Still Halloween... Really!?

Ok, ok, so we were busy and gone for a couple of weeks and I still have yet to post about what we did on the actual day of Halloween! Well, here goes.

We invited some friends over for dinner so I decided to make a "ghoulish" meal. We had deviled eggs that looked like blood shot eyeballs:

mummy dogs:

body parts jello:

squirrel brain and monkey eye ball stew:

And for dessert, bloody-brain cake:

It all looked pretty cool and disgusting. So disgusting that the kids didn't want to eat very much of it! It's funny how when something doesn't look so good to eat, your brain tells you that it's not going to taste very good either! I think that's what the kids' brains were telling them. They loaded their tummies up on candy instead!

Checking out all of the loot:

Our decorated porch:

We had the older kids (Ethan, Asia, and Aidan) go with their daddies because they wanted to RUN from house to house. The little ones couldn't keep up with them, so Emily and I took the babies around. Jacob wanted to go to EVERY house! He didn't want to quit. He was really liking the idea of going to a house and getting candy everytime! He would knock on the door, yell "trick or treat" and when they opened the door, he would walk right inside to find their candy bowl and take a handful! Not very shy at all! I had to make him stay outside and wait for them to hand him the candy. And he would always remember to say "tank too!" or "Thank You" in big people words.

He was the cutest little Superman:

He couldn't wait to go through his loot. He started right there on the porch!

The next week, Ethan was pretty sick of his candy so he decided to sell it to a dentist here in town. He was buying Halloween candy for $1.50 a pound! Ethan made 5 whole dollars because he had a little over 4 pounds of candy. They ship the candy over to Iraq for the soldiers. I was proud of him for making this decision. Asia, on the other hand, still has candy in her bag! She'd rather have candy than money still. Maybe next year she'll get the idea!

Halloween Happenings

The Halloween events started a week before Halloween. We went to a Halloween party at our friends' house. She had gobs and gobs of fun Halloween food; from soups and stews, to chips and salsa, to every bread imaginable, to fun desserts, to homemade pumpkin seeds, etc, etc, etc. When this girl throws a party, she REALLY throws a party! It was all so yummy and fun.

Here's Asia carving her pumpkin. She does this evil look whenever I want to take her picture. I'm not really sure why. It's the perfect look for Halloween I guess:

Here's Jacob looking for his pumpkin. I think a little girl took it when he wasn't looking! Oh well, we found him another one:
Scooping the guts out. Ethan doesn't like this step that much. He says he gets the gross-out shivers when he touches the guts! I asked him how he was supposed to be a doctor and do surgeries if he gets the gross-out shivers all of the time. He simply said, "I'm not going to be doing any surgeries." Nuff said!

Here's Mia the drool monkey. She's getting her 2 front top teeth so her shirts are always soaked with drool lately. Her favorite activity of the night was taking her socks off and chewing on them. I kept putting them on and she would take them off right away and start chewing. I guess it felt good on her gums!

Asia and Jacob lost interest in carving their pumpkins because there were so many other fun things to do. Here's Asia playing mummy bowling:
Here's the prize she picked when she got a strike: a thing full of candy corn! Yummy!
Here's Jacob trying to find another cookie and maybe a handful of chips! I think the only thing he ate that night was chips and cookies. Another Yummy!

Ethan was determined to carve his pumpkin and not stop until it was finished! Here's his masterpiece. He wanted his to have 4 eyes and be super scary:

After he finally finished, he decided it was time to go play. Here he is trying his hand at mummy bowling:

He also got a strike and chose one teeny Hershey kiss for his prize:

Jacob found a ladder that he just had to climb. It's so fun to see things from a grown-ups' perspective:
And here are the finished products, finally finished. Thanks to Mike who carved the other two pumpkins. They turned out fantastic! Can't wait for next year's bash!

Halloween Happenings Part Two

The night before Halloween, we had a neighborhood Trunk or Treat. All three wards in our church building get involved and throw a fun party. First, we bring a soup to share and eat yummy soup and rolls. Then it's off to decorate the trunks and getcha candy on!

Here's Jacob getting his Superman hair ready:

The cutest Little Red Riding Hood:
The cutest little Superman enjoying some soup and rolls:
Bakugan Dan finishing up his soup and roll. (Don't ask me who Bakugan Dan is!)
Asia, the Renaissance Princess and her daddy:

I failed to get a picture of my trunk this year, but it won for best decorated trunk again! We had so much fun and can't wait for next year! I'll post about the "real" Halloween soon, I hope!

Spirit Week!

It was Spirit Week or Red Ribbon week at school last week. I guess the kids learn about drugs and that they are bad for their bodies. I don't really know what that has to do with dressing up everyday, but whatever! It felt like we already had Halloween a week early, for a whole week!

Anyway, Monday was "fake an injury" day. I wanted to do something wicked and gross to the kids, but I always forget to get stuff for that. So we went with black eyes, fake blood, and stitches. Maybe next year I'll be more on the ball!

Tuesday was "wear red" day for DARE, so they just wore red shirts. I didn't get a picture of that! Oh well, it was just red shirts! Wednesday was "what do you want to be in the future" because "we won't let drugs rob us of our futures." I asked Ethan what he wanted to be when he grew up. He asked me, "Well, which job makes the most money?" I guess I need to teach him that there's more to life in this world besides money! HA! He decided to be a doctor, even though he hates seeing blood and surgery stuff. He wants to be a doctor that doesn't see that kind of stuff. I said good luck with that! Asia wanted to be a teacher and a mommy. Since I didn't know how to really combine the two, she chose to be a mommy. Anyway, so we went to DI to find some costumes. I wanted to find a lab coat for Ethan, but settled for a pair of scrubs. A stethoscope would've been a nice touch, but they didn't have one at DI and our play doctor kit got thrown away a while ago! Oh well.

Asia just wore a robe over her clothes, I put some curlers in her messy hair, and only put make-up on one side of her face. She brought along a baby in a carrier and of course, a diaper bag. She was so embarrassed and she kept saying that she didn't want everybody looking at her and laughing at her! I told her that that was the reason to dress-up, so people can look at you! She may not dress up next year!

Thursday was "rock n' roll day." Don't ask me why! But it was fun to dress the kids up as punk rockers. It brought back memories of the good ole days where I would be a punk rocker for every Halloween between the ages of 8 and 12! I should scan a picture in of me right here from back in the day, if I had a scanner that worked. Grrrr! Anyway, here are the punks:

It was also "muffins with mom" day where I get to go and have muffins with my little munchkins.

I didn't get a picture of Asia. I guess I forgot in the all of the hustle and bustle. She has afternoon kindergarten so she wasn't dressed all punked out yet either. Maybe that's the reason. I felt bad, but she didn't care. She was too busy enjoying her chocolate muffin and chocolate milk! Mmmmm, chocolate for breakfast!

Friday was school spirit day. They were supposed to wear school colors and/or shirts, so Ethan wore a Tiebreaker shirt. Asia, on the other hand, has quite the mind of her own and didn't want to wear "an ugly Tiebreaker shirt!" (in her own words) So she wore her soccer jersey. Whatever! No pics of that either, but you get the gist. It was a fun, busy week. Now onto the "real" Halloween!

A Mia Update

It's so hard to believe that Mia is almost a year old! Here she is a few weeks ago with her first ponytail:You can barely see it, but it's there! I promise! Ha ha!
She's also getting 2 more teeth on the top. Not her front teeth, but her second teeth. She looks like a little vampire, just in time for Halloween!

Our Mia is a sweet little thing. She loves to play peek-a-boo with her bibs and blankies and plays pat-a-cake too, clapping her own hands. My favorite part is when she "throws it in the oven" and she throws her arms above her head and her hands barely reach the top of her head! Babies have gargantuous heads! She's cruising around furniture and can take a couple of steps on her own. My baby's growing up!

What Have You Been Up To?

Well, not too much. I started watching two more kids, so my days have been quite a bit busier. I'm watching 2- two-year olds now and a 2-month old, plus Asia, Mia and Jacob. Busy, busy! But here are some pics of what we've been up to lately.

Asia started soccer this fall for the first time. She thought it would be fun to play since Ethan got to play before. Her first game was her best game. She ran so fast and actually tried to get the ball away from the other team. Now she couldn't care less about the sport! I don't know what happened. She said that she hates running all the time and it hurts her legs to run so much. Maybe we will have to try some other sport.

Maybe we should try basketball next! She's still taller than everyone her age as you can see here in the huddle. Asia is number 11. They call themselves the Sharks.

Ethan started flag football this fall and totally LOVES it! His favorite part about it is making touchdowns. He's pretty good at catching the ball and running super fast to the endzone. It's been fun to watch him learn something new. They even actually have a few plays that they run. They are called the Thunderbirds.

He especially enjoys having his daddy for a coach:

We were able to buy a bunch of corn from one of Mike's co-workers that was doing a Scout fundraiser. I think we bought twelve dozen ears and froze about 20 quarts. That's gonna be super yummy this winter.

Asia and Ethan have been bugging us and bugging us to take them to the skate park, ever since we drove by it one time when we went to the zoo. So we finally took them. They took their scooters and were pretty cautious at first. They just watched the other kids at first to see what they were supposed to do. Then they ventured out on their own. They looked pretty dorky with their bike helmets on but, hey, at least their brains were safe!

And one last thing. Jacob loves to make us laugh. So here he is with tissue boxes for shoes, trying to go up the stairs. Funny kid!

What The...?!

Look at what we woke up to this morning! Blaaaaah! I'm sooooo not ready for snow and cold and WINTER! At least it's already almost all melted. Yuck!