Halloween and Prize winning chili!

BOO!
Our Halloween festivities were tons of fun this year.
We started things off the morning of the 30th by getting Samantha all dolled up for her school party. I'd braided her hair in seven little braids the night before and so it was good and "crinkly" (as she puts it) the next morning for her Ariel costume. We'd borrowed it from her cousin Maryann at 9:30 the night before. (Loooooong search for a costume with 3 of the 4 kids in tow. So not fun. I gotta get more organized!) Samantha was darling and had fun, fun, fun, at school. They had a parade, a party, lots of Halloween activities and even read by flashlight!


That night we went to our ward party at church. It was a chili cook-off and pumpkin decorating contest. We went to the chili cook-off last year and thought to ourselves that if the ward did it again we'd have to remember to make our Creamy White Chili recipe. So we did! Ross whipped up a batch and I decorated the pumpkin with some permanent markers and a clown wig I bought the night before.

As always, the kids had fun running around. There was a family that came in some darling costumes, including this little boy, Spencer, who was dressed up as a Jedi. Logan "battled" with him the whole night! This picture is a little blurry, but it's funny to me because the fact that he didn't actually have a light saber was not a problem! Imaginations are the best!

Our pumpkin won the "Most Colorful" prize. We were the only ones that didn't carve ours, but that was fine with me!

We enjoyed lots of yummy chili that everyone else had made and even a bowl or two of ours just because we enjoy it. We sat and listened as the sister in charge gave out prizes for the chili like "So mild you could serve it in a rest home", "Most likely to put hair on your chest", "5 alarm chili", and so on. She got to the "Best of Show" prize and much to our surprise, WE WON! We thought maybe it would win in one of the other random categories, but it won the overall award. We got a kick out of it and so did the kids. Our prize was a bowl full of beans glued onto a pedestal and spray painted silver. We also got an official certificate (printed off someone's computer only hours before). ;o)

Here we are posing with our prizes! (Sigh. This was the worst picture and angle of me, but the only one where everyone was facing forward.)

The next day on Halloween we lounged around the house. Not really. Rebecca and Logan had both thrown up during the night, so we were watching them carefully all day. Luke had been really sick like that a couple of days earlier, so we were worried Logan wouldn't be up to trick or treat. Thankfully he was just fine to the point of bouncing off the walls!
The kids played all day and then that afternoon I got busy working on carving our pumpkin. At 5:00 we set off for the Trunk or Treat at the church. (Oh, how we love the ease of the Trunk or Treat!)

Bumblebee and Optimus Prime were there!

But really it was just those cute boys, Logan and his cousin Isaac.

Here's the darling Princess Liana (AKA Olivia) and Thomas the Train (AKA Luke)!

Samantha and Maryann as a BYU cheerleader and Ariel the Mermaid

This was a fun picture to take. We had to take about seven to get one where all 3 one year olds were smiling, but it was worth it. Aren't they adorable? Rebecca is Boo from Monsters, Inc. Brady is Luigi from Super Mario Brothers. Hyrum is a Puppy Dog.
My other nephews (Brady's older brothers) were there too as a football player, ninja and Mario, but they are almost 12, 8, and 6, so they were running around getting candy and were harder to pin down for a picture.
We decided to go to the Helena mall after the Trunk or Treat was over. Uh, lame. That's only word for it. It was only 5:30 and the two stores that actually seemed to be giving candy were already out of it.

I had no idea what to do for Rebecca's costume until the LAST minute. I suddenly remembered that I could easily do "Boo". We already had jammies and Sully and Rebecca certainly looks just as much at 18 months like Boo as Samantha did at 16 months. See?

Boo -- 2009

Boo -- 2003


Grandma and Grandpa Lay briefly stopped by with a baggies of Halloween treats for the kids and brought lots of hugs and kisses with them too.

Here's my creation on our doorstep that night. Yes, I carved the pumpkin this year! I was going to flip the pumpkin around to the side opposite our drawn-on clown face and then decided that I'd just carve the face out instead. I even figured out how to keep the general look of the mouth. Yes, I was very pleased with myself!

Cute, huh?

At about 9:00 that night, all the kids were in bed, the house was quiet and we were enjoying it. The doorbell rang. It was, of course, teenagers. Ross gave them his best gruff adult voice and said, "Really, you guys? It's nine o'clock. Really?" But then he turned to get the bowl of candy, saw that we still had a ton left and ended up giving each kid 3 or 4 pieces each, to which one kid replied, "I thought so." :o)

It was a fun little holiday this year. Look forward next year to a darling Little Red Riding Hood because I got an adorable costume for Rebecca at the clearance sales!