The Great Gathering

Last weekend, we went to Odgen for "The Great Gathering".

A festivus of many celebrations and holidays...

1. Early Thanksgiving dinner.

2. Nate and Cathy were baptizing their son, Bob.

3. Nate and Cathy blessing their new baby girl, Sarah Anne.

4. Jeff, Amy and family moving to Texas (for jobs) and wouldn't be able to visit for a while.

5. Early Christmas gift exchange with cousins.

6. Many, many family birthdays in the month of November.

Sweet Sarah Anne

Robert... a.k.a. Bob, the newest member of the church, in his ward.

Gifts were shared, turkey and pie was eaten and ordinances were done.

It was a quick, but nice gathering.

Jackson's Halloween Birthday Party!

It started with an October issue of "Family Fun" magazine...

Taylee was looking through the magazine and discovered a veggie tray/dip decorated like a Haunted Graveyard. She thought it was so cool and couldn't stop talking about it. She pleaded with me to have a Halloween party. I was a little partied out... but was bitten by the cute bug. The veggie Haunted Graveyard was SO cute, I told her I'd think about it.

By the next day she had a new angle... what if the Halloween party was a FAMILY party? Could we do a FAMILY Halloween party? I told her I wasn't committing yet... I was still thinking about it.

A few days later, I was talking to Candice on the phone. Some how the subject of parties came up. She mentioned that Jackson had been wanting a Halloween Birthday party. I told her Taylee had been pressing me for a Halloween party. She then had a brilliant idea... "Would Taylee like to be my party planning assistant for Jackson's Halloween Birthday party? Would that satisfy her party planning cravings?" Yes, I believed it would.

For the next several days, I sent Candice every site and blog entry I found, for cute Halloween ideas. I bombarded her with so many, I hoped that she wasn't getting tired of seeing emails from me. I couldn't help myself... there were so many fun ideas out there!

We met and finalized plans. I offered to have Taylee and I do a snack, a game and a craft for the party. It was satisfying Taylee, as well as myself, to be able to do some fun stuff without having to be fully in charge.

The night before the party, Taylee and I went shopping for the Haunted Graveyard ingredients; celery, broccoli, carrots, spinach, olives, pretzels, eggs, a variety of crackers and hummus. Did you know that Winco sells a hummus mix in the bulk food section? I didn't either until I talked to my very own personal hummus expert...my sister Amber. It was less expensive than buying it pre-made and was very simple to make.

The next morning, Taylee and I created the long-awaited Haunted Graveyard. I mixed the hummus, while she washed and cut the veggies. Then we assembled it. Hummus mixed with fresh spinach, for the "earth", green dyed Ranch dip for the "swamp" and then everything else arranged around it. (The Ranch swamp was my original idea. I was also proud of my carrot pumpkins. Another original idea, not pictured in the magazine. So clever.)

It turned out WAY cute! See for yourself...

The artist with her masterpiece.

The white little crackers in the swamp and around the grounds are "Kraft Macaroni and Cheese crackers (white cheddar)" we thought they looked like bones.


After costuming the kids, we were off to Jackson's party.


As we arrived, we could tell there was a par-tay goin' on. Fun decorations adorned the yard, along with Jackson and Micaela greeting us at the curb.


I think this is how Micaela felt about this party.

Jackson, the birthday boy, along with his friend Ross.

Cousin Kyrick the dinosaur.

Cousin Audrey, as Glinda the Good Witch. Cousin Katelyn, as Dorothy, with her little dog Toto too. Soooo cute!!! (I missed getting a picture of Jackson's friend Quinn, little sister Lizzy and baby cousin Maliah.)

Franken pops

Earthworms and eyeballs

Can you guess how these were made?

Jackson's birthday graveyard cake

Rat's blood punch
Candice's idea... no blog needed for this one. :)

The kids played "build a monster" kind of like "pin the tail on the donkey".

Poor Frank, all his parts are detached.

We also played a hot/cold game, by hiding and finding a Frankenstein. As the finder got closer to the Frankenstein, we would make spooky noises louder. The ghost groans, werewolf howls and cackling witches were almost too much for some of the young party goers. A few kids covered their ears and just waited for it to be over with. :)

Jackson was ready to blow out the candles, as soon as it was in front of him. But when given the go ahead, it took several more blows to get them all out.

A little Frankenstein goody bag was sent home with each kiddo. My kids declared it the "best treat bag they had EVER gotten". They loved the rubber poppers and Slinky's inside.

Here's the little craft we did. Isn't he cute?... for a Frankenstein that is.

Gift time

Ross was SO excited to give Jackson his gift... I think he was hoping he had one just like it, as he held it, touched it and pulled at the packaging, while Jackson opened the other ones.

The whole party gang.

As the party was winding down, a game of Witch Broom Limbo broke out (the game Jackson had been insisting on since day one).

Dean couldn't resist and had to get in on the fun.

How low can you go???

Happy (early) Birthday Jackson boy!!!

Great party Candice. Are you ready for the next one??? :)

Treats!

Halloween kicks off the season of lots and lots and lots of treats.

On Monday, we made these peanut butter, candy corn kiss cookies for FHE. I had never had a candy corn kiss. They were good, but even better was the smell. I had taken the bag of unopened kisses into my bedroom. When I walked in, it almost smelled like I had a candle in there. Yummy vanilla-roma.

Rylee volunteered to bring treats to YW and Taylee had volunteered to help with Jackson's Halloween birthday party, so Taylee got to work making "Witch Wands" for both occasions.

Big pretzel + melting candies + sprinkles = a magically delicious treat.

The magical Witch Wands were a party treat hit. Wait until you see the other fun food that was there. It was gruesomely good.

Trunk-or-Treat

Last Saturday, we had 2 parties to attend... our annual neighborhood Halloween party and the ward's Trunk or Treat. I had been working on Taylee and Abree's costumes, but hadn't completed them yet, so Saturday was the day. I spent all morning working on them... all morning and into the afternoon that is.

By the time they were complete, and everyone was dressed with make-up on, we had missed the neighborhood party (and I thought we just might be a little late..oops!). But we were WAY ready and prepared for the ward's Trunk or Treat... 2 hours later.

Abree's our little "Posh Poodle Puppy". She named herself "Frenchy" and goes around panting and barking at our heels.

" Heeeere's Johnny! "

Treyson's the "Human Torch" from the Fantastic 4. --He begged to use one of the costumes from my collection (I usually sell Halloween costumes on Craigslist and children's consignment sales each year.). It was so nice not to have to worry about making his...why don't I just do this every year..for ALL my kids???

"Ham and cheese...please!"

Taylee always likes to have a unique costume. We thought of several ideas this year; cupcake, jellyfish, mermaid, etc., but ended up with a ham and swiss cheese sandwich. --I loved how the sandwich stuffing's turned out, but would have done the bread differently, if I had the time. One kid commented (at the trunk or treat) that she looked like a Pop Tart...and from the back she really did. :)

Rylee wanted to be a "sleepover girl". Because I was involved with getting the other costumes finished and really didn't have the time or energy to push for something else, I agreed. She was probably the most comfortable and warmest out of all of us. She even wore her thick, comfy robe for added warmth.

--Her friend Lessa was a "Dalek" (pronounced doll-ick). 50 points, to the first person who knows what a Dalek is. I had no idea, but it sure was a cool costume.

" Trunk or Treat!"

Our ward party was fun. We ate hot dogs, chips and homemade root beer, while listening to Halloweeny music.. "Scooby Dooby Doo, where are you? You've got some work to do now...". Another well-done job from our activities committee.

Birthday Dinner

My birthday celebrations lasted all week long, thanks to Marianne and Jaime. My sweet friends took me out for dinner to a cute little restaurant, Flatbread. We shared two uniquely yummy pizzas... don't ask me to pronounce the names. But they were yummy; pesto, feta cheese, prosciutto and more.

There was an interesting abstract paining on the wall. We couldn't figure out what it was or what it was supposed to be. It look a little... uh... well, see for yourself.

So what do YOU think?

After dinner, we went back to Jaime's house for delicious homemade apple crisp.

Thanks for PLAYIN' girls... it's always fun hanging out with you!

The Sign

Here's the famous sign I accidentally erased the other day.