We Are The Champions!

One of Steve's co-workers throws an all-out Halloween party every year. This year they wanted everyone to dress up in costumes, so they said they'd have a contest with trophies and everything. Normally, I'm unmotivated by things like this, but since I knew that I already had fairly cool costumes for Steve and myself, we decided to go for it.

(Quick background on our costumes. . . I made and painted my Sally dress, wig and extras, for a ward Halloween party back in 2001. I put most of Steve's costume together then as well, only updating a few things this year.)

After showing up at the party, we were quickly told by most of people there that our costumes were the best, and that we had better win. When the judging rolled around, John, the party's host, had people vote for each category by clapping for their favorite, except when it came to "Best Costume" and "Most Creative Costume". He just had us come up, and then placed the trophies in our hands. :)



As for the rest of the night, we had lots of fun! They had a bounce house, face painter, and a clown magician for the kids. Steve and I even danced around a bit.







There's nothing like good friends, and good fun!

Punkin' . . . carving??

We decided to do something a little different for the kids' pumpkins this year. Instead of carving, which was basically me doing it anyway, we bought these plastic face pieces that the kids could just poke into the pumpkins, thereby making them into different animals. Well, for FHE this evening, that's what they did.






Since we had 3 pumpkins and 4 sets of animal faces, we put 2 faces on our biggest pumpkin.



This was definitely the cleanest, easiest punkin' carving we've ever done. And the best part is, they can do it again next year!

Visiting the Harvest Acres Pumpkin Patch

We finally made it to our local pumpkin patch today. It was technically Brooklyn's Activity Day outing, but since Noah and I usually attend with her anyway, we decided to make this our official visit. This particular pumpkin patch is actually run by the neighbor of my good friend Lora Nehring, who just happens to be our Activity Day leader, so it was especially fun to see all the work they put into it.

The first thing the girls did was check out the animals.


Then we got a group picture before starting the tour.


After hearing a bit about pumpkins, we all boarded the wagon to take a little drive around the pumpkin patch.




Next we headed to the Straw Bale Maze.




And then to the Corn Maze.



Finally, we got to go pick out our pumpkins! Here's Noah with his.


Just kidding! :)



We hope you all have a Great Pumpkin Day!

My Little Helpers, and A Family of Jack Skellingtons

I love that Brooklyn and Noah are always so eager to help me when I'm making yummy stuff in the kitchen. As soon as they see me pull out my Kitchen Aid, or even mention cookies or cake, there they are, asking me if they can help. The first thing Brooklyn always does is grab my smaller apron to put on. And then Noah says to me, "I need a towel on!", which he now says every time since the one time a clipped a hand towel to his waist to be his apron.

Well, today was no different. I wanted to make some chocolate chip cookies for our Family Home Evening treat, and so just as I started pulling out ingredients, here came my little helpers.






Of course they had to take turns adding the ingredients, but once we got everything mixed together, they couldn't wait to get their spoons in to grab a little sample. :)



While we were waiting for the cookies to bake, we started messing around with our Halloween costumes. Here's Noah in our really small elephant costume that I had out to sell. He ended up wearing it most of the evening. :)


And here we all are as Jack Skellington, from our favorite movie, "The Nightmare Before Christmas".





Later in the evening, Brooklyn showed us this fun craft, which she had learned to do during a school outing.




We finished off our FHE with Brooklyn practicing the song she was asked to sing in our Primary Sacrament program, which is scheduled for next Sunday. She was really excited to be asked and so wanted to make sure she sang it just right.


She did an great job, of course! :)

A great, big bag o' Halloween fun!

It has been quite the Halloween season for us this year. We've had more parties to go to this year than we've ever had. And it's been even more fun this year because both kidlets are finally old enough to understand the whole Trick or Treat thing.



Our first party was Friday, the 26th, at Daddy's work. We got to see lots of helicopters, and all the different departments had their offices decorated. Some were so spooky the kids wouldn't even go in, but for the most part it was fun. They also had a costume contest and Brooklyn made it into the final three in her age group. She didn't win, and was very sad about that, but we were just proud that she was willing to be in it. But she really should have won considering she was the only one who was showing any character, as she stood there in her "Egyptian Stance". :)



Our next party was Monday, the 29th, at one of my friend's house. This was an annual party that they put on every year. Unfortunately, just as the party was about to start, a major thunder and lightning rainstorm broke out over us. In minutes the sky had dumped so much rain that their entire ground-level patio was flooded, so we all had to move indoors. The storm also knocked out power to a lot of our part of Fresno, but fortunately, we were spared, so the party could continue.



They had lots of yummy food, and the house was decorated from floor to ceiling. This special guy was standing next to our table, so Brooklyn was excited to have a fellow Eygptian there to hang out with. :)



She even had the chance to show the guests how to "Walk like an Egyptian". :)



Later in the evening Brooklyn came up to me to show me something very important.



She proceeded to tell me that it said, "Hieroglphys by Cleopatra". I must admit, it's a good thing we had someone present who could explain the importance of this amazing, historical find! She was being so cute that I couldn't help but laugh. And snap a picture, of course!

At the close of the evening, all the kids gathered to take turns hitting the Pinata. Brooklyn did a bang-up job by knocking one of the cones off, and spilling a few treats in the process.



And I was especially excited about this party as it was COSTUMES PREFERRED. What could I do but dress up as well. Thanks goodness I still had the "Sally" costume I made 6 years ago. I knew it'd come in handy again, someday. . . :)



And to wrap up our Halloween season, we enjoyed a fun-filled evening at our ward's Trunk Or Treat party. After playing a few carnival games, getting some tattoos, and making some ghostie-friends, we loaded up on candy and called it a night!




,