Halloween 2020

We started our Halloween celebrating with a primary trunk or treat in our church parking lot Thursday evening. Since I'm a leader of the activity day boys the primary presidency asked if I would help. They were just having leaders pass out goodies to the kids instead of the whole ward. It was open house style. People would bring their kids around to each car and then they could go home. At first when they asked me to help I was told they were just going to set up tables for each station so I wasn't going to bring anything. I also wasn't feeling like dressing up since I didn't really get to look for a new costume this year. However, at the last minute I decided to wear my old pirate costume and grabbed some decorations just in case. I'm glad I did! It was much more fun and I saw that other leaders dressed up and brought decorations also. The primary had me hand out Halloween pencils and I also brought my own candy. So they got a treat and a pencil at my station. It was fun! Since I was a leader and had to be there the whole time Curtis had to bring the 3 younger kids after they ate dinner. 

With her mask on.

And now without the mask.

Alice wasn't too happy because she had just woken up from a nap. She didn't want to wear her princess crown either. Or maybe it was that she couldn't find it. I don't remember.

Curtis just threw on a wig with his Aussie hat and his sunglasses.

Friday night Nikki had some friends come over for a simple Halloween party. She knew for over a month that she was going to do this but she didn't really plan anything for it until last minute. I had to give her some suggestions for food and activities. She knew they were going to watch a movie but I mentioned the idea of pumpkin carving and she liked that idea. So they started out with pumpkin carving. Then ate some food and watched "I Am Legend". Because they started so early they were done with the party just before 9pm, kind of surprising for a teenager party.

Saturday, the day of Halloween, it was nice to sleep in. We didn't really know what our plans were but Curtis was off helping a guy from work with some plumbing stuff so we couldn't discuss it. My dad called and asked if we could bring the kids over around 2pm to do some grandparent trick or treating and I knew my friends Monica and Seth were going to come over in the evening. We also needed to carve our pumpkins still. Curtis got home around 11:30 and we finally made our plans. We just ate lunch and then relaxed a bit before going over to my dad's. I had texted my grandma earlier to let her know that we were going over so she was there also. That saved us another stop and gave us more time. Tamara was there with her 3 little kids and my step brother Scott and his wife Jill and two youngest kids were there also. The crazy thing is that Garrett and Jill dressed up as the same character, Marty McFly from Back to the Future. We didn't have time to finish finding the jean jacket and vest for Garrett though before Halloween. Honestly, he could also be Steve Irkle from Family Matters if he threw on some glasses, lol. After getting pictures and treats we went to see Curtis's parents.

Dr. Doofenshmirtz, Minnie Mouse, a princess, a guy with a mustache and knife, Marty McFly and then I said Curtis and I could be muggles (non magic people from Harry Potter). I just didn't feel like dressing up again but I wish I had put my pirate costume on again when I saw Tamara, Scott and Jill dressed up. Oh well, maybe next year.

Trick or treating at Dad's next door neighbors. 

Getting a picture with Gma Vernie and Gpa Tony.

This was at Grandma and Grandpa Butterfield's.

Now it was back home to get Nikki to work and to do our pumpkin carving. We watched movies on the laptop while we carved. Thankfully Nikki had already carved her pumpkin yesterday with her friends so she wasn't missing out.

Charlotte was excited to carve pumpkins and was happy when she could scoop out a bunch of seeds in her little spoon. We save the seeds and bake them with butter, worcestershire sauce and seasoned salt. One of our favorite Fall snacks!

Charlotte actually designed and carved her pumpkin by herself this year. I was really impressed!

Keeping it simple.

She poked her name in the back of the pumpkin and tried to carve it but I finally told her she didn't need to do that. She wanted people to know it was her pumpkin.

Curtis helped Alice with carving. I cleaned it out.

Doing a little trick or treating with the girls after eating taco soup for dinner. We didn't go too far and thankfully they were fine with that. We were gone for maybe half an hour.

It was finally dark enough to light them up. Pumpkins in order left to right - Deedra (mine), Garrett, Alice, Charlotte, Nikki, Curtis. Jack didn't want to carve one this year. We have a couple extra pumpkins we'll just have to save for Thanksgiving decoration. Then cut them open for the seeds.

We weren't sure Monica and Seth were going to show up but just as we were getting ready to start a Harry Potter movie they showed up at the door. The kids were trick or treating to us and I didn't even recognize them at first until Monica came behind them. They hung out for a little bit and then left to go see her brother. I learned tonight that Monica is not a Harry Potter fan and doesn't like dark movies. I have to say I was surprised. We love the Harry Potter series! We got them to watch about 10 min of the beginning of the 6th movie. Then they left to go visit her brother.

Considering the covid situation this year we didn't get as many trick or treaters as usual but we did get some. The boys were in charge of handing out candy this year. And even with covid it was still a fun Halloween!

We stayed up to finish watching the movie and didn't get to bed until nearly midnight. I was not looking forward to waking up for 9 am church after staying up that late. Why do we do this to ourselves?! Thankfully when I woke up I saw that my radio clock said it was almost 7:30 but my phone said 6:30 which is what time my alarm was set to go off. Hallelujah!! We got an extra hour of sleep because daylight savings happened to be that night and we didn't know it.