Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!!  This morning was the traditional East Sandy Elementary Halloween Parade, which is always so fun to go see.  The girls are fun to see march past, but it's also fun to see what other fun costumes kids have!

Mimi as corpse bride,

and Mac as a devil! 

After I got home, it was time to get some stuff cleared out for our bulk pick up day.  We still had all the branches and stumps from tearing out the big trees in our now garden plot.  So we borrowed Mark's chainsaw and I went to work!  The chain slipped off the rail, and I figured out how to get it back on and got it done! 

We are finally getting rid of Mimi's old mattress and box spring.  They've been in our garage since the wedding, and good riddance!

Later this evening, we headed up to Grandmere and Bapa's house for dinner and trick or treating.  I love this tradition, but this year Leiden wanted to go trick or treating with her friends.  We told her no, because the plans were very nebulous, but she's growing up.  Mac again as a beglittered devil.

Leiden as a Day of the Dead.

And Mimi the corpse bride!  I ended up ripping out the gold parts of Mac's old angel costume and replacing them with white.  Then I took the whole thing outside and literally rubbed it in the dirt.  I made her veil, just ripped tulle and a headband, and tied together some fake flowers from the dollar store for her bouquet.  Of course I draped cobwebs on the bouquet and put a spider on it.  It was pretty fun.

Jon revisited his empty toilet paper roll for the benefit of the dinner party in the driveway.

I decided the work of gluing feathers to my face was beyond me today, and just put some fake eyelashes on!

Here we are!  Ready to partay!

It was a beautiful night.  Colorful sunset, not too freezing.

My dad came out with all of us and the girls marched through the neighborhood and got their haul!

I am astounded at the people who show up in that neighborhood.  People literally show up in big 15 passenger vans and roam the streets.  And it seems to get worse every year.  Most of the people are minorities, and the streets are just flooded.  It kind of makes it less fun for the kids who belong there.  It may be a tradition that's dying out for us up here.

The girls tired out pretty quickly, and we went back, they took a quick inventory, and we went home!

Happy Halloween!

Traeger!

Tara and Dustin brought this by today!  Dustin's brother was selling it for a steal, and we took him up on it!  I'm pretty excited to have our own Traeger.  There are lots of recipes I want to try in it.  Some pellets came with it, as his brother was trying to get rid of all their stuff, so we are ready to go!

Along with the general splendor of this fall, the STRAWBERRIES have even turned colors!  It's truly been incredible.

These beautiful little vegetables!  They are FINALLY growing!  It's awfully late in the season for them to just be this big, but they look incredible.  And there aren't any bugs on their leaves!  We will be eating these soon!

We knew a day or two ago that we would be getting the Traeger, so I had planned ahead for our maiden voyage.  Bacon wrapped onion rings!

They were SO good, and I'm super excited about the Traeger.  I've known about them for several years, and Tara and Dustin have one, but I've always just made do with the grill!  They are so expensive I just haven't even considered buying one.  Now I need dream no more!

Today for singing time, I needed the primary children's help in getting my makeup done.  Kids got to participate based on their singing and applied eyeshadow, blush, eyebrow pencil, and lipstick.  They did a smashing job!  I think they like when I'm silly.

Mac invited her friend Lucy to come to church with us today.  Lucy's parents used to be active members, but haven't gone in a long time, and Lucy has been very interested in coming.  I am proud of Mac for wanting to share this experience with her.  Lucy's mom was pretty clear that this isn't going to happen much, but I'm glad for Mac's example and friendships!

Trunk or Treat

Trunk or Treat tonight at the church!  I actually planned ahead enough to be ready with all our makeup on time!

As seems usual, the second run of my makeup went way slower and was much harder than the first, which just doesn't make sense!  Jon decided to be an empty toilet paper roll for his costume!

It's super funny and very creative.

SO creative, in fact, that he entered into the costume contest.

This was a contest won simply by how loud people cheered for you over the person in comparison.

And Jon won!!!  For his prize, he gets to take home this ghastly gargoyle and he has to display it in the yard for the year!  Next year at the trunk or treat he will write his name on it, and bring it back for the next costume contest winner.

We put out our carved pumpkins as decorations for the trunk or treating.

I think the girls went around like 6 times.  After we got home, late as it was, they had to take stock!

We love this ward activity!

Carving Pumpkins

More gorgeous fall color!  At the nearby park are these trees that are all four fall colors.  The bottom leaves are still a bit green, deepening to yellow, deepening to orange, deepening to red at the top.  I seriously need to figure out what kind of trees these are and be sure to plant them at whatever house we end up living!

These BRIGHT yellow trees line the main street by us.  Every day I'm blown away!

This evening we invited my family over to participate in some Halloween and pumpkin carving fun.  I haven't been doing very many Halloween dinner dishes with the way Jon and I eat, so tonight was carb night and I went all out!  We had these cute little Frankenstein brownies that Leiden helped me decorate.

We had a candy corn veggie platter,

And mummy dogs for the main event!  Seriously, it's not even the hot dog, it's the CRESCENT rolls that are SO delicious!

Leiden made these super cute napkin addons...they poked out like this,

and then when you pull it out, you're spooked again!  She is getting really creative and interested in party planning, baking, and creative home pursuits.

After dinner we got out the pumpkin carving tools and got to work!

The kids always start out super independent, scooping out their own pumpkins, 

and then somehow it always ends up that an adult is finishing it for them.  Those darn stringy bits on the inside are pretty demoralizing for a kid!

Leiden wanted to do a unicorn, and despite the intricacy of her pattern, she went for it!

Mimi has enlisted Bapa to help her.  She looks like she knows she's sly!

We saved the seeds, but didn't end up doing anything with them this evening, so we'll have to see if they are still okay in the morning.

Here they are!  Leiden's unicorn, Mac's Jack Skellington, and Mimi's dragon!

Jon treated each with some bleach spray, in hopes they will make it to Halloween without shriveling into themselves!