned tomatoes: 24 pack/ 11.49
Western Family chili: 12 pack/ 7.99
Western Family canned vegetables: 24 pack/ 9.99
Western Family canned fruit: 24 pack/ 15.99
Western Family canned applesauce: 24 pack/ 9.99
Hunt's Spaghetti sauce: 12 pack/ 9.99
Campbell's tomato or chicken noodle soup: 24 pack/ 13.99
Western Family macaroni and cheese: 24 pack/ 7.99

I believe the sale is going on until the 21st.

*I also noticed in Albertson's flier this week that they are having their 10 for $10 and 10 for $15 sales. There are several items listed in each group that there are coupons for that have come out in the last few months that can make this a really good sale. I have quite a few General Mills cereal coupons and Betty Crocker coupons so I am going to stock up on Cinnamon Toast Crunch and cake and brownie mixes. Also Pillsbury coupons have been piling up and this would be a great time to get rid of those.

*Has anyone found any good Halloween candy deals yet? With how expensive it is getting I'm expecting to bite into chocolate covered gold. We usually buy a couple of bags of really good candy (Reese's, Snickers, etc...) and then buy what I call "candy bucket fillers" which is usually one of those huge mixed bags of tootsie rolls, suckers, gum and so on.

*Speaking of Halloween, while browsing on sugardoodle, I found this link to some great Halloween templates and graphics that would be perfect for spooking out your house or treats. My favorites are the retro looking pumpkin face and the cute little owls.

I wish I could do something cool outside my house like this:

Halloween is so fun!

I told Kendle that this afternoon we'd bake some yummy treats, so we'll be making some of my favorite pumpkin muffins and enjoying the rest of our relaxing Saturday afternoon. I must try and finish this book as it is due back to the library!

Halloween Crafts

I'm feeling a bit under the weather today, but wanted to share these pictures and links with you.

I've been seeing all sorts of cute Halloween ideas popping up all over blog land that I thought I'd share with you. Even though I already have quite a bit of Halloween and Fall decor, it's nice to add new things into the mix every year and let the kids get in on the decorating fun.

These first two ideas I liked for two reasons:
1. They were easy and kid friendly
2. They were cheap/free depending on what you have around the house

Last week on BeCentsable I saw these cute ghosts and pumpkins made out of empty milk jugs:

For the ghosts you just draw on faces with a permanent marker and then paint the lids white if they are a different color. The pumpkins just need a little orange and green paint and you can cut out faces with a craft knife. For both, cut holes in the back and insert lights. In the above picture she just took a string of white lights and put a few in each one.

Another easy idea BeCentsable shared were these pumpkin garlands made from orange paper plates:

Cut out different shapes from black paper for the faces and glue onto the plates. You can punch a whole in the top and string them from ribbon to hang around the house.

There are more cute ideas she posted about and I just really appreciated that they were kid friendly and something even non-crafty people like myself could do in a short amount of time.

Also, yesterday on A Soft Place to Land which is one of my new favorite blogs, Kimba hosted a bloggy party where everyone could share a link to their Halloween and Fall posts. There are over 100 links and I have not had a chance to look at all of them, but here are a few cute things I saw that I'd like to make:

This blog had the cutest countdown to Halloween idea:

You can fill the little bags with one little piece of candy per child/per day or some other little Halloween trinket. How fun is that? I think I might enjoy that one more than my kids!

I also loved this blogger's version of a Halloween wreath and her "Boo" sign.

These were just a few of the many, many cute things I saw looking through the links on Kimba's blog.

Yesterday I managed to put out my fall decorations with only a minimal amount of help from the Morgster. Kendle loves our electric Jack-O-Lanterns that I always put up on our high wall ledge. She came home from school yesterday and kept flicking the wall switch to turn them off and on. I left a few things out for her to help with and put in her room. I remember the excitement of being a kid and wanting to help my mom decorate for the holidays. I'm glad she shares my enthusiasm for that sort of thing.

Trunk-or-Treating and the Pumpkin Patch

Last night we attended our ward Trunk-or-Treat. I was so glad it was on Halloween this year and that we didn't have to dress the kids up two different times. There were a ton of people there and Kendle got quite the haul of candy. My mother drove up from Oregon and came with us, and we had a fun time. Here are the children before we left:

Morgan looking oh so scary as a little skeleton.

Kendle made a cute fairy and she was most excited about the sparkly makeup she got to wear, even though she didn't like the process of putting it on. I love how Morgan's facial expression in this picture is like, "stay away from me fairy and no one gets hurt".

We left the Trunk-or-Treat around 7:30, and then hit a few houses in our neighborhood on the way home. The people on our block were very nice. One older fellow gave Kendle a handful of candy bars and another house gave her candy and an awesome skeleton pencil, so I think she was pretty pleased with her grand total by the time we headed home.

Also, on Monday I went with Kendle's kindergarten class to the pumpkin patch. It was pretty fun and chaotic and messy, and all of the things field trips usually are. It was interesting to see Kendle's interactions with the other children in her class and watch her pick out a pumpkin.

Yep, that's a keeper!

They also let the children run through the hay bale maze, pet some animals, and climb to the top of the hay pyramid. At the very end, they were given a snack and then gathered their pumpkins up to take home.

This picture cracked me up. Her teacher was giving them instructions on how to stand in line while they were waiting to get back on the bus. This is classic Kendle for ya.

I'm glad I decided to go and share this memory with her. Did we have fun?

As Kendle would say, "that's a positive!"

Happy Halloween!!!

Hope everyone has a frightfully good day and a night that's full of tricks and treats. We will be at our ward's "Trunk or Treat" this evening and I look forward to seeing all of the children in their costumes. Kendle will be a fairy and Morgan will be a little skeleton. Enjoy your Halloween!