Our Halloween: 2009

Yesterday was one of the busiest Halloweens ever for our crew.  Busy, but super duper good.  Our Saturday started out minus one.   Ryan was away at a stake scout camporee Friday night through Saturday afternoon, so I was flying solo.  (His camp out was great by the way, despite the very cold weather.  Our ward's troop got the presidential award and had a blast on the trip.  I asked the troop's 13-year old patrol leader, Zack Colvin, this evening how the trip was, and he said unabashedly, "Awesome!"  It was all focused on the pioneering merit badge, so they had fun with all the ropes & knots, crossing the rope bridge, etc.  I am proud of Ryan for the great scoutmaster and great man that he is).

Anyway, I woke early on Saturday morning and got my 9 mile run in.  So good.  The weather was crisp and clear.  I had to wear long sleeves, pants, an ear warmer and gloves for the first time this running season, but I warmed up pretty quickly and was able to shed the gloves after the first couple of miles.  Being the Arizona girl that I am, 46 degrees and breezy is a bit on the chilly side for me!

Zoomed home after the run and kicked it into turbo mode.  I made it out the door at 9:30 with our 4 awesome peeps, all fed, groomed, and dressed in our Sunday best, and headed out to Queen Creek for our cousin Nolan's baptism.  I was debating on whether or not to go since we had so much on our plate, but I am so happy that we did.  The baptism was terrific and the spirit there was so strong.  Jenny gave one of the best talks I have ever heard on the Holy Ghost.  I was so moved.  It was one of the moments when I recognize how blessed I am to be where I am.  Of course, it was also terrific to visit with much family and eat a little lunch together after.  

Post baptism, the 5 of us cruised into Sam's for some last minute items for the party, then headed back home for  a whirlwind rest of the day.  I was stressing a little bit about how to juggle all the things running through my mind, so I asked the kids on the way home if they would be willing to get into costume right when we got there and indulge me with a quick photo shoot.  I didn't want to miss the 2009 costumes, but knew that the day would be hectic later and photo ops would be hard to manage.  They were all terrific and gladly agreed.  Here are my awesome kiddos, sporting their 2009 costumes.

Barrett is Dr. Pepper.  You can't see them super well from the pic, but she has chili peppers all over her doctor's coat.  (Yes, it took forever to cut and iron on all those stinkin' peppers.) I ended up making some last minute additional sewing modifications right after this (shortening the hem and sleeves), but no time for pictures again afterwards.  She had a great time on Halloween night, trick or treating with all her girlfriends and then going to a little party afterwards.  She's growing up so fast!

Afton was my hippie flower child.  I made the iron shirt on Thursday night, just in time for her school party on Friday.  We had high hopes of busting out the tie die and making her a supreme shirt, but sometimes we have to give in to Father Time.  He won that battle and we settled for the iron on.  It was a perfect costume for her!  She totally played the character all night, flashing her peace signs like gang signs almost, and getting into the "peace" walk.  She did sport her Heely's with the outfit to maximize the candy gathering possibilities.  She is so amazing on those wheels (and so fast)!

I have no idea where the idea of a cat came from, but Rowan told me a couple of months ago that she wanted to be a cat for Halloween and never wavered.  I made lots of other suggestions along the way, but nothing could compete with the cat.  Go figure. We drew whiskers on her at least 3 or 4 times over the past month, so she could "practice" her cat, or so she said.  Cats need a lot of practice you know.  She does make a pretty adorable one, though.  Then again, she could make a gunny sack look great.

And here's our little man, Easton, showing me his Batman muscles.  This was totally a last minute thrown together costume for him, but it turned out great.  We'd been planning since his birthday that he was going to be a knight (using the cool costume Mike & Shari's family gave him for his birthday), but on Wednesday night as we prepared his costume for his preschool party on Thursday, Mr. Easy E proclaimed that he didn't want to be a knight anymore.  Period.  Thankfully, I had bought him this cool Batman t-shirt at Old Navy (just for fun) that day at lunch, so we dug out an old witch cape, the batman mask from Barrett's old Bat Girl costume, and voila!  Batman city right here, baby!

The highlight of our crazy day was our neighborhood Halloween Party.  It's a 2-ward shindig, where we invite every single person in both our neighborhoods.   Our scouts  posted flyers for us on every house.  We hoped that many, many good friends and neighbors would come and join our two wards for the fun.  And they did.  They came in droves.  Since I was called as the Ward Activities Director a couple of months ago, this little party for 700+ falls under my calling.  Thankfully, we have some amazing people in our church who were more than willing to help out, as they always do.  In keeping with the tradition which has been going on for as long as I can remember, we had a big chili/ fry bread/ homemade root beer party from 5-6:30 in the west parking lot of our church building.  We set up 45 seating tables with chairs, in addition to the 15 or so serving tables, and the place was packed!  It seemed bigger than I can remember, but I don't know for sure.  We went through about 800 paper goods.  Maybe because Halloween landed on a Saturday this year, or maybe because the tradition is so intrenched in our neighborhood.  Who knows.  But it was good to see such a terrific turnout.  Good that so many neighbors came. 

Many families brought chili, many brought fry bread dough.  Our terrific neighbor and dear friend, Spence Arnett, brought his giant cook stove and we cooked and cooked and cooked fry bread non-stop for about 2 hours.  As fast as we could make it, it was gone.  Honey, butter, powdered sugar on top.  Such a treat.  We had all kinds of people helping with the party:  set up crew, dough rollers and cutters, cookers, root beer makers and servers, chili bakers, dough bakers, clean up crew...It's a big project to coordinate, but super worth it.  I love seeing friends, family, and neighbors from all over come and enjoy the night before hitting the streets for the trick or treating.  I was also so glad when the last dish was washed, the last chair and table re-stacked inside the church, the last garbage can empty.  What a great party!

I am blessed to be married to Ryan.  He's such a good dad.  He took all the kids out for trick or treating while I finished up at the church.  Ryan's siblings and their kids all joined us for the night too.  I finally met up with them as they were nearing the end of their rounds, and gave them a lift back home.  Ryan and I and the two little ones sat outside in our driveway and dished out candy for about a half hour when we got back.  Easton told me, "This is the best part."  I think by then, all of us were happy to be off our feet.  Easton was tuckered from all the walking.  He even had his daddy carry the "overflow" bag of candy to lighten his load along the way :)  So funny!   Ryan was exhausted from the scout overnight and lack of sleep, coupled with all the trick or treating.  I was wiped out from the whole day.   Still, I would without a doubt declare the day a huge success.  Good times.  Lasting memories.  Great family.  Great friends.  Great day.  

So glad it's over!