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We had a pretty good Halloween this year. We went to my moms’ work party for lunch. It was pretty much an excuse for all the employees to show off their kids and grandkids, but it was fun. Later on we went to the trunk or treat at our church which we have never done before. It was really fun! Now that I am in primary and starting to get to know some of the kids it was fun to see all the different costumes. Also, people were very generous handing out handfuls of candy at each car! Then we went home and got James and went out Trick-or-Treating! We cheated and drove out of the ghetto to a nicer neighbor hood and got some more loot. Savanna was being really funny, at first she would not say trick or treat or thank you. Finally I told her she had to at least say thank you for the candy or else I would eat it all. That worked! Then eventually she  said trick or treat. After trick-or-treat we came home and made nachos and stuffed our faces! It was a pretty good night! I can’t wait for next year when they are both a bit older and get more into it.

For Halloween, Marissa wanted to be Tinkerbell again.  She was this two years ago…so her costume that I made her then no longer fit.  So, I made another.  This was finished October 30th at 11 at night.  Jonathan’s Ben 10 costume was a little easier.  I cut up a white t-shirt and a black t-shirt and sewed them together.  Then I went to Saver’s and found these green pants.  Score!  Brendan had no choice in the matter.  He fit perfectly into the Superman costume that I made for Jonathan at the same age.  Next year Brendan will be a Musketeer and the next year he’ll be a Jedi…

The kids wore their costumes to school for the parade and the parties.  Then we went to dad’s work and showed off their costumes at the bbq.  Then we went to the mall and trick-or-treated from store to store for about an hour.  We saw a man dressed up as tinkerbell, but could not convince Marissa to get her picture taken with him.  Then we rushed home to pick up our candy for the trunk-or-treat.  We then drove to the church and experienced that with our neighborhood friends.  Then we packed up quickly and drove to Grandma and Grandpa Stone’s house to trick or treat there.  This is the first year we haven’t gone to my mom’s house…but she recently contracted shingles…and apparently they can cause you to spread chicken pox and shingles to others.  So…we took pictures for my mom.  Then we drove to Nana’s house to have toad in the hole and eyeball soup.  After that we followed Uncle Jon home to see his Halloween decorations.  These were VERY cool.  He even had a projector showing spiders, scary guys, and even a huge blinking eye-ball in his window.  The kids were very impressed.  Of course, at this time, Marissa realized that she’d left her candy at Nana’s so we drove back to pick it up.  We finally drove home to put all the kids to bed…and Adam left to go to work until the wee hours of the morning.  Phew!

Thursday was crazy hair day at school.  I spray-painted Jonathan’s hair silver for the second year in a row.  We ran out the door too quickly to get a picture, though.  I came back home and had some time to make Marissa’s hair really crazy.  This is how it turned out.  She also has a mosquito bite under her eye…just in time for family pictures.  Ah…we’ll just photoshop it out!

I went to Wienerschnitzel (when, exactly, did they drop the Der? No, really, I would like to know.) this afternoon for a quick snack. I know, I know, but we all have a guilty pleasure or two, don’t we? I crave something or other from their menu every few months. Frankly, I am a little surprised they are managing to stay in business. I mean, the “Most wanted wiener” slogan is bad enough, but this?

Could that possibly be intentional double entendre? Are they (or their target audience) that intelligent?

I tried really hard to be a good mom and have the kids be ready for their school photos.  I had washed everything that needed to be washed.  Marissa said she wanted to wear her school uniform dress for the photos.  I ordered Jonathan a new long sleeved shirt for school so that he could have something nice looking to wear in his photo.  The night before the school pictures, I came home from work and Marissa had licked below her bottom lip so much that she was red and purple all over.

It wasn’t pretty.  This picture is actually the next morning.  I almost didn’t even send the money for her photos, but I decided that if they didn’t turn out well, I could always get retakes.  Then, as Jonathan got ready for school, I heard him call out from his room.  “Mom, the hole for my head is too small in this new shirt!”  “No it isn’t,” I yelled back.  “You need to undo the buttons.”  Then he came out wearing his shirt that now looked like this:

Yes, a nice hole was now ripped into the front of it.  Luckily I had ordered him more than one new shirt…but now I had to run into the bathroom, rip the shirt out of its package and iron it as fast as I could since we had to get him to school in the next few minutes.  Luckily I got him there on time.  Then I came home and did Marissa’s hair and tried to apply a little bit of base to her chin to cover the redness.  Adam referred to her photos as “Something she will always remember because of this.”  I mostly thought of it as “Something that will always make me angry.”

Anyway, here is how she looked after a little make-up session….not too bad.

We finally carved our pumpkins from Grandma and Grandpa.  Marissa chose to carve a witch.  Jonathan chose “Heatblast”…from Ben 10 of course.  Mostly it always turns out that the kids just tell us what to do and we make the pumpkins.  Jonathan actually pulled some of the guts out of his pumpkin this year, but Marissa refused to put her hand in the muck.  Jonathan also traced his picture onto the pumpkin.  Adam and I had the honor of cutting them out.

I tried to get pictures of when Jonny came home from Europe so that I could post it for Nana while she was in England.  But, then I had a few mishaps…see my next post.  So, here are a few photos of everyone getting together to see Jonny for the first time in weeks.  Everyone enjoyed the slide show.  I know that it made Adam VERY jealous and even that much more determined to get us to Italy sometime in the next few years.  Jonathan also enjoyed the photos, but the kids of course like the candy the most.

Adam and Jon cooking together.

Chevon and Miles

Jonathan holding Brendan

Adam with Brendan

Grandad being a good host

Chevon and Miles

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