Halloween

We had a fun Halloween.  Brandt's class had a party and I went to help.  I was in charge of an outdoor game and came up with some relay games: push a pumpkin with a broom, ride a witch's broom, a spider toss, eyeball bubble gum carry, mummy wrap, and a ghostly spook.  It went reasonably well with only one group of four kids being absolutely wild.

Michelle, Hyrum's mom, and I counting pumpkin seeds. 

There were 518.

518 very slimy pumpkin seeds.

Brandt riding his witch broom.

And tossing spiders with Matthew.

Brandt, Matthew, Lulu, and Morgan.

When I asked Lulu her name, she said, "Lulu.  L-U-L-U."

Morgan was dressed like a fairy princess, but she had orange Dracula teeth to make it scary.

Here is part of the problem group.  

Lucy is the unicorn and Rider is wrapping her up like a mummy.

Earlier, rather than tossing spiders into it, Lucy sat in the basket in the background.

As Rider finished wrapping, Lucy ran off, dragging Rider after her.

They ran all around the playground as I encouraged them to return.

Lucy's arms were tied to her sides, so her hands sort of flapped around as she ran.

Kelton, Kaylee, Kennedy, and Evalyn.

Poor Evalyn.  Her name starts with an E, not a K.

 

Brandt's class.  

I'll see how I do remembering names.

Sitting, from left to right: Anna, Lisa, Oakley, Sofie, Britton, Rei, Lily, Lulu, Joseph, Hyrum, Morgan, Davin, Rider, Lucy, Zach, Evalyn, Natalie, and Kaylee.

Standing, from left to right: Brighton, Matthew, Brandt, Calvin, Kennedy, Kelton.  

Mrs. Bigelow and Mrs. Moffat.  

I know Carter is missing.

After school, Brandt and I went to pick up Blythe who had been playing at Grandma Dawn's house.  Although I gave her the option to come to school, Blythe wanted to go to Grandma's.  She and McKenna played and when Brandt and I arrived, Brandt hauled McKenna around, whether or not she wanted to be hauled. 

Blythe wanted to be a fairy princess fashion girl movie star.  

So she is wearing her princess dress, many bracelets, and sun glasses, just like a movie star.

No wings, but she did carry around a magic wand.

We made another visit in the afternoon to Grandma and Grandpa Barrus.  Grandma had made cookies (which were yummy with orange and black spots inside), and Grandpa wanted to take pictures.  I did too.  Here are our buccaneer and his fairy princess first mate on their pirate ship.  

We made another stop around the corner at Grandma Sue's house and met up with two one-eyed monsters.  Crew and Griffin didn't want to knock on the front door, but they were certainly happy to add candy to their buckets.  The day was positively balmy and so the four of them ran around outside while I visited with my mom.

Miss Lyla the ice cream cone, and her dad, Christopher

In the evening we went over to our new neighborhood and went trick or treating.  Our soon to be across the street neighbors offer hot dogs and nachos to families wandering around.  Another neighbor carves the most amazing pumpkins, big elaborate ones.  This year he carved faces of Pirates of the Caribbean characters that were so realistic Orlando Bloom looked hot with a candle flaming behind his face.  And some other neighbors, new to the ward, set up a haunted forest in their backyard.  It was spooky.  I was glad we went before it got dark because the children were somewhat freaked out even in the light.  

I was thinking, next year, we could make apple cider donuts.  I thought it would be a nice addition to the neighborhood festivities.  Then I spoke to someone who lives in the next cul-de-sac down who told me she gave out about 300 pieces of candy.  I don't want to make 300 apple cider donuts so I may need to come up with some other fun new tradition.

The children were totally into trick-or-treating.  They ran from house to house excited to be getting candy.  I was delighted that on Tuesday, Brandt's homework assignment was to sort his candy any way he chose: by size, type, like/dislike, or color.  Brandt chose color.  He had mostly brown; lots of chocolate.