Our Halloween

It snowed this morning.  I am not sure if the skiff of white dust on the rooftops qualifies truly as snow, but we are taking it!  It is so exciting to have the change of seasons.  But, before we switch gears to turkeys and sleigh bells, I want to write about our amazing Halloween season.  It was one of my favorites!

This post is more like a saga.  There is so much to tell.  I hope you don't get "scrolling finger" after reading it all.  :)

Dennis Family Halloween Party

Cindee hosted our Halloween party this year.  She made things very festive.  Everyone brought amazing food for dinner.  We had soups, salad, fresh bread, fruit, and fun Halloween sides.  Of course, Mom made spudnuts!  Our mouths were treated well.

After dinner we had some classic Halloween Games for the kids to play!  

Jenn brought "Don't Eat The Spook!"  We have played this awesome game almost every year since I was a little person.  The kids loaded up on the candy.  Pepper did not appreciate everyone yelling at her to not eat the spook.  It was too spooky.  But, everyone else seemed to get a kick out of it.

I put on my witches hat and did a little magic for the kids.  We added all sorts of creepy ingredients to the pot like: pond water, bug slime, spiders, dragon blood, pixie dust, bone powder, and werewolf fur.   We turned it all into a bubbly magic potion with the chant, "Grow, Grow, Bubble and Pop!  Grow, Grow, Do Not Stop." 

It is always fun to see everyone's costumes and to hang out with the fam.

Here are all the girls!

And...the BOYS!

I like to think I belong in this age group.  ;)

I kept telling everyone that I wore my skinny shirt to the party.  It makes me look all skin and bones.  Well, just bones actually.

All in all, it was a spooktacular night!  Love these people.

Ward Halloween Carnival

I have to give a shout out to our ward Halloween Carnival.  The girls and I were supposed to go to dance instead of the party.  But, Libby and Nat were dying to attend the carnival and I couldn't make them miss it.  So, I got a last minute sub for my class and we joined Cord and the boys at the church.  It was pretty much everything you would expect from a ward party.  Food, friends, and fun.

This cute little lady is Olivia.  She and Gage are in the same primary and kindergarten classes.  She is always following Gage around and giggling at him.  I think they have a bit of a crush going on.  It is seriously adorable!  She picked a good one.  

School Parties

I signed up to help with Gage and Natalie's class parties this year.  I love being at the school to celebrate with the kids.  It is so much fun.  On the party day, the whole school had a big costume parade.  Ollie and I went over to watch.  It is entertaining to see what people come up with for costumes. There are always some super creative ones. 

Here is our neighborhood crew before I took them all down to school.  

After the parade, we came home for a quick lunch break and I gathered all the party supplies.  I decided I had better dress myself up a bit before heading down to the school again, so I messaged my neighbor to see if I could borrow some face paint.  She gave me something better!  A whole new face.  :)  It was fun to walk around looking like a cheetah. 

The parties were fast and crazy.  I did my witches brew for the kindergartners.  They were so cute!  Then, we made glow in the dark slime with Natalie's class.  The slime was super messy, but it was fun.

Carving Pumpkins

This year we carved pumpkins for the very first time as a family.  Cord bought a tiny carving kit that made things so easy.  I cleaned out most of the pumpkin guts.  Who knew the kids would hate pulling the slimy stuff out of the pumpkins?  It is fun!  I couldn't believe how amazing the pumpkins turned out.  Everyone did their own and they were all so unique and fun.  When we turned the lights off to show the glowing faces, we all cheered.  I think we are finally old enough to do the whole carving tradition.  

Gage drew this cute picture onto his pumpkin.  I love how ambitious he was.  We ended up not being able to carve this pumpkin because it was so thick and hard.    

Natalie carved, "I love Halloween" onto her pumpkin.  It was quite the undertaking!

We invited out neighbor friends to join our carving experience.

Aren't they fun?!

Libby: Bat Ghost, Natalie: Halloween, Cord: Owl, Gage: Frankenstine, Brooke: Kitty, Adelle: Jack-o-Lantern

Halloween Day

We had beautiful weather for Trick-or-Treating!  It was so lucky.  The Belnap crew gathered together at Brent and Lorna's house for the holiday.  

I had a cute Indian Princess.  I have to give a quick shout out to my mom for making Libby's beautiful dress.  I called my mom to see if she would go to the fabric store with me.  I wanted help finding good fabric for Libby's costume.  The next day I got a text message with a photo of Libby's finished dress!  What a nice surprise.  My mom is the BEST!!

This little lady is absolutely beautiful.

I thought it was cute that Kayla was a Cowgirl and Libby was an Indian.  And...these two look like sisters!

Natty Mae wanted to be Princess Lolly from Candyland.  I think she is just like a little candy princess.  She is bright, and sweet, and full of fun.  We had a good time with the pink hair too!

Me and my two beautiful girls.  

The boys found some stick horses at the store about a month ago.  The begged for them.  I decided they could buy the horses if they were Cowboys for Halloween.  They quickly agreed to the deal.  We have enjoyed having Pinto and Horsey around the house.

I took the boys to the fabric store and let them pick out the fabric they wanted for their cowboy chaps.  Gage and Ollie both choose some flashy awesome "snake skin" fabric.  I think they look so sharp in them!  It was a fun sewing project.  I love my cowboys.

 
This stud.

The cousins went trick or treating together.  Brent and Lorna have a great neighborhood for Halloween.  It is nice and flat.  Brent decorated the Ranger and he followed us around and offered rides to the kids.  Fun right?!

Lorna stayed at the house and handed out the candy.  Dax brought his sound equipment and he and Cord had way too much fun scaring trick-or-treaters with spooky music and creepy talk in the microphone.  

Lorna prepared a nice dinner for everyone and we the kids all decorated cute Black Cat Cookies.  They traded candy around and made deals to score their favorite kinds.  It was just a really nice evening.  There was plenty of good things to munch on, good company, and the kids were happy.  

We had a very Happy Halloween!