Halloween at Our House

We have totally gotten into Halloween this year.  I decorated like crazy for the first time.  Our front porch is wide and long and I have put stuff all over it.  I have also put up spiders and bats, bones and pumpkins in the living room, family room, and entry.  A neighbor came over to talk to me the other day and when I invited her in she said, "I'm not sure I can come in.  I'm really afraid of spiders.  I almost couldn't ring your bell."  We have spiders around the front door, an enormous spider on the front porch in a giant web, and spiders all over the room I would have sat in.  I took her into the library where there are no bugs.

 

The front door and porch as you come up to the door.  

I have three ghosts hanging to the right of the door, but you can't see them in this picture.

Giant spider outside . . . 

and spiders all over inside. 

My friend Heidi has the inside of her front door covered with fun Halloween things her kids have made at school.

I love that idea and have copied it.

These are all Brandt's creations, mostly because Blythe hasn't really been to school yet.

I love them!

The entryway is crawling with bugs.

In addition to decorating, I find, during the month of October, that I feel compelled to do crafty things.  I am not a crafter by any means, but Halloween brings something out in me.  I purchase the makings of numerous crafts, but not being a natural crafter, not all my projects get done and those that do don't always turn out like I had hoped.  Still, we have done several things.

 

Mikayla wanted to make Frankenstein monster cupcakes and came over to our house to do it so we could help.

They were both cute and yummy.

Mik brought Kila who dug furiously in the yard and wound up with filthy paws.  

I had to give her a wash, just like the kids.

In addition to Frankenstein monster cupcakes, we made Rice Krispie treat candy corns.

Again, cute and tasty. 

The candy corn theme continues in a sugar cookie medium.  

These were small, only about twice the size of a regular candy corn.

I could have eaten 23 in rapid succession.

I restrained.

Somewhat.

Melted crayon pumpkins.

Looking at these pictures, it occurs to me that my "crafting" mostly involves food.

Perhaps I'll make a push over the next couple of days to do true crafty crafts.

We also went to Pumpkinland on a whim one sunny afternoon.  Pumpkinland is near Kent's office, we had gone to see him, and having about an hour, we stopped and ate popcorn as we went through the corn maze, the children climbed on the giant pumpkins, and played on the pumpkin pyramid.

I didn't have my camera with me when we went to Pumpkinland.  

It was an impromptu decision and I didn't have the camera in my purse.

So, although I took about ten pictures with my phone, only these two actually turned out.

While reading a blog, I discovered a picture editing site called picmonkey.  They have fun Halloween functions that allow you to make your pictures very spooky.  Mikayla has zombified and witched us in fun ways.  We look creepy.

Demon baby Donovan in a sink of blood.

Zombie Blythe wanting to eat Greyson's brain.

And speaking of creepy, last night we went down the street to a neighbor's house for a "haunted forest.  They live next to a small orchard and a vegetated hillside that is somewhat forest-like.  Many of the neighbor kids were dressed up in very scary masks and costumes and leapt out of the shrubbery to scare us.  Several times Brandt said, "I'm scared! I'm scared!"  Blythe, too, said she was scared, and when we finished she said, "Mom, that was really scary.  I don't ever want to do that ever again."  We'll probably go again next year.

All this fun festive holiday celebrating, and we still have three more days!

One last picture for this post.

Brandt is being Dracula.

He dramatically swept the blanket around himself as a cape and gave a sinister laugh.

The only thing missing were fangs and him saying, "I vant to suck your blood," with a cheesy accent.

Make Over

Thursday morning while I went to help in Brandt's class, Blythe went to her friends Ellie's house.  She played for an hour and then we brought Ellie home to play at our house.  Blythe said, "Mom, can we go do make over?"  "Make over" at our house is make up.  I said she could and the girls disappeared upstairs while I vacuumed downstairs.

Some time later, Blythe and Ellie reappeared, heavily made over.  Blythe said, "Mom, we did make over.  I got a bit carried away."

Understatement.

Ellie looked like a zombie.  Blythe too, but to a lesser degree.  They both had make over all over their faces, and oddly, in their belly buttons.  

"We can't clean up by ourselves.  We need your help."

So, with wipes and baby oil, I removed the make over.  Before bed, Blythe redid her make over and looked like Ellie.  I keep telling her that Halloween is still several days away.

NOT YET!!

Thursday morning we woke to this.

No! No, no, no!

I tell you, I am not ready for winter.  

I would like autumn (cool, not cold days) to linger longer.

Blythe immediately put on her new snow suit (purchased at a yard sale in Park City for only $4)

and headed outside.

Brandt did too, but he wouldn't hold still long enough for me to take his picture,

plus he was going to be late for school and I was nagging him to put on actual pants, not snow pants.

Next time.

Which I hope is not for another month.

We Attend the Theater

This morning we went to a matinee performance of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow at BYU.  It was done by Theater For Young Audiences, designed specifically for an audience full of young people.  It was a well-done production, fun and slightly scary with lots of audience participation.  The children can sit on the floor and the actors walk around them, and many are enlisted to do things.  For instance, the section we were sitting in was made to stand and act as a choir, then sing "We Gather Together to Ask the Lord's Blessing."  Kyle, a school friend of Brandt's, was singled out as "the favorite" of a female character, but just afterwards, David Davies was likewise singled out.

We ended up with quite a few extra tickets and ended up with a herd of children we took along.  Kent and I went, plus Guy and Mikayla and our friend David Davies.  In addition, we took our two kids, cousins Luke and Makenna, and five little friends from the neighborhood and school.  We managed to get everyone there, see the play, and get everyone an ice cream cone afterwards because that's what you do after you see a play.  It's a package deal--see a play, have an ice cream.  Here is a picture of all the cute kids we took along.

Luke, Brandt, Izaiah and Kyle (both in Brandt's class).

On an unrelated note, every day when I pack Brandt's lunch, I have to include three treats,

one for him, one for Kyle and one for another friend Matthew.  

Kyle is the fortunate recipient of an Oreo cookie most days.

Shaylee (a neighbor who goes to the same pre-school as Blythe and who comes to play with us each Wednesday), Ella (in Brandt's class), Makenna, Ashlyn (Shalyee's sister), Blythe.

Our Miss Blythe

A self-portrait

The other morning, I saw Blythe sitting on the family room couch reading.

She is actually reading.

The book is very repetitive and she didn't get everything right, but she is reading.

She is ready to be learning to do it for real.

On Saturday we went to my mom's house to celebrate Donovan's first birthday.

It was a "Little Man" themed party, complete with mustaches for all attendees.  

Here is our girl with a very bushy stach.

When the Photographer is Small

When we got our new camera, Brandt almost immediately appropriated it and took a lot of pictures.  

A lot of pictures.  

Here are some examples.

Bridgette.  

There were probably 16 pictures of the dog, but only this one actually looks decent.

Most of the pictures were of the south side of our north facing animal.

A dead guy hanging out on our porch.

A picture of the south side of our north facing girl.

She tells me, "Oh, I was pretending to poop."

I need to document this for future blackmail purposes. 

View of the backyard from the play house.

The day after I opened the new camera was the day Brandt took it.

He went outside and then left the camera in the play house in the pouring rain.

Fortunately, the camera was under cover and survived more than 24 hours out of the packaging.

 

This is another blackmail picture.

I said to Blythe, "What are you doing?  Is it something inappropriate?"

"No," she replied. "I'm pretending to pee."

Like that's really appropriate.

 

Fangs, just like the bat.

Again, another not so appropriate shot.

Should I even be posting these?

Bowling with the First Graders

Two weeks ago or so, the first graders had a bowling field trip.  Can you imagine coordinating 90 or so six and seven year olds to go bowling?  Miraculously, the teachers made it all look easy.  I was able to go and help and was put in charge of Brandt and five of his classmates.  They were so cute.  They were keen on bowling, happy to be together, and engaged with me.  They really make me smile.  We were bowling in a lane with bumpers, and after about the fourth time everyone had bowled, the pin collector fritzed and we had to move to a lane without bumpers.  That was certainly less fun.  There were far too many gutter balls before the problem on our first lane was fixed and we were able to go back.  Fortunately, none of the kids were competitive enough to care what their scores were, and I made an effort to be enthusiastic whenever any pins were knocked down.  It was delightful to be with the youthful, excited, interesting little people.

Ella (who has a crush on Brandt), Monica, Rodrigo, Jaden, Morgan, and Brandt

Bowlers extraordinare one and all.

Funny Children

The children said funny things this week.

A couple of days ago our neighbors were having their carpets cleaned.  The truck was making a tremendous noise and for a really long time.  We had been out running errands and as we came into the house, Blythe said, "Mom, what is making all that ruckus?"

Another day, while out running errands, Blythe said, "Mom, I have a very difficult question."  I turned off the music we had been listening to and said, "Okay, I am ready for your question."

With great seriousness Blythe then asked, "Mom, where does root beer come from?"  A difficult question indeed.  For the record, root beer is made from sassafras root.  And also for the record, that Blythe is a thinker.

One morning, Kent was helping Blythe pick out clothes to wear.  "Dad," she said, "I need two options."

On Thursday I went to volunteer in Brandt's class for the first time this year.  I put on a nicer pair of black pants and my black flat shoes.  On the way home from school, Brandt turned to me and asked, "Mom, why are you all dressed up with your fancy shoes?"  I was surprised that Brandt, a six-year old boy, would ever notice what I was wearing, and that he has been paying enough attention to know that most of the time I do very little with myself.  I suppose I should make more of an effort.

And finally, one evening while Brandt was in the bathroom brushing his teeth, he asked, "When do I get floor in my bathroom?"  Before we moved into our house, there was carpet in the bathrooms.  We pulled that all out, but we haven't replaced it with anything else, and so we still have exposed sub-floor.  Obviously it has been too long if, again, our six-year old boy has pointed it out.  I ordered tile the next morning.

Everybody Loves a Parade

We had a fun morning last Saturday.  We invited all the cousins over for breakfast and then to join us for the BYU Homecoming parade.  We had a yummy breakfast that most everyone ate--it's so hard to concentrate on food when there are fun people to run around with--and then went to the parade.  The parade is short (less than an hour) and sweet (everyone throws candy).  All the children came away with a sackful of candy, balls, coupons, and other free stuff.  Said Blythe, "I was just standing there and someone gave me a Frisbee!" That was pretty much how it went.  What a fantastic morning!

Collin, Blake, Blythe, Ava, Griffin, Luke, Mikayla, Crew, Brandt, and Kent

Waiting for the parade to pass by.

I wish Ava had been looking at me, 

but Blythe looks so cute I couldn't get rid of the picture.

The boys, watching for the start.

Now Ava is looking but not Blythe.

This was everyone's favorite float.

Because everyone loves Legos.

See how this parade works?

The spectators stand on the side of the road with their bags open

and paraders put the goods in the sack.

Fantastic!