Halloween Festivities

We have been celebrating Halloween for almost a week now!  It started last week with Logan's preschool Halloween party at our house.  I know I've already said it, but I just love this group of kids.  They are so much fun to play with, and I planned some fun activities for the special day.

This is Grant, a.k.a. Transformer Dude

This is Sarah, a.k.a. the "Scaredy Cat" or Logan's first crush (he's got it BAD for this cute girl).

Dominick, a.k.a. The Dragon Who Got Too Hot In His Costume.

Thomas, a.k.a. Glow In The Dark, Muscle Ironman.  He is without a doubt the comedian of the bunch.

Camden, a.k.a. Luigi from Super Mario Brothers (but his hat is taking a break while he does his artwork).

And of course, my favorite little guy, Logan, a.k.a. Darth Vader Without a Mask, Cape or Belt Because We Couldn't Find Them Anywhere.

On Friday the girl's had their school Halloween parties.  Dont' ask me why they decided to have the parties on Friday when they still had school today (Monday) which is the real Halloween.  I was super ticked off last week when I got a note home saying the new school policy is that "no children - infants, toddlers, middle-schoolers - NO children whatsoever" are allowed to tag along with their parent for the school party.  After already being told this year that I can't volunteer (because I would have Logan with me) or attend lunch with my girls in the cafeteria (because of Logan), I was fuming when I wasn't even allowed to take Logan with me to the parties that I had offered to help with.  As you can probably tell from the previous post titled "In My Opinion," I was a little on edge last week.  I've had a lot of issues with the school system lately, but that's a post for another day.  Anyway, I wasn't about to be told that I couldn't attend the parties at my children's school because I was a stay-at-home-mom and had chosen to spend my time and energy on ALL MY CHILDREN, so I went anyway. 

After the school parties, I took all the kids downtown Kearney for the trick-or-treating to all the stores.  I love living in a small town for reasons like this.  It's so fun to see many of my friends and neighbors in town as we parade our kids around to show off their costumes and collect candy.  We met up with Napiers and Simmons for some fun time with our best friends.

It didn't matter that I started making dinner and preparing for tonight's festivities HOURS before the kids even got home from school.  The evening was still stressful, getting everyone stuffed with some semi-healthy food, in their costumes and out the door for trick-or-treating.  I made "mummies" (hot dogs, wrapped in bread dough with mustard eyes) and Curry Pumpkin Soup for dinner.  The mummies were a big hit.  The soup, not so much.  I actually got many comments such as "this is the grossest thing I've ever tasted!"  Oh well, it was fun to make something festive and original.  And for the record, I didn't think it tasted half bad.

Along with all the other events, we had to squeeze in time to carve pumpkins.  Ideally we would have done this days ago, but Ryan traveling all last week, kid sporting activities on Saturday and entertaining the missionaries at our house all day Sunday prevented us from getting this done before tonight.  It was a rushed event before the kids got dressed up and started begging for candy, but they had fun nonetheless.

And got super sticky!

Isn't this the most handsome Darth Vader you ever saw?  I wish you could see the mean face he is pulling, which is why his eyes are squinted!

The sweetest leopard you will ever meet.  Lindsey picked out this costume in a magazine a couple months ago.  I had all the kid's costumes purchased before summer was even over.

Brynlie also picked out her costume by herself - she's a darling Latin Dancer!

Brevan has complained no less than 50 times that I don't allow him to trick-or-treat anymore.  I figure if he has $200 sitting in his piggy bank, he can buy his own dang candy and shouldn't be stealing the holiday from the cute kids!  Guess I'm ornery, and he will probably grow up and allow his kids to trick-or-treat until they leave for college.  Then he can tell stories about his Mean Old Mama.  He stuck Logan's candy bag on his head for the annual Halloween picture.

The kids headed out to trick-or-treat in the neighborhood with Ryan about 6 pm.  They stopped by the Brown's house to say hello to Mia, who is severely disabled, and to pick up Diamond, who is only physically disabled.  This is cute Mia, with her angel mother, Sheri.

Pictured below is Diamond, who rode her wheelchair around the neighborhood with my kids.  I was very happy they included her in their fun evening.

Off they go with the Napier kiddos!

And now here I sit, almost 9 pm and the kids are still out ringing doorbells with their Daddy.  I've gotten the blog completely up to date, and spent the past couple hours answering the door to find princesses, goblins, and all sorts of superheroes on my doorstep!