Pumpkins

Ethan spent the last few months growing our pumpkins so we had to carve a few of them. They are pretty small, but we made it work. I will have to post another pictures of Bryan's (Ethan took it) when it is lit up tonight.

Trick-or-Treat at the High School

Each year Snow Canyon High School has some trick-or-treating down their halls right before they let out of school. Ethan wanted to go and Courtney was invited to a Halloween Party, so Ethan and I had a Halloween Mom/Ethan date. It was fun.

The halls were SO crowded with kids but we were able to find Brennon and Ethan went around with him. Each different wing of the school was decorated like a different House in Harry Potter. They played "Monster Mash" over the loudspeaker and the high school kids were the ones to give out the candy. It was a lot of fun and he got a big loot of candy.

The Halloween Parade and Parties

What a crazy party day!!

At 9:15 the Halloween Parade began with Courtney's class in the lead...and Courtney at the front of the line! She was so excited. They then went through the next classroom to pick up those students and then to the next room and so on. They ended up outside and did a loop before going back to their classroom for the party.

I am one of Courtney's roommoms so I got to help plan the party. There was a mummy roll game, cookie decorating, memory game and a necklace craft. The kids had a great time and all the kids had a great time. Friday is an early day so they get out at 10:40. We didn't have too long for the party after the parade finished, but the kids didn't mind.

After Courtney's party, they were out for the day so I took Courtney with me to help set up for Ethan's party. I was just helping on this one so it was a lot less work. I was in charge of the craft station where they were making spiders from pompoms and yarn. It was pretty easy but took a long time for them to put the googly eyes on.

There was a "gross out" station where they had to put their hands in vats of cooked spaghetti noodles with spiders in them. This made Ethan dry heave but he kept trying to catch spiders. They did a mummy wrap game and ate chocolate rats (which also made Ethan dry heave). Then they went back to the classroom and decorated cookies until lunch.

All the kids, at both parties, had a great time.

Halloween is Coming!

The kids have their Halloween parade and parties today. I'll blog about those later, but this morning I had to take their picture before the bus came and took them off. Courtney is a disco girl and Ethan is a Storm Trooper (his friend, Brennon, is Bubba Fett).

They weren't up too early but they were ready in record time. That means that we have had a lot of time to bug and tease each other. I thought I would attempt to channel their energy into helping me make some light up ghosts to decorate outside with. That lasted about 2 minutes, but the ghosts were finished and they turned out okay.

Here is a picture of our front porch. Ethan grew these pumpkins for an arrow point in cub scouts and did a great job...growing miniature pumpkins. I think we watered them too much. Oh well.


Here are the kids (the last one has Brennon in it too):

Pack Meeting at Ivins Fire Department

Our Ward has quite a representation in the Ivins City Fire Department. We have three EMTs/fire fighters in the ward and one of them gave our little Scout Pack a tour last night. It was fun because he is a funny guy and his son is Ethan's age so he was there too. We had a good turn out and they learned all about fire safety.

I was a bit shocked because Courtney doesn't like loud noises and freaked out last time we went to a fire station, but she did okay at this one. She even climbed in the fire truck to look around, something she has never done before. She did walk around with her ears plugged 90% of the time, but oh well.

Ethan loved it because there were a lot of things to see. He asked some great questions and learned a lot. He had fun. He was supposed to get a few belt loops and get his Wolf Merit Badge, but they decided to wait until next month because two other boys are going to advance also and the Den Leader in the ward wants to try and use the boys to motivate the others to get their stuff done. She figures that the more that advance at once, the more impressive it will look. Ethan was kind of bummed, but he is more excited to get a bunch more belt loops finished before next Pack Meeting.

Looking in the fire truck compartments:

Courtney on the blue fire truck (Why is it blue? Because the fire chief at the time it was purchased liked the color blue. Go figure!)

Courtney's Dance Halloween Party

And so it begins.

Last night Courtney had dance and they had a huge party. They got to dress up in their costumes (Courtney is going to be a Disco Girl) and got candy at the end. She was so excited and can't wait for Friday when she has her class party and then on Saturday we have our neighborhood party. What a life these kids have!

Here is Courtney with her two friends from the neighborhood who are also in dance with her. Lydia as Jane is on the left (this little girl's big brother played Young Tarzan in the Tuacahn production of "Tarzan" this summer) and Hayley as the Halloween Fairy is in the middle. (For any who don't know, the Halloween Fairy takes your Halloween candy on Halloween night and leaves you with a toy. It's a tradition in the neighborhood that we are happy to participate in so we don't have any tummy aches or cavities.)

Where do I put it?

Last week I took our recycling to the grocery store parking lot where a huge dumpster is set up. And there, sitting on the ground ready to be thrown away, was a huge clock. It was all gross and sticky, but I saw the potential so I grabbed it. Now, Ethan tells me this is stealing, but I think it's fine because it was being thrown away.

I took it home, cleaned it up, painted it black, and cut vinyl out with my Cricut (I need the computer program so I have more control, but I don't think it was too bad). I think it turned out well, but now I don't know where to put it in my house. Oh well, it was fun to make and I'll figure out where to put it eventually.