Halloween Night--the Kids!

Halloween night was a lot of fun for all of us. Cary and Warren brought their 4 cuties down to our area, where we combined with the Howards, the Roses, the Dunns, and for a while the Harmons, to make our our trek through our neighborhood. We actually didn't hit quite as many homes this year as we did last year, but it was still fun and the kids still managed to come home with a load of sweet stuff--which we have been carefully portioning out in small, controlled amounts since. =) Our last stop was at the Dunn's, where we all hung out and talked outside while enjoying some homemade rootbeer (and a few pilfered treats--shhhh!) Aaah, and it's only the start of the holiday season. =)


Aaron "fighting the bad guys" on Halloween night as a firefighter.


Princess Sarah waving to her fans.


Aaron loved the Howard's red wagon and insisted that he hop in between every house, even though the next house was only a few steps away! I guess this was his version of the red firetruck!

Sarah and Spencer sat down and examined their finds once we got down to our final destination--the Dunn's home.

Halloween Night--the Big Kids!

The adults had almost as much fun as the kids, which is usually the case. Peep decided to wax nostalgic and go as a younger version of herself--an award-winning gymnast (hence the medal around her neck), and I decided to wax prophetic and go as a queen. Oh, wait, maybe that's getting ahead of myself. =)


This picture was supposed to be of the three girls, but our picture got crashed by Jamie in the back. Oh, well, it's a good thing we like him!

Me and Cary--no picture crashers this time.

The boys--don't ask me what Jon was doing in this picture!

The girls outside of Tami and Jamie's house.

Carving the Pumpkin

Jon did a great job carving our Halloween pumpkin. The kids were fascinated, watching everything Daddy did. Just as a word of note, the second picture, with me, Sarah, and Jon, was taken by Aaron. Not too bad of a photographer for a 4-year old!

Field Trip to Schnepf Farms

On Halloween, I had an opportunity (thanks to the 3rd grade team) to take my kids on a super fun field trip to Schnepf Farms. What made this trip extra fun was that during October, Schnepf Farms has their big Fall Festival, with all their rides and shows (including pig races, my kids' favorite!) open. The kids and teachers were invited to wear their costumes, and wanting to keep in the spirit of the holiday, but not wanting to don my complete Queen attire for a whole day on the farm in 95 degree heat, I opted to go as a less constricting black cat. I thought my homemade ears came out particularly cute. =)

The other teachers all got enough chaperones to basically take the day off from kid supervision, but I chose to spend the day living it up with my favorite 14. Although the weather was hot, the kids were whiny, and we did have one minor heart-stopper--I lost one of my 1st graders in the corn maze for 20 minutes!--I still think everyone had a fun time and I still would have chosen to spend the day with my kids instead of completely pawning them off on chaperones. But a few extra sets of hands (eyes, ears, etc.) could have come in handy, though. Maybe next field trip, I think I'll do some things a little differently.


Okay, so maybe the rides weren't Six Flags worthy, but it sure beat a day of reading and writing!

During the Pig Races, individuals were chosen from the audience to come up and "represent" one of the racing pigs. Ironically, someone from my class (including me!) was chosen for each of the 4 races, and 3 out of 4 races, we won! (Okay, I was the only one who didn't represent a winning pot-belly.) My 3 girls each won pig noses for their swift swine, which they wore with pride. =)

Trunk or Treat and Chili Cook-off!

Saturday, October 25, our ward had its annual Halloween Chili Cookoff and Trunk or Treat. As always, it was SOOO much fun, but even more importantly, out of over 20+ chili entries from our ward, I came in 2nd with my already prize-winning white chicken chili! Okay, it wasn't 1st place this time, but considering the greater number of entries I was competing against (some that included white chicken chili, so I didn't win this time on the novelty of my non-beef and tomato chili), I felt pretty good about my culinary accomplishment! Woo-hoo! In the picture, I'm holding my prize, a bottle of Tabasco sauce. Okay, so we don't use Tabasco sauce, but I may have to display it on some shelf anyway, so it's just as well. =)

As you can see, Sarah and I had a whole costume theme going--I was a queen and she was my princess. Yes, we felt very royal. Too bad we couldn' find Aaron's knight costume that he wore a couple of years ago, but he sure looked cute in his fireman costume. Sorry I don't have any pics of him--he was having too much fun to sit still long enough for something as mundane as a picture! And Jon opted not to dress up this year, going as his everyday World's Best Husband and Father. I know...what a cop-out! =)