Halloween

Turns out I didn't take a single picture on Halloween.  I had taken pictures of the kids on other days, and doing it again on Halloween seemed overkill.  We did some straightening up around the house in the morning, we made rootbeer in the afternoon, and in the evening Kent and Guy took the kids--Brandt, Blythe, and Brick--trick-or-treating while I hung out at the house with Mikayla and Cora and handed out candy.  It was pleasant enough that we sat out on the porch and watched all the neighbors go by and ate hotdogs and nachos from the Hills across the street.  Grandma Sue came over to see the kids and play games, and before the night was over, Eugene and Sharae had arrived with their kids as well as Crew and Griffin, all of whom wanted to trick-or-treat but live in lame-o neighborhoods where truck-or-treat is the thing.  So dumb.  A big part of the excitement of Halloween is running around the neighborhood with your friends getting candy.  Going from car to car lacks all excitement, and whoever came up with that idea should be horsewhipped.  Brandt and Blythe both held out for a long time and came home with way more candy than ever before.  We also got donuts from Stice's, scones from Helquists, our homemade rootbeer at the Hills, and a spook alley at the Howell's.  Plus, Jim Cutler had his amazing pumpkins again, this year all Star Wars themed.  They were remarkable!  But through all this, I didn't take a picture.  Happy Halloween anyway!

Field Trip Friday #44 Trick or Treating and Lego Screaming

For Field Trip Friday this week, we went up to Grandma Sue's office building to do trick-or-treating.  Offices all along her floor were open for children and grandchildren to come by in their costumes and get candy.  The kids thought it was a great idea, and we took Brick along with us too.  Several of the guys in Grandma Sue's office were in costumes too, and many of the offices were decorated.  There was a fairly creepy "student" mannequin outside my mom's office, and the kids stood far away from him.  He looked real-ish, but not quite human, and we thought it would be funny to have a picture.  Blythe wouldn't join us.  Brandt only came over because he had his lightsaber and I sat on the student's lap.  They had made a student ID card for him, with a name and everything, but I can't remember now what his name was.

The second part of our field trip was to go over to the library to see a Lego model of the Salt Lake Temple.  It was built with over 35,000 pieces and looks super cool.  There is even an angel Moroni on the top (a gold painted Obi-Wan Kenobi figure).  There were several other smaller constructions and Brandt in particular really liked it.  

Just outside the room where the Legos were, there was a large King Kong figure.  It was advertising the original movie being shown as part of the Film Archive Series the library has each semester.  It was big and scary and Brick shot it with his gun, a gun we probably shouldn't have really had in the library, but it was green and plastic and carried by a two year old, so I couldn't imagine anyone would actually feel threatened.  As we walked back across campus to the car, we had to make a stop at the outdoor sculpture garden of the MOA.  The kids love to climb around on the metal statues.  All in all, it was a good field trip.

Brick kept stopping along the way to say to passing students, "I Batman!"

Yep.  The cutest Batman ever.

Batman, Anna, and Anakin on Buck

  

Halloween at School

Yesterday were class parties for both Brandt and Blythe.  I had signed up to help with Brandt's party, which was in the afternoon, just before school got out.  The costume parade was in the morning, however, so I went over to watch parading and took Brick and Cora to get them (mostly Brick) out of the house and to give Mikayla a break as she just had a second surgery on Wednesday and is recovering.  Brick was happy to be out and running around (he kept escaping out of the gym and running off down the hall.  Don't tell Mikayla!), Cora was happy with Rachel LaComb who was happy to have her, and we met up with Dawn, McKenna, and Grayson, too.  Brick was thrilled to see Brandt and Blythe come by with their classmates, and McKenna gave both of them a hug as they walked past.  It is fun to see how creative the kids are with their costumes.  This was Brandt's last year (sad face).

I wasn't in Blythe's class party, but I did pop in to take a class picture while I was with Brandt's class.  I took lots of pictures of Brandt's classmates, and suppose I will do the same for Blythe at Christmas.

That small grey-haired head is McKenna.

She and Grayson were both dressed as vampires.

 

Cora wasn't so sure about the costumes.

Blythe's class

Back row: Mrs. Fueger, Jordan, Cora, Summer, Maggie, Maeve, Sal, William, Chase, Matthew, and Titus

Front row: Blythe, Rylee, Anna, Lauren, Sierra, John, Tavin, Mason

Pictures from Brandt's class party--

Brandt is trying to guess what Alex is acting out.

 

Mmmmmmmmmmm

Donut! 

Brandt and Owen

Brandt's class

Top row: Grant, Britton, Bekah, Josephine, Kelton, Owen, Austin, Abi, Brighton, Mrs. Harrington, Lisa, Emma, Matthew, and Greyson

Middle row: Joseph, Alex, Brandt, Francisco, Mikayla, Josh, Kayla, Abbie, Julia

Front row: Oakley, Kylie, Ella, Ash, and Kadence

Carving Pumpkins

After school today, the kids and I carved pumpkins.  I have them cleaned out before they got home from school, so it was just a matter of carving.  Brandt wanted a Star Wars themed pumpkin, and we found a fairly simple storm trooper pattern.  We poked lots of holes for Brandt to follow, and then he cut almost all of it himself.  It turned out pretty well.  Blythe was off playing, so she carved hers later while I was making dinner.  As a result of timing, there is no picture of her.  She'll probably be mad at me years from now when she realizes she was not photographed.  Sorry, Blythe.  I love you as much as I love Brandt.

McChord's Maze & Ward Halloween Party

My mom took the morning off to help Mikayla today (I was at school), but then decided to take the afternoon off as well.  She suggested we go to McCoard's Nursery to do their corn maze and other Halloween-y, pumpkin patch stuff.  We were going to take Donovan, too, but when we went to pick him up, he was having a nap.  So we went with Brandt, Blythe, Brick, and Cora.  It wasn't too cold, there was no one else around, and the kids really liked it.  I plopped Cora in the giant corn box and took pictures, then added the other kids too.  We went through their corn maze looking for markers to make sure we were on the right path, and each of the children selected a small pumpkin from the patch.  Brandt pulled Blythe, Brick, and Cora around in a wagon sort of thing, and we raced rubber duckies down pipes.  It was fun to be with Grandma Sue with cousins.

I seriously can't get over how darling!!!!! Cora is.  She is so sweet.  I could just eat her up.

Money shot!

I could eat Brick up, too.

I would have to be really hungry, but I could eat all four of these yummy little people.

I think I've taken this a bit too far, because that sounds creepy.

I sure do love them, though!

Brick on the run through a race course. 

The kids were supposed to bounce on the big balls and see who could make it through the fastest.

They just ran around.

Funny faces!

 

I kept saying, "Brick, look at me! Look at me! Hey, you! Look at me!"

Nope.

We were the only people at the pumpkin patch.

These were guns set up to shoot targets.

Shooting would happen later in the day, or maybe if you paid extra money.

We didn't stay, and we didn't pay.

Fun enough to pretend.

We dropped Brick and Cora off at home and almost immediately got ready for our ward Halloween party and chili cook-off.  Several weeks ago, I ordered the kids' costumes online, and we received them back pretty quickly.  There was, however, one small problem--Blythe's costume arrived in an adult size, even though I had ordered the child size.  The company couldn't send me a child size because they didn't carry them, so they refunded my money and told me to keep the costume.  So presto! I had a costume.  It isn't something I would have chosen myself, but since it was here, I went ahead and wore it.  I think it was called Black Widow Bride and came complete with spider web accents and a black veil.  I put on some scary make-up, and along with Anna of Arendelle, Anakin Skywalker, and a dad, we went off to the party.  We all ate chili and rolls and then the children ran around playing games while Kent and I visited with neighbors.  It was all great fun!