Halloween at BYU

Halloween snuck up on us fast this year but I think we managed to pull things together just in the nick of time.    We found out about a spooktacular event being held on BYU campus so we thought that would be fun.  So we loaded up the boys and went to explore the fun.  

The event at BYU was okay.  The best part of the event was the face painting and the large inflatable toys that the boys could jump on.  So we did that and then we left for some trick or treating.

Gidean, the pirate!

Aleky, superman with a spider?

The other boys follow their younger brother's examples. 

Michael, the batman

Donovan, the ghost

David, the batman

After the spooktacular we went trick or treating in our neighborhood.  Mostly we just wanted to show off our costumes to our friends and neighbors.  The problem is that whenever you knock on a door on Halloween, our friendly neighbors insist on giving the boys candy!  We had a lot of fun and stayed out much too late, returning home with way too much candy!  Happy Halloween!!!

Jack-o-Lanterns

We have been very busy and want to spend some quality time with our boys.  We decided that on Sunday evening we would take time to carve our jack-o-laterns before we run out of Halloween holiday time.  Overall, the boys had a great time.  The younger boys still struggle with the slimy pumpkin guts but they are getting better at cleaning out their pumpkins.  David is getting to be a real pro, finishing his jack-o-latern before the other boys had their pumpkins cleaned out.

In the end, I think we turned out a great group of jack-o-lanterns.  Aleky was the only injury.  While trying to carve his own pumpkin he carved a little chunk of his finger!  Unfortunately, due to the large number of bleeding injuries recently, our essential oil supply was depleted   So we found a neighbor with some super glue and put Aleky back together again.

Dedicated Hometeachers

Our boys love it when our home teachers come over.  It doesn't seem to matter how we arrange the furniture our boys surround the home teachers with love!  We are certainly grateful for the continued dedication of Brother Thurston and Brother Pulsipher and the wonderful lessons and sweet spirit they bring.  (The boys will sit still for most of the lesson if we keep it to under 30 minutes!  Just a minor miracle, a tender mercy, in our lives each month.)

Aleky's Birthday Party

It's hard to believe that another year had already passed and Aleky is a whopping 5 years old already.  In preparation for the birthday party Michelle wanted to know what kind of cake he would want.  Aleky really had some random ideas for a cake so we had to make an executive decision and opted for the Captain America shield cake.

Once Aleky actually saw his cake he was completely thrilled with our decision.  Of course he was just excited he was going to get to eat cake and ice cream.

Our first activity was to pin the eyes on the ghost.  The kids had to cut out their own eyes and mouth for the ghost.  Then they taped the eyes and mouth to the big ghost but they had to do it blindfolded.  Everyone thought that was great and no one was really able to hit the "right" spot.

Michelle wanted to do homemade ice cream, partly as an activity and partly because it just tastes better.  However, Brother Hoffman ended up doing most of the work while the kids were playing and doing other activities.

Michelle coordinated the balloon stomp.  Each kid had a balloon tied to his ankle and then tried to stomp on everyone else's balloon before someone stomped on their balloon.  We had enough balloons for two games!

In spite of the planning, the cake and ice cream was the hit of the party.  It was great to see all of the little kids sitting around the little kid table being completely sociable with each other.

Some of the older kids just hung out on the grass so they could get back to playing as quickly as possible.

The parents just sat on the patio observing the goings-on and catching up on each other's lives.

The older kids loved the trampoline and playing a "tag" in which they tried to avoid being hit by the balls thrown from the grounded kids.  When the balls got too big we had to step in and calm the game down a bit.

Finally, Aleky got to open his presents.  He received a couple of different costumes, including and iron man and two captain america's!  He has been so thrilled that he's wearing the iron man costume everywhere, except to bed (because we made him change into pajamas).

(posted 11/15/12)