Happy Halloween from Madagascar!

It's been a fabulous Halloween season.

We had our standard pumpkin carving night.

Everyone was ready to dig in....except for Ammon. He was less than thrilled to come close to pumpkin guts. However, he enthusiastically cheered the rest of us on with continuous, "You guys are doing a GREAT job!"

I let the kids pick the shapes and theme for their pumpkins.

Lydia chose a happy, robot pumpkin with heart-shaped lips, while Ammon wanted a scary, happy pumpkin with angry eyebrows.

It made for a pretty good family of Tappana pumpkins.

During the day I was busy sewing our costumes. I made Brigham's and my costume from cheap items found at Goodwill.

I used this bed skirt to make 80% of the costumes. The picture above shows how I cut it up and sewed it to make a tail for Brigham's costume. There was one point I was nervous it wouldn't be enough, because I had everything all measured and cut out for my costume and then went to iron it smooth. Right when I set the iron on the materiel, this happened:

The iron burned a perfect hole into the fabric...right in the middle. I was so frustrated. Luckily, I had enough bed skirt to complete the costumes, but it was close, and I sure didn't like having to remeasure everything again. I truly enjoy making the costumes, it really brings Halloween alive.

Besides pumpkin night and costume making, we also had the Ward Halloween party to attend. Because I'm in the Relief Society Activities Committee, it was my job to help set up the backdrop for the photo-booth.

It took FOREVER, but we eventually had a pretty amazing backdrop, and I snapped a quick shot of my kids before it was overtaken by the eager ward family that night.

Lots of kids activities were included at the party that night: fishing, cake walk, pumpkin bowling, pin the face on the pumpkin, and more. There also was a pretty epic Haunted Spook Alley set up on the stage. And I mean epic.

Picture my brother Ryan growling in a horrifying mask that shots loud clouds of smoke, while emerging from a hidden tank of water up through a cauldron billowing with dry ice, JUST as two little girls go to grab a glow-stick from the creepy warlock sitting behind the cauldron (my deceptive brother, Kenny). AND then, after that traumatizing moment, imagine having to walk on a small wooden bridge, trying to get to the exit and having long scary hands come up from under the bridge and grabbing at your ankles as you are trying to walk....

Because that's exactly what happened. And that's just the last half.

I took Lydia and her best friend, Emery, through, and already terrified to death from the first two-thirds of the alley, the cauldron moment sent Emery over the edge. So I had to scoop her up, and rush to carry her out because she was screaming. This meant I had to abandon the already upset Lydia with all the spooky guys, as I ran carrying Emery. That sent Lydia hysterically trying to follow us, while the teenage boys aren't taking the hint of screaming, hysterical little girls to stop, and keep grabbing at our ankles. THEN we couldn't find where the curtain separated. It took like two minutes to locate it. That's a long time in that situation. And by the time we actually fell out of the spook-alley (well I had to run back in to find Lydia and carry her out as well), the entire ward was staring at us because you could hear what was happening throughout the gym.

I think Lydia accurately portrays how we felt by the end.

Luckily, no nightmares were had and the girls recovered quickly after decorating their personal, pumpkin sugar cookies. Sugar does the traumatized soul good.

Plus, trunk-or-treating still was to come, and I think any kid can recover from anything to make it to that.

People enjoyed our debut as the Madagascar family, and we had fun showing it off together. If you aren't familiar with the movie, Ammon is the lion, Lydia is the zebra, I'm a penguin, and Brigham is King Julian the lemur. Brigham's favorite part of his costume was the tail.

"I've always wanted a tail!" he told me.

We donned our costumes on again, Halloween night, ready for the trick-or-treating of a lifetime.

We went and made our rounds at the assisted-living home first (love trick-or-treating there, such a sweet spirit!) and then navigated through the neighborhood.

Due to our kids' love of candy, we were trick-or-treating for two-and-a-half hours. They complained about tired legs, but when we asked them if they wanted to go home, they insisted they still wanted to keep going and get more candy. So we did.

I'd say they scored.

It was different this year. It was the first time we've ever been trick-or-treating without other friends or family. Kayleen ran off with friends her age, and we didn't really have anyone else to go with, so it was just our little family. I enjoyed it that way, but also missed our Tappana family that we used to go with. Trick-or-treating with cousins is pretty special. Also, it was the first year the kids walked the whole way, and they were troopers.

Lydia's already changed her mind a million times on what she wants to be for Halloween next year, so we'll see what costumes I'm bound to make a year from now. I'm already excited, but also glad that I have awhile to regroup. So until then: Happy Halloween everyone! I hope your costumes tricked all the evil spirits away, and that you were rewarded with lots of treats for yourself :)

Tappana Halloween Party VIII

Even though we're stilling living with my parents, we were able to get back to our Halloween party tradition. We've been here long enough to make new friends to invite, and we had a (forgive me, but I must) SPOOKtacular time :)

Since it was a new crowd, I was able to recycle some games from previous parties that I liked, and use them again. Our first game was Bloody Letters:

Basically, you search through bowls of bloody letters (Spaghettios A-Z, which are AMAZINGLY hard to find these days. I ended up having to order an entire case off Amazon....so if you need any Spaghettios, I can totally hook you up) to spell Halloween words. Those that earned the most points for words spelled, won a prize!

The second game was anther one we've done before that people really enjoyed: Pass the Pumpkin. I carved up this bad boy, and then filled it full of cold, oily, cooked spaghetti. I also mixed forty-five chocolate coins in with the spaghetti. As Halloween music plays, people pass around the pumpkin and when the music stops, whoever is holding it gets to dig around and pull out as many of the coins as they can. After all the coins are dug out, whoever has the most wins a prize!

I didn't get any actual pictures of the game in action because I was busy manning the music, but it happened. And it was great.

The final game was a new one that I've been waiting for YEARS to play. I haven't ever really lived in an area that allowed for it and now that we're living in an actual house with a yard, it was perfect....or so I thought. 

The game is called Bone Hunters, and basically you take two different skeleton bone sets and hide the different bones around outside. Then you have two teams race to find all their bones and get their skeleton put back together first.

The weather throughout the day was gusty and dreary, but dry. I knew there was a chance of rain (it is Washington after all), but I felt comforted by how the day was going. And then a half hour before the party started, it began to pour. And I mean pour. I was devastated. All the planning, preparation, and excitement was going to be ruined by rain. 

Luckily, after we played our first two games, I checked the weather again and it ranged from misty to lightly sprinkling...which in Washington means all activities are a go. So I ran back in and cheered, and we began.

The teams split up guys vs. girls, with the boys looking for the orange skeleton pieces and the girls looking for the white. Each team had two flashlights to share. Much cheating went on with boys pushing white skeleton pieces deeper into bushes, and girls retaliating in the same way, but eventually the boys found all but two pieces of their skeleton. They opted to take a two minute time penalty for each location I had to reveal, and ended up winning the game even with the penalty and despite having an extremely difficult time connecting their skeleton pieces.

Really they only won because they stole one of the girls' pieces, and only put it back after everyone headed back inside. Count on the boys to have to resort to debauchery to win. Cheaters. 

And that was our last Halloween game of the night. We also, of course, played the Name Game, otherwise known as Celebrity, or for those who run in our circles,The Divorce Game. But that's just plain tradition, and it was a blast as usual, although the boys won again.

As we played our games we enjoyed spooky treats.

I made Boogers on a Stick, Witches Broomsticks, Baby Pumpkins, and Pumpkin Teeth. I also had a plain old veggie tray to add some actual sustenance. These are just the treats I made before everyone brought their delicious foods which then overflowed off the counter onto the table and other nearby counters.  

We also had a costume contest. Mary Poppins and her Chimney Sweep won skeleton goblets full of candy.

Pretty impressive costumes came out this year, and choosing who to vote for was tough. Also, here's your preview of the Tappana family costume theme for the year. Do you recognize what movie we're representing? And can you guess what Lydia and Ammon are going to be?

Although, my heart hurt missing many of the people that we are used to seeing at our Halloween parties (seriously, I was so sad), we still had a great time and loved keeping our tradition alive in a new place.

Tappana Times: October

Whew! We have been a bit busy around here this month!

So far, in October we have played a lot of dress up!

Despite my gentle suggestions otherwise, Ammon prefers high heels, dresses, and princess crowns. He has his own gender-appropriate armor and capes, but he wants to be like his sister.

He keeps it real always wearing the crown backwards, though. That's what the cool kids do.

Ammon also likes to view his toys up close and personal.

Ammon is a mini-me of his father, but I'm afraid he's got more than Brigham's looks if he already needs binoculars to see.

After Ammon's done playing and down for a nap, Lydia likes to spend her afternoons home from Kindergarten dreaming.

I wasn't sure if she was writing a story or a song, and I wondered what she was thinking about, but I wasn't about to ruin the moment by asking. Instead, I snapped a beautiful shot and marveled at this girl of mine.

And then, of course, she noticed me and I got a smile as well :)

We've had Family Home Evenings learning about the General Authorities, preparing for General Conference.

And we celebrated Kayleen's ninth birthday!

October brings early, cold mornings, but snuggling with these two makes it somewhat bearable.

After bogging through the mornings, I've managed to get moving on this year's Halloween costumes. Keeping it cheap, I've done lots of sewing to get the job done.

I bought this bed-skirt at Goodwill for four dollars, and used it to sew multiple parts of our costumes. This is a sneak-preview of one of the costumes. Any guesses as to what we'll be?

Unfortunately, I had a small hang up as I was putting it all together. I cut out a piece of the bed-skirt - it was measured perfectly - and only needed to iron it before sewing everything together. I set the iron on and it instantly burned a perfect iron-shaped hole in the material.

Gah! I was so worried I wouldn't have enough white material left from the bed-skirt to complete both costumes, but luckily I had plenty and it ended up fine....well fine if you are ok with cleaning weird, melty material off a hot iron, and remeasuring and cutting all over again. Luckily, I was able to avoid an extra Goodwill trip.

Speaking of shopping at Goodwill...the last time Ammon and I went, he excitedly stopped me in the parking lot to look at a car parked nearby.

"Mom! That car is just like Aunt Caitlin's car!"

And low and behold, it is! I knew Ammon was good with cars, but this shocked me. The last time we were around Sam and Caitlin's car was this past summer, while we visited with them on vacation in Utah. The fact that he remembered they have a silver Honda Accord, and that he can see another car like it in the parking lot, remember and make the connection, just boggles my mind. And to think I've been comparing him to his sister and assuming his memory isn't as good. He just cares about different things! Who cares about letters? It's the cars that matter...to Ammon anyway.

Now our family is off to celebrate Halloween with four various celebrations scheduled in the next couple of weeks, so there will be plenty more to share!

Tappana Times: August and September

Brigham recently had a work picnic at the local derby, Emerald Downs. Being that horses are my favorite animal, and that I have never been to a horse race before, I was interested in checking it out.

It was a hot, sunny day - a rarity in the Northwest - and I was grateful they had sunscreen laid out on tables, since I hadn't remembered to cover my fair-skinned children in what I normally don't have to worry about. We ate some delicious food and hopped from activity to activity for the kids. Lydia and Ammon were in heaven with cotton candy, pony rides, bounce houses, face painting, and more. I enjoyed watching the horses race in between. I was slightly disappointed because the races were spaced every twenty-five minutes, and were short-lived with only one run around the track each race. I was used to the romanticized Hollywood depictions. 

Despite the small let-down, I still loved it. Watching those beautiful creatures run at full speed, and holding your breath as the contestant in last place begins passing everyone else up was thrilling. If I hadn't had my kids, I would have loved to pick a comfy seat in the shade, watch the horses take their walks as people examine them and pick their favorites to bet on, and scrutinize each race with anticipation. I could totally get into it. Sadly, kids have different time requirements and I just daydreamed of my would-be life as a horse-trainer, owner, or even a derby regular and enthusiast.

All of Brigham's coworkers were placing bets and I was a little jealous when they would win occasionally, so Brigham let me place one bet. With my lucky horse-intuition I watched the large animals make their rounds around the stalls. One of them caught my eye, and though he was the smallest of the bunch, something called to me and I knew that I wanted to place my bet on him. Others were incredulous at my choice, but I was determined. And guess what? We won! Since no one expected the little horse I picked to win, we were against the odds and won a large million dollar jackpot! It was a crazy day! I could see the heart in that little horse's eyes and knew he had the spirit to win...even if no one else did. 

(I told you...I had fun daydreaming.)

Needless to say Derby Day was a success. By time we left we were all hot, exhausted, and ready for the BYU football game to start. (Go Cougars!)

Ammon made it through a few days in a row without a nap because of our day at the derby and church...

But he didn't quite make it the next couple and pulled his usual sleep-where-you-are-anytime stunt. This boy still needs his naps!

When it's not nap-time, you can find Ammon tailing his sister and Aunt Kayleen. Before Lydia started school I spotted these two playing together on Lydia's bed and was trying to covertly watch from the doorway.

When Lydia spotted me and realized I was watching she said, "I like playing domino's with Ammon."

I replied "Oh yeah?"

"Yeah, because he's a GREEAAAT brother."

Ammon apparently liked what Lydia was saying because he added a hearty "Yeah!" of his own.

Fulfilling mommy moment right there. So I took a picture as my heart swelled, and some day when they are screaming at each other as teenagers, I'll whip this out and lecture them about how much they used to love playing together as kids.


To escape those two love muffins, Brigham and I went out for our own love time (otherwise known as a date night) and had some good times together as well.



First we stopped off at the local produce stand and browsed the fruit and bought some to bring home. Then we went to Goodwill to look for Halloween costume ideas.









We did find Lydia a Halloween costume, but we also found an absolutely delightful, GIANT, framed picture of Taylor Lautner. It knocked our socks off. But apparently it also impressed the Goodwill staff, as it was marked at too high of a price (twenty bucks) for us to bring it home.

So we did the next best thing and took a picture of it instead.  Though our picture isn't as fantastic because you lose the life-size aspect that was so impressive.

We didn't walk away empty handing, however, as we found some sweet name-brand church shoes just in Brigham's size! I was ecstatic, seeing as he needed new church shoes, it's almost impossible to find shoes in his size, and the price was right at twelve dollars. So although we had to pass up Taylor, we soothed our hearts with shoes.










Doesn't he look handsome? Well he's my date ladies....and he even took me home to spend the night. Scandalous! :)

The other handsome man in my life just celebrated learning all of his capital letters. It's something we've been working on for quite some time, but a few of the letters just really stumped him. Especially the letter 'S'. I tried everything to get him to remember, but I ended up just confusing him more. Even his Uncle Kenny set out to make Ammon remember that blasted letter, but Kenny's determination wasn't enough either. Finally I broke down and told Ammon that if he remembered 'S' he would get his own package of Skittles from the store, since Skittles start with 'S'. It took one day after that.

This boy will do anything for food. And fast too, apparently. I try not to reward with food too much, but he earned his Skittles and I'm proud of him learning all his capital letters at age three. Now it's onto the lower case. Be excited for us with all those confusing b's and d's and p's and q's.