Happy Halloween!!

So, we left carving our pumpkins to the last minute, well to the last hour I guess. We were basically intertwining carving pumpkins with putting on costumes, but my camera was going dead so you don't really get to see the chaos... The best part about pumpkin carving was Kaden. He was getting the dry heaves because of the smell and the gooey insides. He kept getting paler and paler and saying, "Mom, I feel like I'm going to throw up" He tried to battle through it but we turned his pumpkin over to dad pretty quickly. He actually had to leave the room for most of it, he made a quick appearance to tell Dusty what kind of face he wanted on his pumpkin and that was it!





Kaden's "scary face" pumpkin and Mady's Kitty



Breckyn's Kitty pumpkin and Ashlyn's cyclops



We're finally ready to go trick-or-treating! It was a nice night but I made the little ones wear sweaters under their costumes and ski socks and gloves, apparently that was overkill, they totally complained of being too hot. Oops. Well, I sent the kids off with dad, and then spent the next 2.and.a.half.hours. making cheese potato soup. It took forever!!!! (especially since I had to answer the door every two mintues for trick or treaters). My extended family showed up around 8 and the soup still wasn't done... I should just have Dusty make it next time. Anyway, here are the kids before they left to gather treats!





A Zombie Prom Queen and a Zombie Ballet Dancer. Sweet and scary at the same time!


Trick or Treat!!!!


Dark Fader, the Vampire twins and Princess Blella!

Breckyn's Birthday? Party

I know, I know, Breckyn's birthday isn't even in October! I'm over a month late! Oh well, at least we finally had her party, that's all that matters! She wanted a Halloween party so... I didn't have a choice, I had to wait until October...

We were so lucky to have a zombie prom queen grace us with her presence and help out during the party. Thanks Ash!


We painted pumpkins...


We played a few games, I only got a picture of this one. The girls had to hold an "eyeball" on a spoon and race to the end and back without dropping it. I think they liked it, they all wanted to do it more than once. Some of those kids had great balance and didn't drop their eyeballs at all!




Instead of cake, I decided it would be more fun for the girls to decorate cookies. They were so funny. They packed on all sorts of treats on the cookies but then before they ate them, they started picking stuff off. "I don't really like these..."















At the end of the party, we just put on some Halloween music and let the kids go crazy! Some of the girls why shy at dancing at first but by the end, they all got into it!


I had to put this picture in. Kaden looks like he's flying the broomstick, uh backwards. And he did have his costume on but I think after wearing it all day he got a little sick of it and peeled it off. So now he's sporting mismatched jammies.

Kaden's Preschool Party

Kaden's preschool had their Halloween program on Thursday. It was so cute! They got to parade around in their costumes, put on a cute program for the parents and then go trick-or-treating. Kaden has been practicing his songs for the last month now. I think I could have sang along to all of them... I didn't though.




Before they started their program Kaden was cracking us up. He kept pointing us out and saying things like, "Daddy!", "Hey, there's Grandma! Hi Grandma!", "Mommy! Hi mommy!" He pretty much didn't stop until they started singing. They sang a bunch of cute Halloween songs. Kaden sang the first couple of songs with his mask on! It was so funny. You could tell he was being very animated but we couldn't see any of it! We finally got him to take his mask off.



This was Kaden't favorite song:
"A little baby ghostie went out on Halloween"
"Along came a witch that the ghost had never seen"
"Mommy ghost came flying, she heard her baby cry"
"And the witch that scared her baby, went flying up so high"

Witches Night Out!

For the past few years now, my neighbor Jodi has hosted a Witches Night Out Party and it's always tons of fun! Wearing a witch hat is mandatory and as you can see some of the ladies get into full costume! (I had to keep Cody in this picture, he looks like he's levitating!)




Our resident storyteller Julie told us a creepy story and unfortunately I didn't have my camera on Jodi when she screamed and about dropped her plate of food.



We always play a few "thrilling" games and this year was no exception. Don't let Glinda the Good Witch fool you. She was actually a serial killing werewolf who pulled the wool over all our eyes. Now that's a wolf in sheeps clothing.




Everyone brings a treat to share and I brought Oreo Balls. They were a hit! (and so easy to make)




Thanks again Jodi for the fantastic party!

running!!!

hey this is ashlyn i have been doing this 5k training at school and i am off track so me and my mom are going to run on Mondays,Wednesdays,and Fridays so we just ran 20 minutes!!!!!! i am so excited cause it is so fun running with my mom.

Spoooooky dinner party

For the last couple of years my parents have hosted a Halloween dinner party for our family. This year they went all out. First, when we show up the house is decorated all spooky with tombstones and spiders and webs all with a black light shining on them... the black light doesn't really show up well in the pictures. (Also, these pictures are crappy, our camera was on the nighttime setting so all the pictures in the house look a little weird)



Then we were greeted at the door by a crazy, hunchbacked mad scientist... my kids were totally giggling, they thought grandpa looked awesome! Breckyn says "Grandpa looks freaky!"


Various family members being scared



The black and orange cuisine was spooktacular! We had Caesar salad with orange colored dressing, black cherry jello with orange whipped cream, orange bread with green garlic butter, and black noodles with orange colored chicken alfredo sauce. It was yummy, eventhough it didn't look very appetizing!


Claire was not about to eat any of it.


The kids spent a lot of time dancing to Halloween music, they had so much fun. They LOVE to dance apparently.


My mom had a cute Halloween craft for the kids to make




At the end of the night, my mom gave all the kids some new Jammies. And of course they had to put them on right away!

It was really fun! Thanks mom and dad for the great party!

So, I was just on my brother's blog and he had this picture posted and I totally had to steal it. This is what a good picture looks like when someone who knows what they are doing takes a picture with a really nice camera. The black light effect looks nice and creepy behind my mad scientist dad.

Dusty's dream come true...

Dusty has been trying for years to get me to go mountain biking with him and on Saturday I finally did. He was so EXCITED! He took me to Corner Canyon because it has wider trails and it's not too rocky, plus beautiful scenery. I had a lot of fun even though we got rained on coming back down, it just made me feel more "exteme"! I must admit my hands were a little shaky because of my death grip on my handle bars all the way down the mountain.

Poker again? I think we're addicted

Okay, we're not really addicted. Our candy poker tradition actually started with Dusty's family when we were just newlyweds! We hosted the first candy poker night the first year we were married in our tiny apartment. All siblings who were married were invited (there were just 3 couples) and we even dressed up back then! We've played every Halloween since, for the last 14 years! Last Friday night, we hosted the party once again!




Can't read my, can't read my, no you can't read my poker face...



So, everyone busted up laughing because Tim lost his hand to the dummy hand which means he had to match the candy pot in the middle... all 60 pieces! Better luck next time Tim!



Again, we did not leave with more candy than we brought. I don't think we even broke even! Lame. For the first time ever, Ryan was the big winner!