Trunk or Treat

This is the 1st Trunk or Treat in 4 years that we have attended that I have not been on the Activities Committee. I have dreamed of the day our family could attend an activity without planning it or staying til 10pm cleaning up. That dream will have to wait, since the Elder's Quorum was assigned the Spook Alley and Chad is still the president. He needed help so we started setting up at 8am this morning and finished at noon.  The trunk or treat started at 6pm and everyone went home just after 8pm. It took us another 1 1/2 hrs to take it all down and didn't get home until 9:30pm. Ugh!

I really enjoyed getting the girls ready this year. Putting on makeup and doing hair. Good times!

 I tried to talk jackson into letting me make a cracker costume to go with his cheese head so he could be cheese and crackers. As you can see, I was not successful in convincing him. Ressa and Lauren were having a blast since their good friends, Audrie and Haylee came to visit from Flagstaff. Also, Lauren and Peyton Stone came, too!

 Ladies and Gentlemen! Your judges! Lauren won an award for being such a cute fruit bat.

Carson and Jackson had a good time, I think. At least this picture makes it look like they had a good time. Chad and I were so busy with the Spook Alley that we didn't get to spend much time with our kids. :(

 The Larsons. We sure miss them since they moved to Flagstaff while they go to school!

 The older kids came home from school after I had my little lunch party and they wanted a turn at bobbing for donuts. Carson couldn't stop laughing to take a bite!

Let the Spookfest begin!

This month for Taco Tuesday lunch, I added a little "Halloween". I like to mix it up a little every now and then. Keep it fresh. So kids came in their costumes and we played couple fun games. I wanted to make some decorations and found these super cute hanging critters on marthastewart.com. See how they turned out!

So easy and fun to make! I want to make a few more when I have some time to add to the collection.

The first game we played was "Pin the face on the pumpkin". Here is Lauren with her blind fold, feeling her way around the pumpkin. I couldn't believe how well she did!

Our little bat and her jack-o-lantern! She loves Jackson's old bat costume and flaps around, squeeking like a bat.

Next, we lined up each of the kids with a donut hanging from a string and they tried to eat it without using their hands. The key word is "tried". I will use mini donuts next time with kids this little.

Then it was time for the big kids to have a go at all the fun. Jessica beat us handily, but we had a good time!

Fall Break

Went to San Diego for Fall Break and stayed at my sister, LeaAnn's. She recently had back surgery and my mom had been there for two weeks to take care of her. The kids and I went on the third week so I could help out a little and of course, enjoy the beach. My brother Adam and his family also moved to the area a couple months ago so it was great to see everyone!

I think this is the coolest looking animal there. Can't even remeber what it was called, dukopi or something like that. A cross between a zebra & giraffe.

We spent a fun day with the our cousins, Eli, Enoch, Ella, Issac, Hannah, and Lily. With Adam in the Navy, they have always lived in far away places, but now our kids can get to know eachother. They have such a wonderful family! We missed having Chad with us all week. He was not able to get away from work since they had to layoff 6 people and he had to be there for that. While he was delivering the bad news, we were sitting on the beach, relaxing. I felt so bad for him (and the people they laid off).