Halloween Pumpkins, Parties, and Sea Creatures

This year I tried to scale back for Halloween. Usually we go totally crazy, but with my being preggo and all, I wanted to cut back on the stress. However, it seemed to be just as crazy as usually, but just as fun as usual, as well.

Brigham and I hosted our annual Halloween party. Unfortunately, the picture taking didn't happen during since I was running the games, but I have some after pictures that are pretty terrible instead.

I made a witches brew for the drink that was a big hit (just some pineapple juice, sprite, lime juice, and lime sherbet, and don't forget the plastic eye-balls) and some mummy pizzas. I also made some Halloween cupcakes.


For the games we played a couple new ones including Sweets in the Dark, where you have to guess what candy you are eating when blindfolded. Only three people guessed five correct in a row. And we also played Nosey, where you have to guess whose nose is sticking through a slit in a curtain from the other team. I almost peed my pants playing that one, I was laughing so hard. I accidentally accused all the women of having Brigham's nose....whoops. It's actually really hard to tell! We played our classic Name Game, and though the numbers dropped due to babysitter demands, it was just as fun as ever. We sure missed our Utah friends, though.

As for the prizes, the night before the party, my friend Brittany came over and we had a girls night making super fancy caramel apples drizzled with chocolate, peanut butter, nuts, chocolate chips...you name it. Mmm, I love caramel apples and we had a blast together. Big thanks to Brigham for watching all six of our kids by himself so we could have some fun together, kids-free.

Those that won prizes got to pick from the apples, or candy, or Halloween hand sanitizer. I tied for best costume with another gentleman that came as Chicago Bears coach, Mike Ditka.

Speaking of costumes, I tried to make super simple ones this year, AND use my pregnant belly to my advantage...so after much pinterest research we became a family of sea creatures.

My belly became an octopus head, Lydia transformed to a jelly fish, Ammon demanded to be a sea turtle, and Brigham was our friendly shark.

The costumes weren't too hard. I tried to convince Ammon to be the shark, but he wanted nothing to do with. I'm glad he insisted on the turtle, considering I used most of his old Pascal costume from our Tangled year, just added a turtle shell that I found at DI for a dollar. And his personality worked so well with the turtle that it was hilarious.

Some felt  was needed for my costume, and it was easy enough to turn a gray hoodie into a shark ensemble, although I did break my first sewing needle ever while sewing it (apparently needles can't sew through metal...who knew :)).



Lydia's jellyfish costume is probably my proudest ingenious moment. I wanted her to be something that could still be cute and girly, that she would enjoy, while still being a sea creature. All the jellyfish costumes online were done using umbrellas, or other head-wear and I just wasn't impressed. I saw one of her skirts and suddenly the idea just came to me. I tied lots of pink, gold, and white ribbon (Lydia got to pick the colors) from my ribbon scrap box that I already had, to one of Lydia's belts. Strapped that to her chest, and then put the poofy skirt over  her shoulders. Boom. Instant, adorable jellyfish. She even won cutest costume at the high school Halloween carnival. She was thrilled. Heck, so was I.

It was fun to be seen all together at our ward Halloween party, and Kayleen joined us as Snow White.

Earlier that week we prepared for Halloween with our annual carving pumpkins night.

I said we were only going to carve two this year to keep the stress and mess down to a minimum. However, Kayleen and Ryan joined us since they have never carved pumpkins before (yes, you should all gasp now. It's appalling) and Ammon had his pumpkin left over from his preschool field trip. So two turned into our normal four. And guess who usually does all the hard-core scraping once the kids have measly attempted to clean out the insides...me.

It was a blast. Lydia wanted a girl pumpkin with eye-lashes and kissy-lips. Brigham did his best helping her cut it out. She was upset that the eyes looked angry, and drew on earrings with a pen.

Ammon just wanted to hammer the bat-shaped pumpkin cutter that we have, so we gave his pumpkin two bat ears and he told me what kind of mouth and eyes he wanted.

I got to design "baby Kendrick's pumpkin" and made a goofy, smiley little guy. My kids thought the nose was terrible. I like it.




Basically, it was the pumpkin carving night everyone hoped for.

Halloween day Brigham and I spent the morning at the temple, went out to lunch, and then we returned home for some Halloween fun with the kiddos.

We played a giant game of Halloween memory that filled our whole living room.

It was nice to pass the time playing something together as a family, and it kept the kids from getting too stir crazy waiting for it to be time to go trick-or-treating.

Trick-or-treating this year was an adventure. It POURED.

I guess our ocean costumes inspired the wet, because the kids and Brigham were soaking. I used an umbrella. Ha! Brigham could have shared with me, but he refused. Ironically, when we went to go home, after going through the candy at my mom's house, the stars were shining with not a cloud in the sky.

Despite the rain, and checking repeatedly with the kids to see if they were tired of trick-or-treating, we stayed out for two.and.a.half HOURS. Whew. I was exhausted by time we were done. Ammon was so excited he would run right past porches/driveways/walkways and we'd have to steer him back to the doors so he could get his candy. And with each piece he accumulated, he'd get left behind because he was too busy holding up and excitedly proclaiming what he just was given. "Dad! Dad! I got another Skittles!" We'd have to usher him along to put it in his sack and catch up to the girls, who he'd then run right by at the next porch because he was too excited to pay attention to where he was going. Like I said, his turtle costume was very appropriate and it was true entertainment watching him.

The kids got so much candy, their bags broke and many tears were shed because of it. As years past, the kids got to keep all their full-size candy bars, which was quite a lot this year, and fill a bag full of the candy they wanted to keep for themselves in their room. The rest I packed up for Santa to use for Christmas and for other future holidays, and of course we put some in a parent bowl for Brigham and I to enjoy.

It was a fabulous holiday. Better than I expected. But as much as I enjoyed it, I enjoyed checking it off my list more. Because that means we're just that much closer to Christmas and this baby!