Halloween Week 2011

With kids in preschool and elementary school, Halloween week can be very busy for us!  We had a fun and eventful week with school events and our ward harvest festival, and then of course Halloween night.  Every year by the time we get to Halloween night, I’m ready for it to be over!  We started out our weekend with festivities at Sawyer’s school on Tuesday.  He dressed up as Indiana Jones with a few things we found around the house and a hat we painted from Goodwill.  I also painted his face to add some facial hair.  I didn’t take many pictures but he had a fun party with his class where he came home with lots of treats. 

On Friday, Maddie and Carter celebrated Halloween at school.  (They had Monday the 31st off for a staff development day.)  Libby also dressed up for the kids parade at school.

  They had a big parade where the kids all walked around in a giant circle so the parents could all see their costumes.  Maddie was so cute with Libby.  She had her sit with her so she could watch all the kids come by.  When it was time for Maddie’s class to walk around, she got to walk with her. (We had a hard time figuring out Maddie’s costume this year so she ended up being Smarty Pants!)

This year Carter is OBSESSED with Harry Potter.  So naturally he wanted to be Harry Potter even though he looks more like Malfoy! 

After the kids were all done with the parade, “Thriller” started playing and all the teachers and staff came out from the audience and started dancing!  It was so cute. Someone even posted it on Youtube, although you can’t hear the music on the video but you get the point.  Maddie’s teacher is the guy in the motorcycle costume.

The kids came home with cookies, cupcakes and candy from their class parties.  The next day was the Ward Harvest Festival and Trunk or treat.  Carter was not in the mood to be photographed. 

 

Carter found one of his friends from baseball and was happy to see that he also is a Harry Potter fan!

Carter is so cute with Libby.  He told me that night, “Mom, Libby is so cute it makes me want to cry”  Melts my heart!

Maddie was such an adorable big sister and took Libby around to all the different carnival booths. She even won the cupcake walk twice!  She was in heaven with her cupcake.

To finish off the night the kids did Trunk-or-treat and got tons of candy.  (Keep in mind they’ve had candy for two days straight and its not even Halloween yet!)

Then on Sunday after church we broke out the pumpkins and carved them.  Here in Sourthern California you can’t carve your pumpkin until the day before Halloween otherwise it gets moldy.  The kids had fun and Maddie and Carter are old enough now to actually carve it themselves.  They always need a little help from Mommy getting the guts out.  Sawyer drew his face all by himself and I carved it.

Here are the kids with their pumpkin creations.

Later that evening the kids sorted through all their candy from Trunk or Treat.  It brings back memories of my sorting and trading days with my siblings.  I overheard Maddie say, “I have here one limited edition tootsie roll up for grabs….”   After they were all done it appeared that Sawyer isn’t a very good bargainer yet, he ended up with the least candy.

Proof of why you should look through your kids candy before they eat it.  I think these were a decade old.  They even had a myspace website on the wrapper.  Sad thing is, I think Carter actually ate one!

Finally Halloween night rolled around.  We went to my parents house to trick or treat and my mom made yummy nachos with homemade chili.  Kristy and Wes and Chris and Amanda joined us too so we had quite a group.  Libby had such a great time and once she got to the first house and got her candy she got the routine down and kept going the entire night.  She got a lot of reaction from people who said that she was the cutest trick or treater of the night.  When her pumpkin bucket got so heavy she could hardly carry it, she would not let us hold it for her.  There was no way she was letting go of her candy.

Amanda and Chris had gone to a Halloween party as Steve Jobs and his Ipad. Amanda wore her Ipad trick or treating but Chris didn’t don his costume.  Aren’t they cute?…

Here is a picture of all the kids when they were all done trick or treating.  Libby still won’t lose sight of her bucket.

Again more bartering and trading with their cousin Brady. 

Disneyland x 3

We’ve been very lucky to be able to go to Disneyland 3 times in the last 2 months. Usually it is only for a few short hours in order to get home in time to pick up the big kids from school but we have lots of fun and best of all, I get reimbursed because I’m doing a mystery shop! We had a great time enjoying all the fun Halloween décor that was up in early September. Libby is at such a fun age now and really notices all the details. She loves to go to Disneyland and brings it up frequently!

We got to have breakfast at Carnation café and the kids ordered whatever they wanted! We even took home croissants and a cinnamon roll.

We only had time for a few rides and this time Sawyer begged to go on the teacups but that is one ride I can’t handle with my motion sickness. So he settled for a picture in the teacup outside of the ride.

We always try to ride the carousel. It is one of my favorite places to take pictures of my kids, especially when they are little. There’s something about the wonder and excitement in their eyes.

At the end of our day at Disneyland I had one last stop to make for my shop, the Dole Pineapple whip. I had looked forward to it all day but after such a huge breakfast I couldn’t even think about eating a pineapple whip. I heard the cute family in back of me in line talking about how they would share one cause they are so expensive so when I got up the register I bought them one, it made their day, and mine. Sawyer and Libby shared one and it was so cute to see Sawyer feed it to her on our way out. He is the most adorable big brother any sister could ask for.

A couple weeks later we went to Disneyland again with our friends and neighbors, the Garcias. Melissa and I are great friends and it is so much fun to have our kids the same ages. Dylan is about 8 months younger than Sawyer and Libby is only a few months older than Aidan. They have so much fun together. We started our day at Goofy’s kitchen. The kids loved all the yummy food and the characters.

Libby loved Goofy when we arrived but started getting nervous with all the other characters in large costumes. She did love the princesses. She would hug them and get so excited when they’d come by.

Beauty (Sleeping Beauty) is her favorite and she was very excited to see her.

It was a short day and we only went on a handful of rides but we had a great time and the kids loved being together.

Just the other day we were able to make it to Disneyland again! This time we went to California Adventure and had lots of fun! The Little Mermaid ride had NO LINE! We thought it was so cute and Libby was entranced the whole time.

Our family’s ALL TIME favorite ride is Toy Story’s Midway Mania. We had a blast and the lines were short.

LOVE this face!

Sawyer and I enjoyed going head to head and he was very happy to say he beat me on accuracy!

We never tire of going to Disneyland and can’t wait to get back and see all the Christmas lights!