Ward Trunk or Treat

Our ward trunk-or-treat was on the 28th of October. It was on a Wednesday which meant that Brandon would be late to the party since he has clinic on Wednesdays. Also, the party started ten minutes after Hyrum's swimming lessons were over for the day. We did a quick change in the car before we left swimming lessons and got everyone in their costumes. Hyrum was a football player(He would tell you he was on the Cougars), Ben was Spiderman and Emmy was a sweet princess.

All the kids were excited about their costume. Emmy was especially excited to be a princess. She loved wearing her shoes, her pretty dress, the crown and wearing make-up. She was in heaven. You can't really tell from the pictures, but I put curlers in her hair and curled her hair with a curling iron to make her hair really curly. She looked so cute!

Ben's costume came with a mask and gloves, but he did not want to wear them. I was okay with that and thought he looked so cute in his Spiderman costume.

Hyrum loved being a football player. He loves to wear his costume. By the way, this is the same costume my brother, Sean, wore for multiple Halloweens.

Can you tell in the picture below that Hyrum was ready to go in the gym, and Emmy and Ben look a little nervous about everything?There were tons of people at the ward party. As soon as we walked in the room Hyrum was off finding his friends and fun things to do. The first booth Hyrum went to was the dart booth. You were supposed to throw the dart at a balloon and make it pop. After a few tries, the people running the booth had Hyrum take the dart up to the balloon and pop it.

After the dart booth, Hyrum went to the fishing booth and spent a good amount of time there (He has been wanting my dad to take him fishing on the brown boat for awhile now).Also at the party, Hyrum got his face painted and thought it was pretty cool.
The first booth Ben and Emmy went to was also the dart one. Ben was willing to let the boys help him. Emmy on the other hand wanted me to help her.While Hyrum was at the fisihing booth, I took the Ben and Emmy to do the cake walk. Ben did it for a little bit, but soon lost interest. I think he was to busy taking in the all the sights and sounds (which some of them made him nervous) to play. Emmy was quite happy to have a yummy cupcake when her number was called. Even though Ben watched while Emmy did the cake walk, the people running the booth still let him pick out a cupcake. Ben wanted one with chocolate on it.By this time, we met up with Brandon and I had him help the twins with their cupcake while I did the cake walk with Hyrum. Hyrum was excited to pick a cupcake which had a spooky ghost on top when his number was called.

After the kids finished their cupcakes it was time for the costume parade around the gym.When the parade was over it was time for the trunk-or-treat. Brandon took Hyrum outside and got the car set up to pass out candy to the kids.

After everyone left the gym, Ben wanted to go and do the the fishing booth before we went outside. I think that once things calmed down a little bit with everyone gone and tall the spooky costumes he was ready to play the games. Emmy was also happy to go fishing with him.

It took much convincing for to get Ben to go outside and do the trunk-or-treat. Once he realized that he was going to get candy he was okay with leaving the gym.

Hyrum ran with all the other kids from car to car. Ben and Emmy loved going to each car saying trick-or-treat. They said it so cute. After they received their candy they would say thank you. Ben, Emmy and I finally caught up with Hyrum towards the end of the trunk-or-treat. The kids loved getting all the candy and playing with their friends. Below is a picture of Ben with two of his friends. All three were Spiderman for Halloween.
The picture below is of the kids with some of their friends in the ward.At the end of the trunk-or-treat, Ben wanted to go inside the church and participate in some more activities in the gym. I tried to tell him that everything was all over and it was time to go home. He wasn't convinced until I took him inside and showed him that people were cleaning up and putting things away.

We had a great time that night!

Carving a Pumpkin

DISCLAIMER-The light in our kitchen is awful for taking pictures!

This past Monday, for Family Home Evening, we carved our big pumpkin(each child has two pumpkins a medium size pumpkin and a little baby one that they received from grandma and papa from the pumpkin patch).

While the kids were finishing their dinner, Brandon went to work on carving the top of the pumpkin and making the inside of the pumpkin loose so the kids would be able to clean it out.
The kids each loved having a turn to pull out the pumpkin goop and seeds. All Clean!
After the insides were scooped out, Brandon found some pumpkin faces on the internet. Brandon picked some favorite faces and drew them on paper so the kids could pick their favorite one to be our pumpkin face. Hyrum told us this year that he wanted a pumpkin with a scary face with teeth.When the face was chosen, Brandon went to work on drawing the face on the pumpkin and cutting the face out.

The kids watched Brandon work on the pumpkin for awhile, but soon lost interest. While Brandon was carving the pumpkin, I read to the kids some of our Halloween books.

I think Brandon did a great job carving the pumpkin. I don't think the pumpkin has a scary face, but the kids were still pleased with it. Emmy was stroking and hugging the pumpkin for most of the night. She loved the pumpkin.

The kids were fascinated when we put a candle in the pumpkin and turned off the lights. The kids were also excited when it was time to take the pumpkin outside and look at our spooky jack-o-lantern in the dark. The kids had a great time helping Brandon carve the jack-o-lantern. By the way, they do refer to the pumpkin once it has been carved, as a jack-o-lantern, even Ben and Emmy. They say the name so cute.

It was a great night.