Halloween Week Happenings

Jack had his first band concert of the year on Tuesday the 26th of October. The gym was packed because the band is so big this year, especially the beginning band. Jack played the French horn for Intermediate Band and the trumpet for jazz band. He is really improving quickly. Mr. Sene was right about him being a natural. For jazz band he had the opportunity to play a soli, which is the same part played by more than one person. In this case it was just him and one other person and they did great!

Charlotte participated in a book character pumpkin decorating contest at school. She has been watching 101 Dalmations lately and so she wanted Lucky for her character. She pretty much did the whole thing by herself. Alice helped with some painting and I had Nikki help her with the ears. She didn't win anything but it was still a cute one and it was fun. There were 150 pumpkins turned in this year and so many neat ones!

She brought it home the day of their Halloween party and got to wear her costume to school. You can't see it but she painted the stem of the pumpkin and stuck it in the back for the tail using a nail. It reminded me of Eeyore.

Going to school in her costume on Thursday the 28th. There was no school on that Friday so they did their Halloween party on Thursday.

Since Charlotte dressed up, Alice wanted to also. Her preschool did not celebrate Halloween since they are at a church. They had a Fall party instead the day before.

Curtis having some fun with Nikki's cat mask. He ended up wearing the mask to work but he wore business clothes with it instead of the devil costume. He got a lot of laughs at work.

Our ward trunk or treat was also on the 28th. Jack dressed as a paper boy. Dinner and the trunk or treat were served outside while different activities were set up in the gym.

Picture booth. She's a sassy cat.

Alice racing her friend best friend Sidney in the duck race.

Friday the 29th was the big field trip for Alice and the preschool to go to the Farmstead and to the pumpkin patch. Since Charlotte didn't have school she was able to come with us. Things were not very organized as this was the first time these teachers have gone to the Farmstead for their field trip. They usually went to Linder Farms and it is done way differently. Everyone ended up going off on their own. Oh well, it was still fun! This was the first time I have been to this location since they moved. In fact, I don't think I have been to the Farmstead since Curtis and I were in the singles ward. I love how open and spacious this place is and there are so many things to do. Most of the activities are included in your ticket as well so that's nice. The girls and I had a great time! I took a lot of pictures also, so be prepared!

Waiting to get in.

First thing we did was the hay ride to pick a pumpkin. It was part of the preschool ticket but it had to be a small pumpkin.

This is the first time they have ever picked their own pumpkins from a pumpkin patch. So fun!

Like I said, lots of open space. It was nice.

We went through the beast! It was dark inside!

The girls were so excited to do the corn beach! It was just like the corn box at Linder Farms only more spread out and easier to get in and out.

I didn't mind paying extra for the pony rides. This was Alice's first time on a pony/horse. She was nervous about it but she liked it.

Charlotte of course loved it and climbed up and down by herself because she wanted to do everything herself. Miss Independent! She was asking me in line if she could ask the people if she could ride a horse not attached to the thing that goes around. Let her ride a horse once and she thinks she's a pro. Love her!

They have some bees that you can feed if it's warm enough outside but it wasn't warm enough while we were there. I didn't want to anyway and I don't think the girls would either, especially Alice who got stung by a wasp on her finger once before.

They had a ropes course that has things for all ages. The girls were too small for some things.

Picture frame.

The jumping balloon thing. They had one for small kids and another for big kids.

Cow barrel ride.

Making big bubbles!

One giant swing! Except this one is chained down so people can't actually swing on it. It's just for sitting and getting pictures on.

I didn't get a picture of every activity we did but there were lots of things to do and it was a lot of fun. We were there for nearly 4 hours and we didn't even do the corn maize!

Saturday morning of the 30th Nikki and Angie got together to finish making their costumes. They made paper mache' masks of Elmo and the Cookie Monster. Nikki wanted hers to look a little scary. To me, it looks like Elmo fell in the mud or something, ha ha.

Nikki let the girls try it on when it was only half done.

Charlotte has a sucker in her mouth. Not easy to put the mask on with a sucker in the way.

After they finished, their boyfriends came over and they went on a date (without the masks on). Nikki ended up giving her mask to one of the teachers at school who she thought would like it in their classroom.

That very same evening Curtis and I picked up Grandma Norton and headed over to BSU to watch Garrett perform in the big D3 marching band competition. Skyview had their best performance and did well! They came home with 1st place for Auxillary (drill team) and either 3rd or 4th place overall. They had announced it as 3rd place but then later Garrett said they messed up (again) and we actually got 4th place. That's okay because they did very well on their performance!

We bundled up and brought blankets but the weather was actually nicer than the previous competition we attended at Ridgevue the week before.

The morning of the competition the band parent t-shirts came in so I bought one for me and Curtis.

Coming out on the blue turf with his big bass drum.

3 of the 4 backdrop paintings. Again the theme is "out of the ashes" so it's post Apocalypse. 

Boise State performed that night as well and it was so fun to watch!

As for Halloween day, it was pretty low key. We went to church like usual and later had a nice roast for dinner and I baked some pumpkin chocolate chip muffins while watching Relative Race. I had been debating on whether to let the girls trick or treat with it being on Sunday and whether or not to give out candy since we already did the trunk or treat but I decided it wouldn't hurt to take them around for a little bit and to let Garrett and Curtis hand out candy to trick or treaters. I let Jack go around with his friend Tyler. Nikki went out and walked around the neighborhood with Angie and Logan. The girls and I were able to trick or treat with our neighbor friends, Ashlie, Sidney and Lilly. The funny thing is that Charlotte got tired out pretty quick and we only did it for half an hour even though I had a wagon. She did not want to sit in it.

Later we played a game that Jack had prepared to do as a family. Curtis was exhausted and not feeling well (ate too much candy) so we went to bed but the rest of us played in the family room. It was basically a cake walk game. Music was played as we danced or walked around the couches that were back to back. We would pause the music, roll a die and call out the number. Then that person would answer a Halloween trivia question and get a piece of candy. We were all pretty tired after that and since they had school the next day anyway, kids were in bed around 9pm. Wow, that's early for a Halloween night! It was great!