Halloween Part 2

Since Halloween was on a Sunday this year, we crammed everything into Saturday.  The day was filled from 9:00 AM to 11:00 PM.  Ben had a soccer "Spook-o-rama" from 9:00 to 10:30, kind of like a jamboree where the kids were encouraged to dress up and played mini-games against other teams.  Some of the teams really had their acts together and coordinated costumes.  One team sprayed their hair green and wore green jerseys and had a green blow-up alien as their mascot.  Another had matching rocketships painted onto their t-shirts.  Our team wasn't so organized!  But the kids still had fun.

Then we rushed home, quickly did chores and ran out to the dollar store to get some last minute decorations and birthday gifts for two parties later in the day.  Ben went to a birthday party at the pool while Kylie had her soccer game, fortunately right next door at the highschool.  It was pouring rain, and Brad, Jillian, and I huddled under several umbrellas freezing for an hour and a half during Kylie's game. 

After the game and birthday party, I took Ben to the Wilkes Halloween carnival.  Being the youngest in the family sometimes has its benefits.  I usually spend about $20 on tickets, but they've always been divided between several children.  This year Ben was the only one who wanted to go, so I bought him a $20 wristband which let him play the games as many times as he wanted.  It was so fun to see him play each game until he mastered it.  He was determined to win a certain prize and finally got it at the "bug bash". 

Then we hurried home to eat a quick dinner and were off to the ward Trunk or Treat and Halloween Carnival.  I tried to decorate the trunk with some tulle, glow sticks, and our carved pumpkins.  It looked pretty tacky, but about what you'd expect for a five minute job!  We were running late, and half way there realized we had forgotten the candy to hand out, so had to turn around and go back.  We ended up getting there 15 mins. late.  For the first time in history, an LDS function started on time!  There were hordes of children swarming our car the second I parked, shouting "trick or treat!"  I was trying to get Ben's costume figured out, the scary skeleton that pumps fake blood through its chest cavity, and it was leaking all over the place, staining my hands bright red.  Ben was upset, I was upset, kids were swarming us, it was insane.  Kylie stepped in to hand out the candy and ward off the crowds of kids.   I finally convinced Ben his costume looked fine without the bloody chest and tied his black robe together and sent him off to trick or treat.  The carnival was a success.  Everyone loved Jillian's popcorn costume, and she and her friend Lily won "Best Team Costumes" for their movie-going treat costumes.

After the ward party, Nathan invited his friend Emma over to watch a movie, and I got to stay up and pretend to work on my computer while they watched it.  Kylie had gone to a friend's house for another party, and Nate went to pick her up after Emma left, about 11:00 PM, and I finally went to bed!  Whew!

Sunday evening we had to go to Tif's house to see her costume.  She is always so creative.  This year, Mariko was a bunny (her first Halloween!) Tif was a carrot, and Tad was a farmer.  Tad had already taken off his costume and was engrossed in a football game, so we didn't get to see them all dressed up together, but Tif has pictures on her blog.  Ben decided not to wear his skeleton costume so he wouldn't scare Mariko. He had dressed up as a football player for the Spook-o-rama, so he wore that again.

The biggest surprise this Halloween...Kylie is taller than Tifanie!  I think she had shoes on and Tif didn't, but still!  I'm going to have to stop feeding her or she'll be taller than me soon!