Halloween...

Halloween this year was SO MUCH FUN!!!  I LOVE that our boys are all a little bit older now and actually understood, for the most part, the idea behind Trick or Treating.

Since Halloween was on Monday this year, we started celebrating the week before and over the weekend. The Wednesday before Halloween, I took the boys to The Scera to watch a magic show--- I expected it to be a little cheesy, but it was actually REALLY REALLY COOL!  Friday, I took the boys to Cornbelly's (click here to read the post about that); on Saturday we took our fam down to Orem to The Scera, to watch the new movie, Puss in Boots... it was HILARIOUS! (Note to the wise: Next time you find yourself at Redbox and see the movie "Puss in Boots" available, DO NOT RENT IT!!!  It's some French, kids flick and it's SO NOT the movie "Puss in Boots" you were expecting it to be!!!  It's perhaps the.worst.animated.movie.I.have.EVER.seen!!!)  Afterwards, I ran some last minute errands while the two older boys went over to their cousins house to play, Cohen went and spent some time with grandma and Spencer and the two babes went home to nap.  That afternoon, I took the 3 older boys back to The Scera to watch the play, "How I Became a Pirate" based off of the popular children's book, it was SUPER cute! If you live in Utah Valley, you MUST check out The Scera theater!  They have some of the.BEST.events/productions going on at their venue and cost of admission is ALWAYS reasonable.  Click here for more info. 

Sunday evening, we let the boys paint their pumpkins.  Personally, I like the idea of painting pumpkins SO MUCH MORE than carving them! There's not too many crafty things I HATE doing quite as much as carving pumpkins!

I'm pretty sure this is only the 2ND time I've seen Spencer ever use a blow dryer!

Earlier on Sunday afternoon, 

I spray painted MY pumpkin white 

with the intention to draw Jack Skellington's face on it later that night,

but I was busy making dinner, 

so I asked Spencer to do it.

I was worried at first that he'd mess my pumpkin up 

(can you tell I'm a total perfectionist and control freak?!)  

but Spence has artistry running through his veins--- 

he really is a fabulous artist--- 

it's just extremely rare that he ever actually USES this talent.

I prepared noodles for dinner with marinara sauce and told the boys the noodles were actually bloody gory intestines. I also made grape jello in a mold of a heart and strawberry jello in a mold of a brain; the boys were really thrilled they got a chance to touch and EAT a brain!  With the enthusiasm they exhibited, perhaps I should be worried?!  NAW! Ian's been telling us for weeks now that he hopes to be a doctor when he grows up--- surely that's what stemmed his enthusiasm. wink.wink.

For dessert, I attempted to make a g.f. chocolate cake in the shape of a pumpkin, but after I baked it, I realized the Laffy Taffy I purchased at the store, assuming it was green like the wrapper it was wrapped in suggested, was actually PINK instead, so my plan was completely spoiled!  I was going to use green taffy to mold a leaf, some vine and a pumpkin stem. Oh well.

We played a game of Hide and Ghost Seek that same night before bed in the dark with glow sticks.  Click here to see pictures.  Our boys LOVED IT!

I woke all of the boys up rather early on Halloween - Cohen and Ian were both having parties in their classes at preschool, so they were expected to go dressed in costume and Noah's Kindergarten class was also having a Halloween party and all the kids at his school were invited to go dressed in costume too.  I figured since I had to help the three older boys get dressed in their Halloween costumes early that morning, I might as well just dress all 5 of them in their costumes so then I wouldn't have to worry about doing it later that day after naps.  It's quite a chore dressing up 5 boys when I have to do it all on my own (Spencer was at work already) AND I had to squeeze in time to feed them breakfast, before the bus arrived to pick Noah up for school at 8:30.  I did it though- with time to spare!  Go me!!!  Noah caught the bus to school on time and I hurried off with the other 4 boys in tow to drop Ian off at preschool (Cohen went later- for about 2 weeks I kept him home from preschool- he'd been sick & I was potty training him... however I didn't want him to miss his Halloween party at school so I dropped him off at preschool for the last 45 minutes).  From Ian's preschool, I sped over to Noah's school to watch him walk in the school Halloween parade.  Every student who dressed up in a Halloween costume had the opportunity to march through the halls of the school and the auditorium for parents to come and watch.  I grabbed a seat next to some friends of mine and watched student after student walk by for nearly an hour, then finally, my Spiderman marched by with the rest of his class!  

If I'd had it my way, I would have made Noah dress as something else for Halloween , but he had his heart set on being Spidey this year...  As I recall from last year, 8 out of the 12 kids in his preschool class dressed up as Spiderman --- I was terribly worried the same thing would happen this year, but as it turns out he was the only one in his class. The only other Spiderman we saw trick or treating that evening in our neighborhood was his best friend, Eliot, who lives behind us.  Whew! 

This little mouse fell asleep in the stroller while we waited for Noah's class to march by... 

You'll NEVER hear me EVER complain about my children sleeping;

it makes my job as a mother that much easier.

We invited all of Spencer's fam over to trick or treat with us in our neighborhood and join us afterwards at our house to warm up with hot chocolate and eat yummy soups (homemade chili and broccoli cheese soup) in cute pumpkin bread bowls.  The plan was to have everyone meet first at our house at 5:30 before heading out to get candy... we waited and waited- no one had arrived yet, except for Aunt Megan and Uncle John who were Mr and Mrs. Potato Head...

... So we took a family picture...

I decided to be a witch at the last minute... the only thing really impressive about my costume was my dancing broom that cackled and moved around on the floor completely on it's own!  I left it home while we trick or treated, figuring the kids stopping by the house for candy would get a kick out of seeing it, but one of The Campbell's (no names mentioned) are party poopers and turned it off.  Boo!  He/she complained that the cackling reminded him/her of their mom (Linda, my m.i.l.).  Ouch!  I wasn't sure how to interpret that, but my guess is she dressed up as a witch a lot!  (cuz she's FUN like that! unlike some of her children. No offense. I still LOVE you fun or not- you know who you are).

Are these pictures looking familiar?  

Yeah, that's probably because we recycled our Halloween costumes again this year.
Bentley was Donald last year and he was Donald again this year... sadly, he hasn't grown in a year so it seemed like the sensible thing to do verses spending beaucoup $$$ on another new costume.
Noah wore the Captain Hook outfit last year- Ian was Hook this year.
Cohen wore the Peter Pan costume that Ian wore two years ago.
Atticus was Mickey Mouse this year--- same outfit Bentley wore two years ago when he was only 3 months old.

Atticus

Noah

Ian

With the wig...

Without.. 

He's such a gorgeous boy. 

Really he is. 

Did I tell you that on our way out of preschool today, three girls,

stopped in their tracks to say "Bye Ian!" 

  One even blew him a kiss from where she was sitting inside her car with the window down.

I bet you it's his eyes... or maybe his dimples... or perhaps both, he sure can charm the ladies.

Pan Cohen...

He was this close to catching his shadow!

Donald tried to help him...

Please tell me I'm right in thinking that Co makes THE.BEST.PETER.PAN.EVER!!!

Bentley

We waited...

... and waited for our guests to arrive to join us for some Trick or Treating....

But they were stuck in some major traffic on the freeway coming from Orem, so we headed out Trick or Treating on our own.

Isn't Bentley DELICIOUS in his costume?!  

He even waddles, naturally.  

It was SO.PRECIOUS. to see him march around.

The weather was PERFECT!  I don't recall a year that I've lived in Utah where it hasn't either rained or snowed!!!  It didn't do either.  It was actually warm enough to go out without coats and jackets AND the sunset was breathtaking!!!  I told Spencer later that evening that the night reminded me of the Halloween on Steven Spielberg's E.T.

Bentley was done  trick or treating after we hit up house #6... he was only interested in eating his candy from then on.

We stayed out  trick or treating for nearly 2 hours...  there were still yet so many homes in our neighborhood left to hit up, but the boys were tired and ready to go home, so we did.  I can't wait until they're older- they're going to have a BLAST  trick or treating in our neighborhood!  There's so many homes- they'll make out like bandits.  What am I saying?! They made out like bandits this year and we probably only visited 1/10TH of the homes in our subdivision.  Spencer actually took most of their candy with him to school the next day to give out to his students.  I was pretty upset--- I didn't even get to sort through it and take all of their Mars bars!!!  Oh well, my hips are probably thanking him.

Our guests finally arrived an hour or so after we'd gone out trick or treating.  Some of the cousins joined us for trick or treating the last 20 minutes we were out.  Our boys LOVE spending time with their cousins, aunts and uncles and grandparents!  We had a busy, crowded, NOISY household Halloween night and I had quite a mess to clean up the following day, but I wouldn't have spent the night any other way.  We had FUN!  I already can't wait for our Thanksgiving brunch and Turkey Bowl flag football game!!!