Halloween Parade

Today was the Halloween Parade. The parade was outside, which I thought was great and much less crazy and crowded than other years of parents and children cramped in the cafeteria or school halls (like 2015 or 2017). I rode my bike over with Daniel and Peter in the trailer, and will remember to get a blanket for them if we go on a bike ride again this fall. They were cold after that and it was pretty chilly until the sun came out, but after it did it was perfect. D&P went to play on the slide, but then Daniel's hands were cold. Peter took off his jacket cause he had to show his Spiderman outfit, so I used his fleece jacket as a neck warmer for Daniel for a bit. Finally the parade started. The younger grades started first and they ended with the older kids. So Owen and his first grade class was one of the first groups to go around the school. He's the Lego guy.

Natalie came along with her class - she put together this Cruella ensemble. 

Sophi was a strawberry Jolly Rancher candy.

After the parade, Daniel and Peter wanted to play, so we did. 

It was good to be outside. Peter coming down the slide!

In his "cowboy" hat. 

Weee!

I love my little boys.

Abi and Lily dressed up for school yesterday. They didn't have a parade, but they just got to wear their costumes. Lily found this Mario outfit last night (and last minute!)

And Abi and her friends had been planning for weeks to be the Care Bears. 

Abi was "Share Bear" and brought some dumdum suckers to share with people, cute. After the kids got home today, they all wanted to play G-switch. They've all been pretty obsessed about this game recently, and I've let them play it too much (cause I'm not feeling that great). Natalie introduced it to them this week. Last week they were all about Fire boy and Water girl. I thought this picture of the kids after school was kinda funny. You've got Sophi there in her Jolly Rancher outfit, next is a part of Natalie's head (her body is wearing black on Sophi's left) next Lily, holding Peter in his cowboy hat, then Daniel, Owen, and a neighbor friend Lani May. 

Corey and I went on a date tonight at Bandits. People will be trick or treating in our neighborhood tomorrow night instead of on Sunday, so we'll be taking a break from video games this weekend and will trade it for an overdose of candy I guess. Happy Halloween tomorrow!

Halloween Chaos

Wes in the school Halloween Parade, he's a pirate skeleton (such a cute smile) and Ethan below as an evil old Hag with a poison apple

So what's going on here... Joe had a Halloween Concert and Jazz Band concert last night.

Seemingly embarrassed as I snap a picture too close to the stage

 

Then we got home late, then had dinner late.  Then we went to bed late, so I got up late, so was late getting to the temple, late getting back, late making lunches, luckily the kids had helped each other get dressed up in their costumes.  Although they did put me in tears for a brief moment.  I vented "If our life is so busy that I can't spent 2 little hours at the temple out of the 168 hours in a week, then our life is too busy and something's gotta go.  But it's not going to be the temple. Halloween parades, school - those are on the table in my book, but the temple isn't, so if you guys want to go to school and attend your costume parades I need to have atleast these 2 hours without feeling guilty about it."

(I'm feeling a bit stretched if you can't tell)

Then since I was running around in a panic I was early to the Halloween Parade.  Too early.  Sophia was impatient waiting for the show to begin.  She didn't want to be there and made sure I was aware for the next 45 minutes that she wanted to go back home.  Then we came home, changed diapers, ate breakfast, then were late as we went back to the school for Wesley's 2nd grade Halloween Program.

Abi still in pjs and without shoes.  Lily without shoes...

Hmm, can anyone besides me tell that I do not have my act together?  But we're alive.  Now we're gonna eat lunch then run to the store and buy Halloween candy to pass out tonight.  And food.  We've been out of cereal for a few days.  Except for "All Bran" and "Grape Nuts" which my children don't recognize as edible food, so they've been looking a little confused in the mornings when I offer them eggs and apple slices for breakfast like "What is this??".  If we survive the day then it will have been a success.

Have fun Trick Or Treating  Happy Halloween!

Halloween Parade

Today we went over to the elementary school for the parade and Halloween program. I was glad that the jr. high kids didn't have school today, cause I was able to leave Owen in their capable hands. Well, Mel's capable hands. (Joseph and Ethan were still in bed when we left).

So, here's the pictures from this year's school parade and this year's 2nd grade program (Abi's turn) ~ It's the parade is marching by quickly - thus the fuzzy focus. We got there just in time to catch the parade coming out the doors at the end of the gym, which lucky for me is where we stood. There's Lily's teacher and class, and there's Lily!

 Lily saying "Hi Owen!!!"

 Here comes the second graders - there's Abi!

And finally, the big kids in school: the fifth graders. We moved into the gym as we waited for Wesley's grade, and soon I saw his teacher winding her class through the seated parents. It was fun watching Wesley walk through - he was probably the only kid that made people do a double take, and then I'd see them laugh. He was singing "Lollipop, lollipop, oh lolly-lolly-lolly- Lollipop!" over and over again.

He is such a fun kid, love that self confidence! Then the parade was over, so we moved over to the west side of the gym for the second grader program. Abi and the witches had a good spot to sit, up high on the right side of the stage.

Their big number was "Witches Brew"

So two cute things that happened on our way over - 1) I told Sophi to get in the car cause we were going to go to the school, and she sweetly looked up at Corey and I and sincerely asked "I am six now?" No sweetie, not to attend school, we're just going over for a minute. You're still 4... gotta wait two years for kindergarten! Hang in there! And then 2) as we got of the car, Natalie and Sophi ran toward the school and I kept up with them with a brisk walk. As we moved across the parking lot, they came across a crack in the asphalt, and as Natalie saw it, and realized she was running right toward it, she totally veered herself to the right, like a car swerving to miss hitting a child that suddenly jumped in front of them. It made me laugh. I helped her make it safely over the crack. As we continued to the school and came across more cracks, Natalie would give a brief pause in her toddle and I held her hand and helped her jump high up and over to clear the deep chasm below. Made me laugh.

Ready for Halloween

It was a usual busy morning with exercise and running carprool, with the added fun this morning of helping kids get ready for the Halloween parade. Wesley was the only older kid that got dressed up. He found my old SBO sweater from Wasatch Jr. High, which just so happens to be Churchill's rival. So he was a Wasatch Student Body Officer. There can't be anything much scarier than that for Chruchill kids to see wandering their hallways! Back at home, here's the elementary kids heading out to the bus (with a few neighbor kids. I do not have 7 kids in elementary school...) -

My little girls are all so responsible... they woke up on their own and were already mostly ready by the time I got back from carpool. I helped with the finishing touches - Natalie's Elsa wig -

And makeup for the Sophi witch -

And Jack Sparrow eye liner for Pirate Lily -

Two weeks ago I forgot about the parade and scheduled an OB appointment for this morning at 9:30, so I told them I wouldn't be able to make it to the school. When I first started to tell Abi she gasped with worry, but turns out it was just cause she thought I wouldn't be here to help with her hair. But no, I said I had to leave after they will have left, so I'll be here to help, I just can't come see you. Oh, good. As long as you can help us get ready. I thought they'd be sad about me not coming but they didn't care. Sweet! (Maybe I can get out of the parade next year? j/k, kinda, haha.... years and years of halloween parades and I'm still a halloween scrooge) So for this year, I'll just watch the parade video from 2017 and imagine Sophi in the witch costume and Lily in the pirate one Abi wore last year... And Abi's been wearing the blue dress around the house enough the past three days that I've got a clear picture of her in my mind's eye too. This is a dress my sister in law made, she's an amazing seamstress. Abi loved having a poofy dress like this. She said George Washington's wife

 And they're off to school -

Corey was going to work from home and watch the kids for me but then said he needed to go in, so I hurried and woke up Daniel, Owen was already up, got them dressed, and we hurried out to the dr - I had to be there on time to get my blood drawn "exactly one hour" from finishing my glucose drink for the pregnancy diabetes test thing. All these tests. Oh, and we just got the bill this week for the panorama test thing... $3900 dollars! Luckily insurance took it down to just $750, still made me shake my head. I thought it was $300 for us to pay, $400 tops, just ridiculous. I told Corey to help me remember how much it costs so we don't do it "next time" I said with a wink (...just if there is a next time, sweetie, haha...)

Will post tomorrow or maybe update here later with the trick or treating fun tonight. 

Happy Halloween

It was a fun Halloween day. Hopefully it lived up to all the kids' excitement and expectations. 

They are downstairs eating junk and watching Harry Potter: Chamber of Secrets right now. Corey went to pick up Abi. This morning for school, they eagerly got out of bed to get ready. I drew a frog on Lily's face last night (thanks to this idea!) and tried to touch it up a bit.

The markers kept bleeding into the white paint... and the eyes had rubbed off by the end of the school day. 

We'll have to experiment and maybe get real make up supplies for next year. Or maybe we'll do some fun stuff for Christmas. But it lasted through the night and survived the day at school. But Lily was good with that and wore a black hoodie. Lily is also really excited that she's learned the rhythm and beat for how to play the cup game. She said she taught that in one of her classes today. I'm sure it was mostly a party day. I don't think Abi dressed up for school, but she and her friends dressed up like Alvin and the Chipmunks. She was Simon. 

The elementary kids were thrilled that the fun day of days was finally here - Halloween! Here's a cute picture of all the excited kids at the bus stop this morning - 

Free candy and imaginative costumes. The elementary kids were excited for the school parade. This morning we couldn't find the washable markers, though, so I used black permanent marker for Daniel's Incredibles mask! We'll find out tonight if it comes off!

Owen is going to be an astronaut tonight, but I put that he was going to be a Ninjago Lego guy for school, and he changed his mind a few times (he wanted to be a pirate, then a vampire, etc) but I said he had to stay with the Lego Ninja. 

His 2nd grade teachers plan a musical program around all of their costumes. Here he is on the back row, in front of the pumpkin -

He did a cute job in the program. 2nd graders are cute. 

Just Katharine and I stayed for the program, but Corey and Peter came to the parade too, which was before the program. Parade at 9:15, then program at about 10:00. We saw all the kids in the parade.

Daniel has such a fun personality. Most of the kindergarteners seemed nervous and were not smiling, but not Daniel. He came up and gave Katharine a hug and then continued on his way, waving to all his fans ~

It was outside, again, and it was chilly but not too bad. After D, we saw Owen and Natalie, but Sophi's class skipped in order and she came before Natalie, so I was looking for a Jolly Rancher and not Cleopatra, so I missed getting a photo of her but we did wave and give a hug. Here she is with her friends trick or treating tonight ~

Our neighbors did a pizza dinner for the neighborhood and the kids went over there, but I didn't. Corey was in the shower and I was nursing Katharine, cause it started at 5:30 right when we got back from a bike ride. Probably our last one of the season! It was snowy and cold for most of the trail, but it was nice to be up there one last time. 

I got a personal best on the ride up! I did a few parts that I haven't been able to do before, and I really did them this time! I didn't pause or stop to adjust my wheel, I was proud of myself! I listened to this on the ride up (well, I listened to part 1 on Sat, this time I was on part 2 and I loved the things she talked shared about parenting. It is a must listen! Start at 25:00, so good! So, it was good, cold, but good. I miss fall already. I'm going to try and go to Corner Canyon for one more ride tomorrow, and then there's snow coming Wednesday morning and for 8 of the next 10 days. We're going to need to find a new daily hobby for the winter since biking will be mostly out. Unless we get a fat bike! Maybe I'll take up snow shoeing? Corey's thinking of getting a pass to Momentum for rock climbing. He and Wes might go in the morning. Ok, sorry, back to Halloween. So Corey showered, I nursed K, she fell asleep and so he stayed home with her and I went out with kids - Lily borrowed a dinosaur onesie for Wes so he could be twinners with Peter. 

They called themselves "The Dinosaur Brothers". Checking out some of the loot - Pokemon cards!

We have a pretty great neighborhood for kids to trick or treat in. 

Lily as a Christmas Tree, Natalie as a Jolly Rancher. Lily didn't get candy, she was just being festive and walked around with us.

Getting lots of loot!

One neighbor was dressed as "Your Fairy Godmother" and the kids lined up to talk with her, like they would for a Mall Santa, and she granted them wishes and gave them candy and some kids (like my 3 girls) got jewelry! 

Running from house to house. 

A neighbor Dave has a tradition of making flat bread - 

And some neighbors next to him had hot dogs to roast and smores!

Another neighbor was serving up hot cocoa and apple cider. It's just a pretty amazing neighborhood and place to live. We love it here. 

Tonight as Owen was trick or treating, he nostalgically said "I'm going to miss Halloween tomorrow..." I'm sure he will. Corey's back with Abi - time for scriptures. We're still going to make it to bed by 10! It's our new modus operandi for survival, and it is working wonders. We've only done it for like the past 6-9 months I think, but it's great. It's still a school night, so party is over - Bye Halloween! We'll see you next year!