{Halloween 2011}

This Halloween was rather easy for me.
About 6 weeks ago while browsing the costume racks at D.I. I spotted a bumble bee outfit for Taylor and there wasn't any convincing her to where it for Halloween. Score!
All I had to buy was the tights, wings & headband. I guess I bought a black long sleeve shirt to go under too :)

Then about 2 weeks later Parker told me he wanted to wear his monkey costume that we have owned for about a year now (picked up at a yard sale!) No convincing me!

Costumes done. :)



On Halloween day I made the kids a little 'spooky' lunch. Parker thought it was hilarious when I was putting the 'teeth' into his apples.

I don't think he really realized that the white 'noodle brains' were actually string cheese. His reaction to Taylor:


We went to our ward trunk or treat then to our good friends house to have homemade donuts and let the kids run around. I was a bad manager of time early in the afternoon.......
A nap for me & the kids trumped hauling the kids around to family before the trunk or treat. I blame it on being 9 months pregnant. :)
Regardless the kids that Halloween was awesome.
Taylor did inform me during the trunk or treat that I needed to make her & Parker bigger trick or treat bags for next year because her bucket filled up way too soon.......

{Trick Or Treat}

{TRICK OR TREAT}

Since having kids, this year was the first Halloween that Troy wasn't in the tractor and was able to come out Trick or Treating with us! Thank Heavens, because with the two little ones I needed the extra set of hands :)

Our Little Dorothy
(I think her little dress turned out so cute!)

Our Little {Not So} Cowardly Lion

I took away the pacifier.

It's crazy how one minute they will melt my heart with how cute they are and the next drive me so insane I want to pull my hair out! :) This was a melt my heart moment.

We hit a few close family members and neighbors, then (after dinner) our ward trunk or treat.
I figured Troy would want me to walk around the 'parade of costumes' with the kids so I asked if he would take pictures.
His response: "Not with that strap!"
It kind of took me by surprise that he volunteered to walk around the gym with the kids. Not complaining.



Once Parker figured out what his basket was being used for, he pretty much had a death grip on it!

Sitting outside with some dear friends. AKA checking out their stash!

Usually after the trunk or treat we would be done. Pack the kids up and take them home. This year we walked around the little neighborhood by the church with my good friend Courtney and her boys.

Taylor {LOVED} it! Her and Carson were so funny and cute together! They were cracking us up! As we approached this house, Parker was running and so excited that he face planted into the bushes along the walk way. Then couldn't get up due to his extra padding around his mid-section. {Hilarious}

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Then off to Grandma & Grandpa's.





Parker was so tired he didn't even wake up after the drive home and changing him into jammies.

This Halloween takes the cake {so far} since having kids.....

Grand Witch Council 2008

The end of last month I joined forces with Troy's sister Patrice and our minds started plotting and planning a Grand Witch Council Halloween Party.

After a lot of hours worth of planning and preparing, last night finally came and our party finally arrived!It started with our anonymous invites sent out to our friends. They only knew us as "Wanda & Zelda Witch." RSVP's were required and they were sent via e-mail.

Once our deadline to RSVP came around, we got together and finalized our plans. Team captains were chosen. Teams were assigned their team name and color and appointed captain.

The party was an amazing race/scavenger hunt.

Everyone met at the starting place by 6:00 Sharp! We then went out searching for our witch's cauldrons. Once all the cauldrons were found the first clue was revealed and the games begun!

(teams were going to places at random, but here's the order my team went)


Our first clue led us to Hollywood video were we needed to show the clerk the famous scary movie starring Norman Bates.
Once Psycho was found we received a bag of popcorn with one witches brew ingredient....an eyeball. When we first got the clue everyone was pretty sure the clerks forgot to give us a clue and that just a bag of popcorn was NOT going to get us to the next spot!
We decided to get back in the car and dump it out.
Once the bag was dumped out and a little searching later we FINALLY found a small white medicine capsule which contained the clue all rolled up inside!

*Each bag of popcorn contained at least 3 capsules which when all three were found the full clue would be revealed. Our team only found two of them, but I had a legitimate reason for knowing the location, (other than I made the clue!) my parents live RIGHT across the street from the location and my team took my word for why I knew the right spot.


The spot we were directed to was the old South West School and inside the wooden ship there we successfully found our clue and our snakes.

Five different size dowels and a tiny sliver of paper later we realized we had some pretty quick thinkers on our team! They instantly knew they had to find the right size of dowel and wrap the paper around it to reveal the location of the 'White Flower Catholic Church' so we could count their windows.

With he number of windows in mind we then proceeded to the 'goblin bridge' (train bridge) where we had to locate a chest and use the number of windows to unlock the chest in order to retrieve our bats, some coins, and our next clue. The search for the box took us the longest to find! I knew it was hidden here, but because of lack of time, Patrice and I split and she hid the clue there herself. Therefore, I didn't know EXACTLY where she hid it!
To Gossner's we went with our $1.05 in random coins, our bats, and a song to sing to purchase one pumpkin flavor ice cream cone. The clue was given but the ice cream cone must be eaten to get our spider located in the bottom of the cone.

Gem Memorial Cemetery was our destination to search the place. After a few laps in the car and no luck of spotting our orange marker flag, we parked it and walked the place by foot. Finally, the clue was found behind a huge statue.


To Patrice's house we went, where our true identities were revealed, the golden broomstick was given to the winning team and a delicious 'spider' cheesecake was served. My team had no idea I was in on the planning (minus Troy, he only knew where we were meeting and where we were ending up...no in between)

We had a blast and all the hours planning really fell together....well, for my team and Patrice's team anyway. The third team never found any of their capsules, hit a fire hydrant searching the Southwest School, broke into the church in search for the orange flags that 'signified' the right location of each clue and had to depend on all their emergency clues (which they never opened they just shined their flash lights through the envelopes!). Then after an hour of waiting for their team to arrive, we called them and told them to come have refreshments with us :)

Thanks for all your help Patrice, for the idea last year Nikkala and to Meckmom.com who came up with the whole idea and helped with the step by step planning!