Happy Halloween!

Halloween always seems so busy.  Mac's preschool has a party in the morning.  Mac was so excited to wear her little costume and have us come see her sing and share cookies with her.  We found her a book at the library about fairies to share with her classmates.

 

 

 

Later in the afternoon, at the same time as Leiden's class party, I took Mac and Mimi to Brad's work for Trick or Treating there.  Mimi looked so cute in her robot costume.  Everyone thought it was awesome, and Brad was pretty excited that it turned out.  We entered her into the costume contest. 

 

 

 

 

Brad dressed up for work as a punk rocker again.  He did not paint his fingernails this time.  I guess he was the only person who dressed up at work.   His mohawk worked better this time because he got a hair cut. 

 

 

 

We went out tonight as a family, which we've never done.  I usually stay home and hand out candy while Brad takes them around, but tonight we went over to the Henrie's and had dinner with them, and then we ventured out all together.  Mimi had about had it with her costume, and decided she didn't want to wear it.  She had her coat on, and no costume.  The other two just put their wings on over their coats and off they all went. 

 

 

They even got pretty good at remembering to say thank-you! 

 

 

Fun Halloween, but we had hardly any kids come to our house.  This unfortunately means I have an excess of tiny candy bars in my house.  I MUST remember next year to only buy candy I don't like to eat myself.  It's the only way to go.  It is definitely unsafe for me to have chocolate candy in the house.

Pumpkins

We headed over to the Fetters' house for dinner and pumpkin carving!  All the girls pitched in, for various amounts of time and put in various amounts of effort.  Leiden started the cleaning out strong.

 

 

Mimi just liked to wield the little saws.

 

 

Mac was thrilled to have someone else clean out her pumpkin.

 

 

Mac's pumpkin is on the right side--she told me she wanted triangle eyes, she drew the triangle nose herself, and told me she wanted square teeth.  Leiden chose the haunted house, and she transferred most of the pattern to the pumpkin, and then I cut it out.  Brad did the ghosts and Boo in the middle.

 

 

It's almost here!

Almost Halloween

Big day today!  Brad went out and ran the half marathon.  Without me.  :(  I really was sad that I didn't get to go.  I guess it's for the best, though, because I am sick again.  The antibiotic helped me feel much better, and then as soon as it was leaving my system the coughing and stuffy nose came back.  Running today would not have been a good thing.

 

Brad did awesome, especially considering the amount of time he trained.  He ran it in under 2 hours and looked great!  He says his hips hurt, but otherwise he feels great, too.

 

 

There were a bunch of people from our old ward who were there with him, and Laura ran it again this year as well. 

 

 

Later this evening we went to one of Brad's coworker's new house for a housewarming/Halloween party.  Mimi was so cute in her robot, and we found that she is not able to go up or down steps, sit down, bend over, or get up from her tummy should she fall.  Yep.  We design them like pros, here.  Her little body lights even blinked. 

 

 

Leiden is a beautiful butterfly with enormous wings. 

 

 

I was the traditional raven, Mac was a rainbow fairy, and Brad was a punk rocker. 

 

 

He pulled it off amazingly well.  What we failed to get a picture of was his hands, which were taped and he had written MITT on the knuckles for his political statement, and his nails were painted black.  In these pictures he's also missing the studded collar.

 

 

After we were done at the party, we raced to the church trunk or treat.  Here is our family, all done up.  If you look closely at Brad you'll see the collar and an eyebrow piercing. 

 

 

Finally trunk or treating and then it was home to bed! 

 

 

A pretty good Halloween preview.

Rainbow Preparations

Mac is going to be a rainbow fairy for Halloween, so today we were working on a rainbow tutu she can wear over a dress she already has.  She helped me get the color I needed from the box of tulle strips.  Until she decided that wasn't fun, anymore.

Bye Bye, Leaves

So that giant pile of leaves the girls have been playing in all week?  They were raked on to a tarp to transport to the recycling center, and then it rained for two days.  So tonight we're out trying to get the heavy, wet leaves up into the back of the Tahoe.  As you can see, it's going nowhere fast.

 

 

We took some leaves out, and Mac tried kicking it, still no cigar.

 

 

Brad tried to use his massive strength to lever it up and in.  Nope.

 

 

We ended up taking about half out, finally getting the tarp into the Tahoe, but unfortunately leaking decomposing leaf juice all over the carpet in the back.  I'm told it's a good thing I can't smell anything right now!

 

 

Mimi had some fun watching us heave!

Lately one of Mac's favorite things to do is wear my shoes.  I remember doing it with my mom's shoes, and all I can say is that I hope I left my mom's closet looking neater than mine is left!

 

 

Mimi found some scissors today.  And unfortunately the paper she chose to cut up was money.  I heard her doing it, but couldn't figure out what the sound was.  Then the little sneak closed the drawer, so when I went to investigate, I couldn't see anything.  Only later, when I opened the drawer for something else did I find the money confetti.

Outside

Not the most interesting picture of Mimi, but do you see the cat in the background?  She still, after all this time, tries desperately to escape the house every day.  Today she managed, and before we could get her, she snuck off to the tree line, where she eventually crossed the street to the pond.  I went after her and finally grabbed her down by the water.  Mischievous cat.

 

 

Mimi really loves the leaves.  They are going to get bagged up and carted off to the recycling center soon, so she needs to get her fill, now.

 

 

Still having beautiful, play outside kind of days here.

Pamper Me

Today was a lovely day.  I've been sick for a few weeks, now, so I finally went to the doctor last night.  Urgent care was hardly busy and I walked out with a bronchitis diagnosis, a z-pack prescription, and one for Robitussin with Codeine.  Excellent.  Other than making me sick to my stomach, the cough with codeine helped me sleep last night!  Then this morning Brad and the girls dropped me off to a spa day.  It was a gift from Brad for the last few weeks being rather difficult with him gone so much.  I think there was a little guilt about leaving me with 8 kids by myself.

At the spa I enjoyed a massage, a facial, lunch, a manicure, and a hair cut!  Just in time for us to go out on a date.  We went to Broders, which is SO good.  I actually feel better today, after just one day of the antibiotic, so I'm hopeful it will clear up completely in a timely fashion. 

I really enjoyed the facial at the spa, today.  I had no idea what to expect, but they lay you down under these warm blankets and just start rubbing product into your face, neck, and arms.  It's lovely.  Then they put warm steam on your face to open your pores.  I literally fell asleep.  I had thought the massage would be my favorite part, but it was made more difficult by my cold.  When my head is down, my nose tends to...drip.  Yeah, really gross, so I spent a lot of time worrying about it dripping and trying to snuffle and sniff.

 

Great day!  Thanks so much Brad for the wonderful pampering!

Halloween and Other Art

The girls have been hard at work with the paint.  Mimi told me this is a tree with its leaves falling down.

 

 

Leiden is loving white crayons on black paper.

 

 

Mac painted a rainbow with rainclouds--and mixed the purple herself.

 

 

Watercolors are another favorite.  Leiden has singing rainbow ghosts,

 

 

And a spooky Halloween scene.

Fall Harvest Orchard

We took off to an orchard this morning that has a petting zoo and pumpkins.  That's a pretty big steer behind the girls!

 

 

They had a baby cow that was just 2 weeks old.

 

 

And the goats!  The girls each got a bag of food to feed them.

 

 

There were no pawing incidents.  I think they save that for my dad.

 

 

Lots of chickens.  Ones that lay eggs, too!

 

 

Giant corn cribs.  I'm sure I'll be finding corn in pockets, etc. for days.

 

 

There were new chicks that were just there for kids to try and pick up.  Mac wanted to hold one, freaked out when its little feet touched her hand, so dropped him on the floor.  I can't believe there isn't more supervision with these tiny little animals.  Their mortality rate must be sky high.  Dropping, squeezing, too hard petting.  Pretty scary.

 

 

You could feed the cows, but you were supposed to feed them downed apples.  Because it's so late in the year, there really weren't any apples left.  Leiden improvised with some weeds.

 

 

And this little gem finally came, today.  It is now proudly stuck in our lawn.