Trunk or Treat

If you are Mormon and live in Utah, the big thing is trunk or treats instead of actual trick or treating. Basically your ward/church gets together and has a Halloween party, the highlight of which is when the kids go from trunk to trunk trick or treating. Get it?

Now that Pearl is older, we try harder to go to ward activities. Of course it doesn't hurt that the Primary talks them up on Sundays and Pearl comes home with flyers and jabbering about how we HAVE to go. Thankfully Mother Nature once again gave us a glorious week of weather so we could do all the activities outside. The downside of which is that all of my pictures are blown out. I was too busy corralling the kids who kept moving from shade to direct sunlight (plus I haven't taken pictures with my real camera in forever) that I just didn't get the settings right. Dang!

Pearl went as a peacock. Now, I could easily lie and say, yes, I am that creative. But I'm not. And I try to be honest. The costume was bought at my family reunion this past July. Apparently there is creativity/craftiness somewhere in the family genes. I must admit too, I was pretty proud of my makeup job. I used a dish cloth I have that's got a peacock on it to help me. I can't get over how cute my little peacock's tail feathers are!

Typical of our family pictures. One kid has their eyes closed and the other one is screaming inside his helmet. And the ringleader of the bunch is missing.

Cole in all his USU football glory. Turned a few heads with ward members who are die-hard BYU fans. Fern was so funny. He refused to participate in the cake walk until Jeff showed up. He sat in seat #6 for at least 20 minutes. The second he saw his Dad he was running around and screaming with joy when the music stopped. What a goon!

My favorite part of the whole day was watching Pearl eat the doughnut off the string. She talks a lot so I knew she had a "big" mouth for it, plus my kids will do just about anything for a doughnut. It was so funny to watch! I just love these pictures. 

 

 

Cole didn't have to work too hard for his doughnut. Tantrums in the middle of a crowd seem to get you what you want pretty fast.

Happy trunk-or-treating!

Halloween Baby

My niece, Ruby, is a Halloween baby. 

I keep wondering when she'll want a non-costume birthday party. But until then, we'll continue with the tradition of chilli and soup at the church in full costumes. 

This year, our little family actually dressed up too. Be impressed. I'm kind of a bum when it comes to Halloween costumes. It just sneaks up on me so fast and I really don't have the desire to put forth any energy or thought into making some fabulous, creative costume for my kids, let alone myself. We went with an Aggie theme. Creative, huh?

Meet Coach Anderson, star football player Fern, spunky Aggie cheerleader (who refused to wash off her peacock face paint from the Trunk or Treat earlier in the day), and the field judge. There may or may not have been a technical foul given on the Coach that evening.

Other happenings at the party:

Kimmy and Justin wearing "the shirt named Desire"

Jesse, Emily, and the birthday girl

Kimmy and the kids

Jealousy over a 6-year-old's birthday cake. My childhood was so deprived. I mean, I was the one with a unicorn collection and who watched "The Last Unicorn" every day!

Happy birthday Ruby-juby!

Chaos is the norm

I really need to just accept the fact that chaos is the norm around here.....

Maybe then the constant running around and life "surprises" - like snow! In October! Pffft! - wouldn't wig me out nearly as much. I often wonder if all women across the hundreds of years of time feel like I do. Maybe not quite the being pulled in 50 directions at once, but I'm sure they felt similar feelings of inadequacy, guilt, and exhaustion. At least I'm hoping. 

So how did they do it? How do you keep going? What inspires you on those "I'm at my wits end" moments to keep up with the constant strains placed on families? 

Spooky rice krispie treats

Last Friday was a busy day for us. 

Ok, me.

It's my day off... don't get me started on how much I'd rather have my Mondays off instead of Fridays. Which can only mean one thing. 

Work.

Laundry, vacuuming, breaking up fights, feeding children 50 times a day, getting dressed, picking up toys, trying to keep the dog contained, menu planning, grocery shopping, more cooking and feeding, and if we're lucky, doing something fun.

It took all day to get to the "fun" this time though.

After all the normal household chores and trying out a new recipe for dinner, Pearl and I made a batch of ooey-gooey, spooky Halloween rice krispie treats. I was hoping they'd make it to next week when Jeff could take one in his lunch.

I should have known though that magical happens when you combine warm, melted marshmallows, butter, and rice krispie cereal. Drizzled with white chocolate. And sprinkles. How can you forget the sprinkles?