Halloween Week

The week before Halloween was very busy.  Our ward had a ward party/chili cookoff on Tuesday the 27th.  The kids and I went and had a fun time.  There was a whole LOT of chili and a few desserts.  Then the kids rotated around the building playing carnival type games in many of the classrooms.  Bree wanted to play despite the fact that most games were too old for her, but the kids running the games were sweet to let her play her way and she did a good job waiting in line for her turn, so I had to let her have her turn.  After the carnival games were done we headed outside for trunk or treat.  One of my sweet senior primary girls volunteered to take the kids around.  I think she really wanted to take Bree (she's one of Bree's buddies on Sundays) but Bree was too nervous to leave my side, so she took the boys instead.  That was nice as I could focus on Bree.  We had a good time circling the parking lot and the kids got a lot of candy.  It wasn't even Halloween yet and I felt like we had enough candy to call the whole week done!  Haha!

The kids got restless one morning so we went out to paint pumpkins.

On Friday the 30th the kids had their class Halloween parties.  I am the room mom for both Kai and Finn's classes.  That's a long story, but it is what it is this year and it works.  Finn has his class parties from 1 to 2pm and Kai's parties are from 2:30 to 3:40pm.  So, I got to school at 12:15 to start setting up for Finn's party and I was all done with parties by 3:40pm.  Poor Bree was tired but was a good sport for the day.  She missed her nap and was getting clingy and crabby by the time Kai's party was over, but I was proud of her for hanging in there.

Monster Munch

Finn's party was a Pumpkin Patch theme.  We weaved pumpkin mats, had a pumpkin ring toss, did pumpkin scratch off ornaments, and made pumpkin head bands.  Kai's part was a Monster Mash theme.  They played several minute-to-win-it-type games and decorated their treat bags into monsters.  And they also made monster magnets (with a great kit from Oriental Trading Company).  I had a good time planning the treats for their party and they had monster pudding cups, spider eggs (donut holes), monster munch, some awesome sugar cookies that another mom made, and jackolantern juice (which was super yummy and something I need to use again!).  The parties went really well and everyone had a good time.  That was a huge relief.  Only two more parties for each class this year....I think I can, I think I can, I think I can!

Finally, Halloween.  The kids were excited to go trick-or-treating and the weather was actually quite nice.  We headed over to our friend's neighborhood and began trick-or-treating right at sundown.  We covered quite a bit of ground and the kids got a whole LOT more candy.  Bree did well saying "trick-or-treat" and "thank you!" and her costume was a huge hit.  For all of the parties this year I had an astronaut (Kai), Ironman (Finn), and a cupcake (Bree).  She seriously was the cutest cupcake I have ever seen.

It was hard to get good pictures this year.  The kids were excited to get their candy and weren't very cooperative.  And I was clearly outnumbered!

I wish this picture had turned out better because this is a super cute costume.  Oh well!  I did my best!

Our pumpkins are still FULL of candy.  And there was even extra from the parties.  We have more candy than I have ever seen in this house.  And my kids don't eat it that much.  AHHH!!  But I'm glad they had such a fun Halloween.