Halloween 2014

We left all the decorations from Grace's birthday party up all month and felt like we got to celebrate the heck out of Halloween this year. Grace and Cori got to get some extra milage out of their costumes at the daddy/daughter Halloween party for activity days. I wish I could have seen Cori bust out his Thriller moves in that get up. Grace and Grant also got to wear their costumes to their student recital at their piano teacher's house.

Our ward trunk or treat was the Wednesday night before Halloween. I did not take a single picture that entire day. I'm currently serving in our YW presidency and I work with the best group of Mia Maids. They wanted to do a spook ally for the ward activity and we spent a lot of time preparing. That day, I met up with some friends early in the afternoon at the Church parking lot - trunk or treat is hosted in the parking lot here. So we set up a series of shade tents to build our spook ally. While there, I completely drained the battery in my car playing movies for the little kids who were with us. The rest of the afternoon/evening kind of followed suit. Cori was my knight in shining armor. In the end, the spook ally was a success - the girls did a great job and had so much fun. My kids made it to the trunk or treat with their costumes on because Cori took care of all that business at home. (I have to insert here that trunk or treat was the wednesday after Super Faye Day. I still don't know how I survived to tell this tale!)

I was more prepared when Halloween rolled around. We got dressed up and headed to our friends' house for dinner and trick or treating.

Grace as Hermoine. Grant as Boba Fett- a costume he purchased on his own with his birthday funds. Jeffery as the frog prince (the darling costume my mom made Grant years ago) - I kissed him all night long. And Eden as the 'Costco Witch' for the second year in a row. The original plan was for her to be Doc McStuffins- hence the outfitting she got on her birthday. But the night of, she informed us that Doc McStuffins was not a good costume for Halloween. She wanted to be a witch. I didn't put up a fight. She ran upstairs, dug her stuff out of the dress up bin and put it all on right over her clothes.

Somewhere in the midst of that week we carved pumpkins.

We had a yummy chili dinner and then the dads took the kids out to get their candy buckets filled. Donika and I got cozy in our camp chairs on the driveway and chatted and handed out candy. It was a splendid evening.

And Halloween isn't Halloween around here unless we have a little Just Dance event. Grace spent the night with our trick or treating friends, but we hurried home and got Jeffers in bed and fired up the big screen.

Super Faye Day

There is a sweet girl named Faye in Grant's primary class who was diagnosed with an aggressive form of leukemia back in September. This is Faye's second battle with leukemia. She beat it when she was four and it was a dreadful surprise when just short of her 3 year anniversary of being cancer free the disease returned with a fury. Our ward family rallied immediately. There were t-shirt and bracelet sales, lemonade stands, water balloon fights at the soccer fields, and online campaigns. My friend Stephanie decided she wanted to organize "a little community yard sale" to raise some additional funds. She roped me into the effort. I was so happy to help, though I am not a fan of yard sales ( at all!). Stephanie is one of these wonderful people who can't plan small. At all. And the little community yard sale grew and grew until it could only be called Super Faye Day.

The donations came in so quickly that we had to adjust and change plans as quickly as they were made. Many generous people made it possible for us to pull off what ended up being an incredible event. Storage units were donated and we spent our weekends filling them up. We had 9 units packed by the time the sale rolled around. It was clear that no one's yard would hold all this goodness, and so we secured the church parking lot. A local moving company volunteered a moving truck and some workers to help us get everything from the storage units to the Church. We spent three days sorting and organizing, and then moved things out to the parking lot the night before. The constabulary added the Church to their rounds that night, and a team of wonderful guys from our ward took night shifts watching over everything till the sun came up.

The silent auction tent was my baby. We had over 50 donations from the community. Gift baskets galore and lots of vendor services and gift certificates. (I was also in charge of procuring the portable potty as we kept the building locked tight. Not the most exciting contribution, but necessary.)

Faye's grandma got us all aprons to wear so that people could identify sale workers quickly. So handy- I really need to get me one to use around the house!

Coach Rose's sister is in our ward, and she got this basketball donated to the auction. Any guesses who won the bid for it? That's right. Mr. Husband-of-mine is getting a display case for Christmas.

Another friend was in charge of a little kids carnival. Games, prizes, face painting and go cart rides. There was also a bake sale that was stocked by members of our stake and community.

The fire department came for a couple of hours and gave tours of their truck.

Faye's older brother set up his lemonade stand. All the lemonade was donated by Chic Fil A who also sent their cow over for pictures later in the morning. I didn't get a great picture of Mitchell, but he was wearing over-alls and Groucho glasses. So cute!

Also on the grounds for pictures were these two sisters dressed as two other famous sisters. Pretty fun.

The event raised over $15,000 for Faye's family. We couldn't believe it. Actually, we kind of could believe it. People are so very good.

the third visit

Sara and Kevin Came to town the next weekend. It was another busy weekend of sporting events, fundraiser preparations and church stuff. They took the big kids to the movies one evening. And we can always count on uncle Kevin for some board game action.

We did a little swimming. We kept to the hot tub.

We pulled the big kids out of school one day to go to the Space Center. I really love that place. Fortunately Sara and Kevin loved it too.

nine

When we asked Grace what she wanted to do for her birthday, she got a pile of paper and started making lists. Lists of people to invite, list of party theme ideas, lists of possible activities, lists of food to be served. Very quickly, she settled on celebrating with a day at Hogwarts. The first item of business was getting the invitations out by owl mail. Each of her buddies got a parchment signed by Minerva McGonagall inviting them to a Hogwarts preview. Rolled up in the letter was a ticket for the Hogwarts Express. (I found EVERYTHING for this party on pinterest. I take credit for none of the cute ideas...)

Her birthday fell on a friday and we went for the gusto. Cori, Jessica, Eden, Jeffery and I met Grace at her school for lunch. And then we raced home to finish up preparations for the big night.

Gryffindor scarves and Harry glasses, check.

Fair warning given to all incoming guests, check.

Resident ghost appearing in the loo, check.

(Edible) Dumbledor's pensive, check.

Hagrid cake, check.

Feast prepared, check.

Platform 9 3/4 ready for passengers, check.

We didn't do a sorting hat- we just decided that everyone would join us in Gryffindor. But there was a magical selection to be made as the kids arrived. All the wands were placed in a bag and drawn at random. Then, their first activity was painting them up!

Cori set the skeleton up at the piano. It added a nice decorative touch at the beginning of the party. Later in the evening, when it was dark and the kids were deep into their Harry Potter experience, Cori turned the player system on the piano. This caused ALL the girls in the house to begin to scream and run. There was a lot of screaming, and a lot of running. We had a good laugh about it- once the screaming had stopped.

Once the artistry at Olivander's was wrapped up, the prospective pupils moved into the kitchen for a potions class. We made smoke bubbles, rainbow potion and ooblek.

I didn't actually get pictures of the ooblek part of the class. It got a little crazy and messy. But this was the before.

After potions, everyone went out back for quidditch practice. Cori kept them busy while Jess and I cleaned up the potions classroom and got the feast ready to serve.

Back inside, they ate roasted chicken, potatoes, rolls, pensive jello and home made mac and cheese. And they drank fancy sodas from crystal goblets.

Then we watched some Socerer's Stone and opened presents. Everyone got to fill a treat bag from the trolley before grabbing their wands and heading home.

We did some final cleaning up and slept the sleep of the righteous and dead that night. But it was so much fun. Cori and I think an adult party might be in order next Halloween...