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Our Halloween of 2011

We had a good Halloween weekend and by weekend I mean 4 days of kids not being in school.  They had Thursday off for Staff development day, then Friday off for Nevada day then of course, Saturday and Sunday.  It was a crazy weekend but a good weekend.  On Thursday, we went to find stuff for the boys costumes, then on Friday we stayed home and I worked on Dallin's while Calvin worked on his own.  He was making armor out of boxes, but then decided not to use them and just wear his camo suit (p.j.'s...shhh!) that I got for him.  I wish he did use the armor because he was pretty creative with his costume.  Anyway, Dallin was Link (from Zelda).  Everyone was asking if he was an elf or Robin Hood, but some people got it right.  Dallin was good about it though, at least on the outside.  Elsa has been reading all about Kit Kittredge from American Girl and has grown to love her, so she decided she would be Kit.  I talked her into dressing up in Kit's hobo clothes since it would be way less expensive and easier.  I made her overalls out of an old pair of Clint's jeans, actually two pairs, (he's not that big and she is quite tall).  She wore her Kit Kittredge t-shirt and my hat to complete the costume.  Abby wanted to be many things and kept changing her mind.  First she wanted to be a Barbie, then Hannah Montana, then Barbie again and that stuck for awhile, then she told me one day she wanted to be a girl spider with a purple bow.   She's always been very specific with her costumes.  Last year she was Hello Kitty as a ballerina and the year before she was a Gingerbread girl and if you asked, "Oh, are you a gingerbread man?" Without thinking much of it.  She would quickly tell you "No, I'm a gingerbread girl."  Anyway, when we went to Texas, her cousin had a Monster Halloween birthday party, and she was a Girl spider with a bow.  Then, for our ward's Trunk or treat and for Halloween she wanted to be Barbie.  So since we already had a wig I let her be a barbie.  She just wore some of her own clothes and some dress-ups and put the wig on and voila, she was Barbie.  I did make her put the spider costume on so I could get a picture though. 
Our ward Trunk or treat/chili cook-off went well and the kids got lots of candy.  Then, on Halloween we went to the Springs Preserve.  They decorated it Halloween-y and different companies in Vegas were part of it and did games, passed out candy and other stuff.  There was even a haunted house which we waited until the end of the night because the wait to go through it was an hour.  We went to all the different booths and the kids got a few pieces of candy, then we went back to the haunted house.  After waiting only about 15 minutes we got in.  I was expecting to stay out with Abby, since at the Ward's party she didn't want to go through the spook alley that the young men/young women put together because it looked scary.  She went through the haunted house though and was fine until this stupid ghost skeleton jumped out at us.  It startled me even, but it traumatized poor Abby.  She cried all the way through....yep she made it through and didn't turn back.  Of course I still have imprints on my hand where she was holding it.  Just kidding.  At the end they had candy in a box for the kids to take and I told Abby she could get as much as she wanted, she deserved it.  After that we went to one last stop to the gift shop where they had a candy station.  When we got there they had so much candy that they were handing it out by huge handfuls, then the kids went back for more on the way out.  Their buckets were full so we felt it was time to head home.  (And it was a school night).

 Didn't she make a cute spider?

This is Dallin's original costume.  In the other pictures of him I fixed the tunic to be one shade of green.

 Ahh, the magic of photo editing.

 Elsa was taking my picture

 Calvin making his armor.

This was Abby at the cake walk

Elsa was fishing for candy

 Abby with her little friend in the primary parade to show off their costumes.

 Here's Elsa in the parade

 The kids organizing their candy and trading with each other. 

 Mad Science was at the Springs Preserve showing some of their stuff.  This was a hydrogen bubble producer.  (For lack of the official name.)

Elsa really liked it.  When you caught the bubble in your hand it was cold and would instantly evaporate. It was pretty cool.

 In front of the grave yard.

 Pointing his finger gun at the spider

Scared of the huge spider above him.

 He was a guy from one of his computer games.  

The game is like Halo, but called Raze.

 This was her outfit on Halloween.  Very chic!

 There was one booth that had different bowls of things to feel.  One was brains, one was guts, etc.

Calvin was the only one, of our kids, who was brave enough to feel everything. 

This was Elsa at the Mad Science booth feeling these plastic balls which were soaked in water for about 6 hours.  They gave the kids their own little container of these little balls to do their own science experiment, so naturally as soon as they got home they put them in water and woke up in the morning and they were bigger.  It was pretty cool.

We had a fun Halloween weekend and now it's time to get ready for Thanksgiving, then onto CHRISTMAS!  Yeah!

Texas, a birthday and a blessing

    This month has been busy!  We had lots to do!  One thing that we did....we went to San Antonio, Texas to see Clint's side of the family (who live there, which is all but one sister in Indiana) and actually Clint's brother and family just moved from Wichita Falls, Tx. to Oklahoma city, OK. a few months ago for a better job.  They are still close though, so they came down as well and we got to see them.
    Anyway, one of his sister's, Danielle, just had a baby at the end of September.  I think it was the 22nd.  (If I'm wrong, Danielle, when you read this you can correct me in a comment.)  We went for the blessing of little Macy Samantha.  Also while we were there, her older brother, James was turning 5, so they had a Monster Halloween party for him.  It was a good weekend!  We all enjoyed being with one another.  The kids got to play with and get to know their cousins better, even Elsa was including herself more with her cousins.  We were happy to see that.  The party was fun, the blessing day went well and Macy got totally spoiled from all the people wanting to hold her.  On Monday, just our family, Danielle's family and her husband's parents went to see the Alamo.  Can't go to San Antonio and not see the Alamo, right?  It was pretty cool and the kids loved it especially when, as they walked in, a man, who worked there, handed them all a scavenger hunt paper.  They were excited to find everything on that list.  It was so fun to watch them! We spend about 2 hours there, then said our good-bye's and started our loooong journey home.

Regan (Uncle Jake's girl), Abby and Elsa making their goody bags at the party

Elsa, Calvin, Connor (Uncle Jake's boy) and Regan eating their cake

Spider Abby making her goody bag

Clint loved holding Macy!

Kit Kittredge (Elsa) ready to go to the Hobo Jungle in her hobo clothes

Connor also loved to hold little Macy

Abby holding Macy...she was happy about it
She's going through some kind of phase where she thinks she's smiling. :)

Abby with the rest of James friends eating cake

Danielle asked me if I would do the face painting, so that was my handy work.

(It's a spider with a bow....just in case you were wondering)

I forgot to mention that on Saturday night we went to a pumpkin patch.  We just took pictures though because the pumpkins were really expensive.

 Elsa, Abby, Regan, Dallin, Connor, James, Macy and Calvin in front.

 What cute kids!

 All the Singer cousins together!

 Our beautiful niece, Regan

 All the cousins with Aunt Steph

 Our good lookin' nephew, Connor

 All of them and Aunt Danielle

 Watch it Dallin...that pumpkin looks heavy!  ;)

Our silly nephew, James as Puss in Boots.  (They were giving out posters and masks to promote the new Puss n' Boots movie.)

 Us, Danielle's family, and her husband, Anthony's parents at the Alamo

 I had to take a picture of the girls drinking from the drinking fountain.  Don't ask me why.

Us in front of the Alamo

 Running to the cannon that they finally found.

 The kids in front of the well they had to find.

 

Clint and the kids with Steph right before we left to go home.

 Just the kids and Aunt Steph

 The kids, Aunt Steph and Aunt Tracy 

(Steph's best friend and "adopted" member of the Singer family.)

 The kids by the cannon!

 Another drinking fountain picture, this time Abby needed a drink.

 All of us except little Macy, who was sound asleep in her stroller.

 Our family with Aunt Steph

 The kids on the way home....when they were awake they weren't this nice to each other....or this quiet.
Well, we obviously made it home safe and sound and had a wonderful time.  Now onto Halloween!

Oh yeah!  BTW, in the last post, Who's that pumpkin head?  It was Calvin...I know....shocker!