Happy Halloween-ing!

I have been a major slacker in terms of halloween preparedness this year, but I thought I'd share a few things we have done in years past to make this time of year fun:

• On years when I'm good, the kids each grow their own pumpkins to carve.


• On other years (which has pretty much been every year for the last 3 years) we go to a pumpkin patch...or the store :)... and they each pick out a pumpkin.


• I love to gather berries for my Christmas tree, and right now is the perfect time to do it before the frost hits to badly. I am partial to rosehips, so I pack the kids and we all go gathering rosehips and fall leaves for our table.


• My kids always pick out their costumes...with an occassional nudge from me if it's too difficult :) Some of my favorites of years' past have been Clark Kent turning into Superman, Princess Leia, Anakin Skywaker (padawan), Elmo, Harry Potter, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Flower Fairy, Woody rides a horse, Ben 10, and Shadeau dressed up as University of Utah Cheerleader. Good times :)


• Last year, I had my kids each invite 4 friends for a halloween party. They all dressed up, and we painted pumpkins, played Halloween Twister, played pin the wart on the witch, and watched Pooh's Heffalump Halloween. We also played a name that goo game (you put random things in little paper bags, and they have to touch it and guess what it is.) Little kid parties are my absolute favorite!


• The Monday night before Halloween, we carve pumpkins. I have been collecting the little carving tools and templates for different designs for a few years, so we usually invite another family to join us. It is one of kids' all-time favorite things to do :)


• Halloween night, I make Dinner in a pumpkin (more like paella in a pumpkin) and hot apple cider. It's the one time of year I can get Zerin to touch something that touches a vegetable :)


• Bryan has an aunt in a nursing home, so we always make it a point to go trick-or-treating there before hitting the rest of the neighborhoods. Most nursing homes and assisted living centers have some sort of trick-or-treating for a couple of hours on halloween. The kids love how everyone there thinks they are the cutest thing ever, and there are usually at least 2 or three residents that try to give the kids their entire bowl of candy :)


• Halloween also marks the day before I consider it legal to start listening to Christmas music 24-7. I decorate for Thanksmas November 1st (last year, being over 7 months pregnant...I didn't get it done until the 15th...this year, since we are supposed to be moving during that time, it probably won't get done until we're moved...but next year!)

FHE goes undercover...

In my weekly quandry about what to do for Family Home Evening, I decided to resort to my tried and true back up plan...service. We picked our target the night before, along with forming our plan of "attack."

The kids that were old enough to cut, cut out construction paper hearts, and everyone helped color them. Bryan's job was coming up with some kind of candy bar jingle for our poster...as usual, he didn't disappoint :)

In the early morning hours of the dawn, the two older kids and I snuck over to our intended target, armed with construction paper hearts and a candy bar poster. They were half-asleep when we first got there, but when a light in the house turned on...the adrenaline kicked in and wow. I wish I could get them to straighten their rooms that quickly :)

Grandparent Time

We are very fortunate and live close to both my mother and Bryan's parents, so my kids have lots of opportunities to be with their grandparents. I thought I would take just a minute to share some of my favorite grandparent moments.

• We got tickets to the BYU Ballroom team performance, so Bryan's mom took Liah. Liah got all dressed up, and was SO excited to be big enough to go to something so grown up with Grandma all by herself. They both loved the dancing...Liah can still be caught practicing her irish step dancing in the privacy of her bedroom :)
• My mom took Zerin on a special overnight trip to visit my brother. They stayed in a hotel, ate at McDonald's and went and saw a movie on the way home. Zerin thought he was the coolest kid ever!
• Bryan's dad is a master at involving the kids in whatever he is doing. Yesterday, he had this huge bucket of pencils and pens. Next thing I know, all three of my kids were huddled around him with their little papers testing the pens...having contests to see whose pens worked. Genius!
• My grandmother is a master homemaker. When I would visit her house, I would just cross my fingers that she would involve me in some project or meal preparation. I always felt so special to know that she would share her "trade secrets" with me.
• I recently went to a funeral of a woman who had lived a beautiful life. Something that stuck out to me from the different talks was that each of her children and grandchildren felt like they were her favorites. It wasn't something that was spoken, but rather something that she showed in the big moments and the little moments. They each felt it...awesome.
• One grandma I know of invites all of the kids old enough to spend the night over to her house for a monthly sleepover. They watch movies, eat treats, play games, etc. So cute!!!
• My other grandmother always wrote me letters. I was not as good at writing her, but her letters arrived like clockwork. Sometimes the weather was all she wrote about, but I have kept them all (seriously...since I was little). They are precious to me.