Halloween

This year's Halloween was a little different.....and I can't seem to NOT write a novel. Brevity is not in my character.

I try to have a theme for Halloween costumes and that didn't work out. We usually hit up a pumpkin patch but we didn't. And Samuel chose not to dress up for school now that he's in middle school. And they don't have a fun parade like elementary school kids do. Decorations were brought up from storage but took weeks for me to put up.

But we still had a lot of fun. Tyler proclaimed that Halloween is one of his least favorite holidays and pointless. Seems like he feels like that more and more with many holidays. Grinch.


The biggest reason we didn't go to a pumpkin patch is because we had our very own. We grew all of these pumpkins in our backyard. It was my goal to have a variety of pumpkins. Mainly to decorate with. Hopefully, I'll cook some of them too. I had fun decorating the porch with them all. I did not anticipate the green, warty ones would get to be so huge! I though they were going to be gourd size. Not so much. But since our actual jack-o-lantern pumpkins didn't pollinate until too late in the season, we only ended up with one large and two small orange ones. So Jocelyn chose a larger green one to carve.

Samuel has been begging for roasted pumpkin seeds since September but I loathe making them because they're so time consuming. It's exactly like making chex mix except you have to get your hands dirty and scrape out a pumpkin first. So, I avoid it. I told him he had to wait until after we carved our pumpkins before I'd make them. Sorry dude. Maybe next year it'll motivate him to do it himself.

We did go to the Rec Center for free ice skating, games and candy. Here is Colin triumphantly playing ladder ball.

We had the Stoehr's over Sunday night for pumpkin carving, chili dinner and donuts.

We did continue our tradition of making donuts. I made spudnuts again this year. They were a great texture and the kids were appalled that I put potatoes in them.  I also attempted another cake donut recipe but I was distracted and didn't measure the correct amount of sugar. So....that batch went in the trash. Then Tyler announced that he told his home teaching families he'd bring them some donuts so I needed more than the spudnut batch. So I quickly made another batch of cake since they don't need to rise. And they turned out pretty good!

We attempted homemade root beer but I didn't buy enough dry ice the day before (that stuff is expensive). And I had to buy it Saturday for our Sunday party so it nearly all evaporated. Oh well, it still tasted okay. To save money, I opted to make the bread bowls for our chili instead of buying them. Jocelyn had been begging to eat one since September (oh, the things we do for our kids stomachs). They turned out pretty well! I would make them again.

Mid-week before Halloween Culver's had a deal to buy $1.99 kids meals with kids in costumes. It motivated me to finish up their costumes. It was a dress rehearsal.

The girls school parties and parade was the Friday before Halloween. As a room parent, I was able to help out in Jocelyn's grade. I will take a mental note not to have kids decorate sugar cookies at the Valentine's party that I am in charge of because that poor teachers classroom was a mess afterwards with frosting and sprinkles smashed into the carpet.

Jocelyn saw a photo of me when I dressed up as Cleopatra and I think that's what gave her the idea to do the same. So we were going to go with a "white" costume theme. So Cecily chose to be an angel (one of the few times I didn't handmake or repurpose a costume....it was $8 practically new, can't beat that). Colin was going to be the white bear from a TV show called "The Octonauts". Then he was going to be a lion. Then he became a knight. When we borrowed a knight costume from our neighbors he became enamored. So we found some costumes pieces at the thrift store. He wouldn't stop wearing them. But I bought them to be in the dress up box. Well, on our dress rehearsal, mentioned earlier, he refused to wear the traditional lion costume (every other kid wore at this age) and wanted to wear the "dragon" (took me about 10 minutes to realize he was referring to the dragon on the breastplate, not an actual dragon). Then on Halloween night he refused to wear his black pants. He wanted blue pants (jeans). So, after a 10 minute tantrum I conceded and let him wear the jeans. Oh well, his costume cost $5 plus the white one he never wore ($5). Still a good deal. Samuel wanted to be a clown (due to the news hype about it...he does not have any fondness toward the creepy creatures). Then Jason, the chainsaw murderer or whatever he's called (with the white mask). I told him that was too scary and creepy. So, since the white them had gone away with Colin's costume, he chose to be a zombie. Easy peasy.

We do have a tradition of selling Halloween candy to a dentist. One, to help soldiers and other children out. And two, to get rid of candy fast. I found one last year that buys it for $2/pound. They then donate it to Primary Children's Hospital. (other dentists donate it to military overseas). Jocelyn was set on buying a beanie boo and donated 4 pounds, giving her $8 to spend! She was able to buy 2 with her own money. And....most of her candy is gone! Wahoo. She was determined this year to get a lot. Samuel too. They did not slow down. We trick-or-treated from about 6:45 until 9! Cecily and Colin didn't stay out that long. Samuel and Joc got about half a pillow case full. Samuel decided to keep most of his this year. He's old enough and has enough self control that I think he'll have it for several months. Unlike Cecily and Colin whom I have to limit their daily allotment.

All that stage makeup training comes in handy! lol. Samuel makes a pretty good actor too.

Trick-or-Treating buddies. Not pictured is my dad who came up again this year to go with the kids!

Samuel and his bff Ben.

And I'll end with some cute pictures of Colin painting and his "bubble" blankie.

Family Vacation 2014

We went on our first family vacation that did not involve extended family members this fall. It was an awesome and memorable trip. I look forward to doing a trip like this again. Hopefully, every year or every other year we'll be able to do this. Disclaimer: if you don't care about park tips and details...just look at the pics and watch the video in a few days when I finish it up :)

The digested version:
October 12-18, 2014
Day 1-5: Visited Walt Disney World for 2 days. Stayed with my cousin Cassie and her family. Drove to Clearwater Beach. Stayed for 1.5 days in a Hyatt Hotel.
Day 6-7: Flew to Atlanta, Georgia. Visited the Georgia Aquarium. Stayed in a Hyatt Hotel. Flew home.

Earlier this Spring, before SWA (Southwest Airlines) points values increased we reserved our plane tickets for this trip. We used our two companion passes and Colin was free. Then we used points for Jocelyn so we paid about $60 for all of us to fly there. We had a layover in Denver and then the 3 hour flight to Orlando. The kids did really well. Security wasn't bad. They had to check every baby bottle and baby food which took a bit longer but the kids were really patient waiting. Luckily, Tyler and I were doing this together. I don't imagine flying solo with 4 kids. That would be tricky. We had tons of snacks and lunchables for dinner to avoid paying for airport food. The 3 older kids sat on a row together and after drinks/snacks they watched  a movie on the ipad, each with their own earphones. Tyler and I sat behind them with Colin on my lap. He was a great traveler. Didn't cry at all.

Day 1: Not thinking clearly we booked our tickets for a Sunday arriving at 11pm at night. After renting the car and driving to Cassie's we didn't get in until about 12:30 am Monday morning. Cassie and Jacob were greats hosts. They tried to stay up late to greet us upon arrival by watching a movie but couldn't make it that late which was totally fine (they have a new baby!).  Knowing we'd get in very late, they left the lights on for us to direct us to our rooms. Gave us the door code so we didn't have to disturb them, their girls.

Day 2: The next morning the kids actually got to "sleep in" until 9am. We woke up, met Cassie's girls (our kids hadn't really met before) and ate breakfast. The kids saw her pool and immediately wanted to go swimming. Because it's sooo humid and still warm, somewhere between 70-80 degrees it was a great temperature. The kids swam while Cassie and I chatted. Then Tyler wanted to mow their lawn. Their grass is soooo different there. It's very course and weedy. It's not like the plush blue grass that we see everywhere else. He enjoys mowing and it was an extra way of saying thanks for the accommodations. After getting a briefing on where to park, tips and such from Cassie and Jacob (he used to work there and they could go all the time....so they're pretty experienced) for WDW (walt disney world) we quickly got ready to go. The time was already escaping us. I wanted to stay and visit with Cassie longer!! We got the kids in costume, packed our stuff for the evening and drove off. We had to stop at Walmart first to get our food for the next few days. We ended up packing a whole suitcase of Costco/Sam's Club goodies for the week which saved us a lot of money and was very convenient. Plus, because we opted not to pay extra for the magic bands (free if you stay on Disney property) we used "cards" for fast pass lanes and I didn't want to keep them in my pocket or have the kids lose them. When I was leaving Walmart I saw they had a whole separate Disney store. I bought lanyards for $5 each. I am so glad I did. It kept our cards nice and safe and it was another "gift" for the kids to get them excited. On Disney property they cost $15!!! So we saved money there. Paying $20 for convenience was totally worth it.

See how flushed I am from walking briskly in the warm Florida weather? yikes. It was too hot for Colin to wear his pumpkin costume. 

We were able to be admitted to the park at 4pm. We decided to get a Halloween ticket (Not So Scary Halloween event) for the first day. And a full day the 2nd day. We only went to Magic Kingdom (not Epcot, Animal Kingdom, etc. We'll save that for another trip....or maybe Harry Potter land...a. completely different park). We parked and walked (because it's easier with a stroller than taking the tram) and then the ferry. The kids were already complaining about how tired they were and we hadn't even got into the park yet. There was no line to get in but the cast member had a hard time finding our passes (because we switched them a few days earlier) and it took foreeeeeever to get our tickets (next time...buy in advance enough to have them mailed to me). As a result, we missed our first fast pass so she gave us a free voucher to use on another ride to make up for it. yay! Great service.

We decided to get a Halloween party ticket because they were $65 per ticket instead of the $95 for a full day. If we would have got a one day pass it would have cost $95 and we would have gone from 9am (and had to wake up the kids super early) until 7pm when they would kick us out for not paying for the Halloween party. So....10 hours for $95 or.....pay $30 less and go for 8 hours! We made the right decision in saving money and having a great time at the special Halloween party. We got to go on the major rides until 7pm, using fast passes and the trick-or-treating started at 7 and more rides. It was less empty than during normal hours but still a bit crowded. We had to stay close to each other. Luckily, Cecily our wanderer, never got lost!!

DON'T read this part if you don't care about WDW tips. We definitely saved time by using the fast passes and child swap. Because of Colin we were able to take advantage of the child swap plus the fast pass that you can sign up for in advance online (on your phone, computer, kiosks in the park etc....you sign up for 3 rides, then once those were redeemed we could sign up for 1 ride at a time after that). So the kids could ride the ride back to back, twice in a row. So, for example, Tyler would go through the fast pass line (MUCH shorter) and I would show them Colin (in my arms or asleep in the stroller...this only works on the non-baby rides like splash mountain,etc. The child swap doesn't apply to haunted mansion, small world, etc) and they would give Tyler the child swap pass. When he was done with the ride he would give me the pass and I could go on the ride, after going through fast pass lane, with two other children. So typically, one of the kids didn't want to go again so it wasn't a problem. Sometimes, however, the cast member would let all 3 kids go again. The kids favorite was Thunder Mountain. It's old and rickety but it was the least scary of the "scary" rides. Between the two days they went on it about 7 times! Jocelyn and Cecily liked Splash Mountain. Samuel only wanted to go on it once. To be honest, the drop at the end scares me enough that I only needed to go once too. Jocelyn was scared and went twice. Cecily went three times.

Back to the Halloween party. Everyone was dressed up (kids anyway and some of the adults). I read online (yay Pinterest) to buy our kids glow sticks and glow toys in advance (from Dollar Tree, Michaels) and bring them with us because once it got dark there were cast members pushing carts around selling these toys for waaaay more than typical retail value. So I whipped out the glow sticks and spinny glow toys that they could carry around. Once it was dark you could see a lot of people walking around with all type of glow toys/hats/sticks, etc so I am glad I bought them for the kids so they never had to ask for one. I accidentally lost one of our pumpkin lights right away though. We were in the haunted mansion and I put one in my lap (turned off) and when I got off the ride it fell off (I forgot it was there) and it fell underneath the track. Darn it. oh, well...it was only $1 and we still had Colin's that Cecily could use. Luckily, that was only one of two casualties the whole trip (the other was Samuel leaving his stuffed angry bird somewhere between Florida and Georgia).

We ate sub sandwiches (pre-made from Walmart), chips and salad for dinner. We brought water bottles and I bought a $2 insulated bag and a bag of ice. It was perfect for keeping our water cool and food "refrigerated" even though there was a puddle of cold water left at the bottom. I am glad we brought our big stroller because it hauled all our stuff.

Trick or treating was fun. They had 13 stations and gave us each a bag upon entering the park. We didn't make it to all 13 stations though. But we each got (including Tyler, me and Colin) about 2-3 lbs each of candy. They would give us a handful at each station. 2/3 of it was chocolate candy! My favorite. We got to see the special Halloween parade and the special fireworks show. I haven't been to a fireworks show in years so I was really glad we got to see it (since we didn't the 2nd night). I love being right underneath, to hear the crackling and feel the boom in your chest. It's so magical. And the kids weren't even scared! yay! The Halloween one is even cooler than the normal nightly one because the finale includes 360 degree fireworks. It lit up the sky so brightly it felt like it was daytime. It was sooo awesome. That was Tyler's favorite part of the Halloween party. It was unforgettable, for sure.

That is Belle's (or the Beasts)  castle below.

I like parades and they did not disappoint. The choreography was spot on and they make it so fun to watch. The kids, who normally don't like parades, enjoyed it too. By then, however, it was nearly 11pm. We got kicked out at midnight. We thought after the parade we'd leave, like most people do. But we wanted to fit in as many rides as possible while it was less crowded. The kids were soooooo tired and begging to go home. But we wanted our money's worth. So we convinced them to stay a bit longer. We rode the teacups like 3 times in a row because there was no line while Tyler went on the new Snow White and 7 dwarf mine ride. The line is usually over an hour so it was shorter at 11pm. (no fast passes during Halloween party). Tyler and Cecily went on first while I stayed with Samuel, Colin and Jocelyn (who were too afraid and tired to go). Tyler liked it so much (I think we may have had a child swap for this ride) that he convinced Samuel to go with me. Jocelyn regretted not going because we couldn't get a fast pass for it the next day and she never got to ride it. It's about as "scary" as thunder mountain but not as rickety. It was fun! Then as we were leaving at midnight we saw the princess line thing. They let us go in (the girls and I) even though they were closing. Once we got inside we saw the line for the Frozen girls! It was at least 30 minutes (at midnight) so we saw Rapunzel and Cinderella. The girls were thrilled, even Jocelyn. Cecily was so excited/shy she wouldn't stand next to them. Super fun to see the "magic" at work. I think her age is the perfect age for Disney stuff. She was still wide awake then (however....she's naturally a late owl). Another regret....not waiting earlier that day to meet the Frozen girls (which the girls didn't think they'd like at all). Then we had to walk all way back to the car (the kids were dying by this point) and drove 20 minutes back to Cassie's. They were out like a light, 1 am.

So...this is taking waaaay longer than I thought. I will write about Day 3 in another post!

Halloween 2011

Halloween has come and gone already! Halloween!?! Wow, the time is flying....eek!

Honestly, I've been thinking about costumes since....January or February? I had decided we were doing a theme (which we've never really done before, last year it was a loosely Asian theme). The theme was to be Wizard of Oz. Why? Because a) Cecily had to be the lion because that was her size costume and the other two already wore it. Tradition.  And b) because what little girl doesn't want to be Dorothy? Well, apparently more than I thought, including my own. Jocelyn didn't think Dorothy was pretty enough, even with the ruby slippers. What? Samuel was billed to play the tin man, me the wicked witch and Tyler, the scarecrow.

Well, after Jocelyn announced she didn't want to be Dorothy, Samuel realized he didn't really want to be the tin man. It wasn't cool enough. So, after we told him he couldn't go trick-or-treating if he didn't dress up, I decided to revise my vision a bit to a modern Wizard of Oz. Dorothy with a tutu and apron and Samuel could be a bit more like a robot. And I would be the sassy witch without the green face. So, we were happy with that until my Aunt Mary offered to let Samuel wear my cousin's costume from last year, a clone star wars dude (Captain Fordo, to be more specific). So I weighed my options.....borrow a hand-me-down costume or make a costume from scratch and have a son be sort of happy wearing it. I chose the easy route. So that's what it was, for a day. The theme changed to movie-theme characters. We borrowed the costume the day of two parties...and though he looked really cool and my aunt rocked at coming up with this handmade costume, it didn't fit Samuel well enough and I was worried he would break it during his class party. So he wore it for one day.

On Sunday night, the night before Halloween, I decided to change his costume, once again, and made him a mummy costume (which we had discussed as an aption days before as well). It was super easy to make just took a couple of hours. Now, are you ready for the costume changes for Joc? I know, right? I'm so crazy!! It's only Halloween already!?! But costumes...are costumes. You get to pretend you are someone else. It's like being on the stage or in front of a camera. It's so fun!!

So for Joc.....I borrowed my cousin Micaela's Dorothy costume that her daughter wore last year. But after browsing Pinterest a bit, I saw this cute tutu/apron rendition and thought that might be a nice twist. But first it started with the ruby slippers. I followed a tutorial I found (again on Pinterest) for repurposign shoes. I mod podged red glitter onto some old/ratty shoes Jocelyn wasn't wearing anymore. It only took me about an hour but....that's about as long as the glitter lasted before it all peeled off. Dang. So much for trying to save money (luckily, I already had the materials on hand and it didn't' cost me anything but time) and paid $12 for the Target version. I made the tutu the night before the parade and when Jocelyn woke up at about midnight for her usual nightly waking (she just wanders out of  bed, half asleep, and announces she has to pee or something of that nature) I tried on this borrowed dress with the tutu and it looked...dumb. So the next morning, I quickly made up an apron out of this ugly calico skirt that was the main inspiration in the first place, right before the Law school parade. Then on Saturday, for the other 2 parties, she wore the borrowed gown, and on Halloween day she wore the handmade one again.

Musical costumes!!!Oh, the drama behind the scenes!

 

Law School Parade and trick-or-treating in the carrels. 

Jocleyn is standing behind me, behind Cecily. Joc wasn't brave enough to walk in front :(

This is from a little party we hosted.

 

 

 

For the party my Aunt Allie and Uncle Roger host each year we brought this puking pumpkin. Again, I got the idea from Pinterest. 

 

 Pancake cat breakfast and for dinner we had mummy dogs.

This first group is from the annual Law School parade/and trick-of-treating.

Samuel's school parade:

Trick-or-Treating

Cecily is not pictured because...she didn't go. Call me cruel but she woke up grumpy and refused to eat her dinner and I knew if she went trick-or-treating she'd eat candy the whole way through. I know, but it's Halloween! Well, if she hadn't already gathered candy at the law party, I would have let her go...maybe.
We went out for 1 1/2 hours! We went around our ward boundaries. Our neighbors had a little haunted house in their carport....which freaked my kids out. They didn't admit that until the end of the night. At first, Jocelyn wanted to go through again but by the time we passed it to go home, she insisted she was done and they both confessed they were too scared. It was a bit scarey...luckily they didn't wake up with nightmares. And there was one suspicious neighbor who was waring an ugly mask....who gave out unwrapped candy and had a camera and video-camera. Creepy. No wonder Jocelyn didn't want to take candy from him. But I made her just to be polite. I should have listened to her. Otherwise, they had a great time and between the two trick-or-treating events they gathered 5 lbs of candy! I gave them the choice.....sell their candy to a local dentist office or keep it. If they sold it we'd keep a bowl full for treats and then they'd get to use their money to buy a toy. Luckily, they chose the toy! We took it to the dentist and it was 5 lbs. So $5 later they each had a toy and their candy is going off to soldiers overseas! And I hope that made them feel good. And now we don't have to have sugar wars until Easter....because we won't have as much around.

Halloween Parties

Any excuse to wear Halloween costumes more than once in a season is fine with me! Plus I was able to work out all the tweeks with their costumes before the big day! I love Halloween and planning, preparing and partying for it!

Party #1:
Pumpkinland , Orem, Utah

The Law Partners hosted a get together at Pumpkinland and the kids were thrilled to go. There was a pretty good (ie, not too easy and TALL) corn maze, a little "farm", and their favorite; bouncy houses. OH, and the funniest looking rabbits I've ever seen. The funniest was the brown fluffy thing I endearingly called "Ewok." Thanks Wendy N. for taking these photos for us.

The kids with friends Amanda and Katie.

Party #2:
Julie's "Earth's Best" sponsored party.

Cute decorations, yummy food and great company. The kids had fun playing with some new and some familiar friends in the ward. Thanks to my dad's cousins wife (ie, Alicia) for taking these photos. The kids are dressed from the Orient. Jocelyn in a Sari, Cecily in China Town garb and Samuel is a homemade ninja.

Trying to make Jocelyn smile. Typical.

At least she's looking at the camera now.

Party #3:
Cousins party

It was a gloomy rainy day. The BYU game was that day so Micaela was stuck in traffic and the deluge that never really quit. But it gave me some more time to prep.

Did you know that dry ice sublimates? In other words, vanishes? I bought some 2 days in advance, you know, thinking I was doing well with planning ahead. The store people kept in a plastic bag and then inside a paper bag and I took it home (with the windows close, which is also a safety hazard...but I wasn't going very far) and stuck it in my freezer right away. The morning of the party I go get the ice and it's gone! The bag is completely lightless and there are frozen fuzzy crystals everywhere. It disappeared! $4 wasted! I had no idea it would disappear in the freezer!!! Tyler laughed at me for not knowing. haha. So our witches brew was just root beer (thank you Emily!).

I did have grand and glorious plans of making a lot more food and decorating a bit more...but I spent too much time on the internet browsing recipes and ideas that I never actually got to executing them all. A lot of inspiration came from this cool website (seriously check out their Halloween food ideas) and from Martha Stewart.

Handmade banner and ghosts in the background.

Samuel devouring his frosting. Vera, as Dorothy and w/o her adorable red wig.

Emma, the witch. Paul (not pictured) was the cowardly lion.

Jocelyn (with princess dress up over her Sari), Peter and Creigh as Indiana Jones'.

The cupcakes using this recipe. And some cupcake flags, of course!

Place markers found on someone else's blog who got the idea from Martha. I was really excited about these. And the kids loved them too!

The food table. Notice no "brewing" action going on. And that is Samuel's sword. He thought it would be cool to add to the photo.

Horrible shadowy picture, does not do justice. Blah. Bat tree inspiration from Martha.

The table. Pizza was served (and not pictured).

I wanted to make these but ran out of time....so we had them on Monday night instead. These little mummy men. And actually, I am learning that not a lot of kids actually like to eat these. At least, not in my family. Jocelyn ate hers but Samuel opted out for leftover pizza.

Ghost cookies (nutter butters covered in almond bark).

The decorated pumpkins. They had fun with this. 3D, washable, glittery Elmer's glue.

More fun times ahead!