Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Halloween Wars


There's a parade at school, a pirate party, a corn maze, a haunted house, a flashlight scavenger hunt, a school party, trunk-or-treat, visits to the great-grandmas to show off the costumes, and a few birthday parties mixed in and finally it all culminates with tonight the big Trick-or-Treat affair. Well, it seems like a fight to determine which is better, most fun -what would you do again. Here is what I learned.

All of the parties are fun. In fact, I should be brave and throw one. However, it is just more days of sugar, sugar, sugar..
The corn maze and the haunted house don't necessarily have sugar (unless you have to buy a treat on the way home to cheer up or calm down a frightened or frustrated alien)
Trunk-or-Treat is for little, little kids the ones you can't let walk up the stairs to someones door alone. They can collect a whole bucket full of candy in 15 minutes and be done for the year. However, for any kid that can go trick-or-treating...trunk-or-treat is a lot of preparation - dressing up for a dip in a big candy bowl...so, if I want the aliens to just have more candy - this is a must, but since I don't...wouldn't do it again.
Visits to the Great-Grandma's to show off the costumes - now this was fun - after the 15 minute burst of trunk-or-treating we made our visits - already made up, it was a nice visit. And the aliens got the biggest fright of the whole season at Granny's house with her handmade Halloween scary man on her front porch.
Trick-or-Treating is where its at. Socializing - running...so much running. Littlest witch, who is 3...just kept chanting "faster, faster, faster...more candy, more candy, more candy!" It was quite entertaining. We have town homes across the street from us - and they were fun because there are a lot of houses close together. Buckets got very heavy by nights end and everyone was exhausted.

Here are the hi-lights of the season...


Visiting with family and friends definitely tops the list...here is great-aunt Susan who came trick-or-treating - and gave birthday boy Grandpa a night at home with Grandma passing out candy.

It was definitely the year of the witch...we had 3 witches at our house and here is another from the neighborhood, this witch and the oldest witch at our house got to trick-or-treat by themselves one street away from the rest of us...oooh!

Here is the scary man on Granny's porch - the scariest fright for the gang of the whole season - he's not real - but he seems eerily creepy and almost real!




On the way to one of the many parties - means getting ready in the broad daylight...and putting your sass on. Parties were definitely fun.

The witch costumes made cool shadows and we played with shadows while waiting for their ride to the flashlight scavenger hunt!


Passing out candy was as popular as trick-or-treating..everyone wanted to hold that bowl and look out the window for looming trick-or-treaters.




The parade at school was kind of fun...at least you get to see how your costumes rank among the kids peers. I'd say we did pretty good. Though, it really was the year of the witch.

And Trunk-or-treat...this was my first time every attending such an event ...and man..it was just about dumping candy and it was over faster than you could blink.


But, at least they all looked cute.

Monday, October 22, 2007

Conference Center Activities

We had regional stake conference yesterday. We were one of the stakes invited to attend AT the conference center instead of via satellite. I thought it would be a great opportunity for all of the aliens to experience the conference center, as children under 8 are usually not invited to attend things there. Plus, the conference was presided over by President Hinckley, who also spoke and President Packer, who also spoke. I kept saying how lucky we were to get to go. We had to get up early, we had to go really early to get seats...we were there a very long time and it was a long day - even with all of the books, writing utensils and fruit snacks I brought. I thought I had kind of lost the battle of getting the aliens to appreciate how "neat" it was...when my grandmother asked Bear what his favorite part was and he said "the end." And Flower said, "when we left". I thought they just didn't get it. But, then I found these tucked in one of the books we brought and I thought...maybe something sunk in. Frog has such interesting artistic vision...




PS Elder Eyring wasn't there....

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Ice Cream Heaven


Whoever thought of this was brilliant. At the State Fair a few weeks ago - we just happened to go on the day of the Ice Cream Festival. All You Can Eat Ice Cream! Every Utah Ice Cream producer was there with a stand. Fat Boy Ice Creams were a favorite. The BYU Dairy was there - I didn't remember their ice cream being so good. As you can see, we all enjoyed it plenty. Seriously...good idea. We were in ice cream HEAVEN!!



Friday, October 12, 2007

Back from Blog Vacation

I haven't posted in a month. A month! First, it was because Alien Mommy was in town and I wasn't taking the pictures, Alien Mommy was. Then, it was just cause...well, life happens. Fall TV happens and can take every spare minute you have. Plus, alien life is so much more difficult than I thought and drama has been a constant. But, now I'm back. Back from Blog-Vacation. And - "Its COLD outside"! (Groundhog Day Radio Voice)


Here are the not-so bundled and freezing aliens this morning waiting to walk out to the bus. Adapting to the weather here is very exciting for the aliens who have been used to heat, heat, heat all year round. Its apparently difficult to remember your coat/jacket/scarf all the time and it is impossible to remember where you left them - if you aren't used to carting them around. I walked the entire UT Aquarium with 4 jackets- for fear of them being lost. I can only re-buy jackets so many times when I'm already broke!

Here's an interesting fashion statement. I insisted she wear tights today when Frog showed up at the breakfast table in a skirt - because its COLD. Then, she came back downstairs with this lovely combination. The tennis shoes match - don't you see?? And I love the patterned tights...

It all works so well...here is the full ensemble. Uh-huh, nice Frog, nice