Halloween

All our Halloween day activites.

Eve had a parade.

Dane had a parade: Eve and Megan came and watched with us.

Maddie also showed up to watch, but she watched with her friend.

And my Pinterest bug lasted for 48 hours and I kind of threw a Halloween party for my family (which I have NEVER done before).  Starting around October Heavenly Father has taken me on a journey of discovery and has been teaching me the power of creation and spiritual creation and I have been learning these principles and developing this spiritual gift primarily through my role as a mother (although not only in that role).  But it is through things like this.  Earlier in life I would have (and did) scoff at the idea that these kind of things were important parts of mothering.  Don't get me wrong, there are versions and extremes where it is detrimental (which any good science fiction book would teach you, the power of creation can destroy just as fast).  But I am beginning to understand that a HUGE part of mothering is in just the creation process of an invitation, and environment, or an experience.  I want them to gather, I want them to feel something, I want a moment.  Food is such an important part of that.  So important it seems to be Jesus' main go to.  He wants us to be drown to him through the sacrament, not to mention all the other miracles and experiences with food.  And just the other day Sister Johnson mentioned that Mary was the only story where someone recognized the Savior after his resurrection without being food present.  She said "I don't know what that means, but I find it interesting that when the Savior wanted people to recognize him and have a spiritual experience with him, he always included food."  So I am going to follow Jesus example! ;)  (this will also show up in my Thanksgiving, general conference, Valentines, and Easter posts as well, so I thought I would explain it's origins up front).

So I made my mini Pizza's again.  And then a bunch of other things.

Homemade pizza, cinnamon roles, pumpkin cookies, breadsticks, apple rings, etc.  Noah invited his friend, Sina, over, which was wonderful.

Halloween pictures:

Eve and Brock.  I REALLY wanted Dane to be spiderman (again) so we could have all 3.  But he did not want to (don't blame him), but it would have been cool!

Megan was a witch

Noah made his own costume.  His name is "Pyramid Head" from the Silent Hill games.  Kind of creepy, if you ask me.  But the care and craftsmanship he used to make this (and Jason's help) was endearing.

 

Maddie a unicorn

The group before they all went their own ways to trick or treat

And Jason got his king size candy bars again!  He has spend years collecting data on what the trick or treaters want and he drove all over finding the right mix of chocolate and non chocolate for he best price.  He is adorable AND sexy!  And so kind and generous.  

And I decided to keep the cat motif. 

While Jason passed out candy I took Dane and Eve trick or treating.

Our scary pumpkins and house

 And for the first time I didn't drive any of the older kids around in the car at the end.  I did take Dane and Eve over to another neighborhood, which was the first time they wanted to keep going after finishing our neighborhood.  So it was nice that the year the older kids out grew me the younger kids were ready!  (I did take Megan and Kaitlyn to back country but it was already "over" so I drove them back home)

Halloween Prep

 When we got back from our cruise we got thrust right into Halloween awesomeness.    

We went to our Halloween Ward Party.   This part of my story reminds me that Jason and I delt with major car issues through the fall, unlike any we have had in our 20 year marriage.  I didn't keep track (because it would have been to depressing) but there were weeks that both of our cars were in the shop, times when we had one or two rentals, or weeks where we only had one car.  This ward party started all of this craziness.  During the day Jason had driven Maddie up to her soccer game (over an hour away) and on the way there their car broke down on the side of the highway.  This ended up taking months and a lot of diligence and hard work and a lot of love, faith, and patient from Jason to get fixed.  The engine needed to be replaced, but it was a mechanics fault, so he also had to deal with all the legal stuff.  blah!  Anyways they had to wait for a tow and never made it to the party.

This is Skye Ahlstrom.  She is 8 and Eve thinks she is her best friend.  Skye is so great to her.  I love older kids to are so great to little kids.  They are angels!

Eve and I had a play group Halloween party to go to and I decided to become a Pinterest mom for the first (and likely last) time in my 18 years of mothering.  We had to bring snacks, so Eve and I made scary snacks.

Eve made faces (pumpkins and ghosts) on oranges and string cheese and I made mini pizzas on English Muffins.

I also decided to dress up - which is new for me.  I went with cat.  Off we went to our party.

That night we carved our pumpkins.  This is one of those "100% Jason activities".  It is a family favorite and such a hit.  He handles it all very well and manages the needs of all 6 of them seamlessly.  

Then we went to Trick or Treat street.

Megan was my main line holder, although Noah and Maddie all spent some time holding the line for a bit.  I am so grateful for my older kids stepping in and being my "back stage crew" - I couldn't do it without them. They do the things that make it possible for me to be able to still parent all 6 of them if we all sacrifice and support each other in that.  The older kids have understood this and are willing to hold places in line for me, show up early, save seats or tables at places and event they aren't even going to be at. And now with Brock and Noah driving they are so good to help me.  One example is I was at an activity with Dane and Eve and they were having so much fun we decided to stay longer so I called Brock to come and bring us lunch.  He immediately said yes and didn't seem bothered.  I was with a friend who also had a 16 year old son and is good friends with Brock.  She was shocked.  She had never and she would have never asked her son.  He would have absolutely not have done it, she said, adding, that he would have said something like "that is a you problem" or "that isn't my problem" or "that isn't my job".  I was shocked.  Truly I could not imagine my kids saying something like that to me, I know other people who say that or feel that way, but my older kids seem to understand that almost everything good in their life came from me doing theses things for them and they want Dane and Eve to have the same childhood, and that I also still do stuff for them and they couldn't have the life they have if it weren't for the things I do for them, and I couldn't possible meet everyone's needs if no one helps me.  They make my heart grow three times every day.   (As a message from present day: All my older kids went to camp and I babysat Daniels 4 kids for the same week.  I did all these activities with them but I didn't have any "backstage crew", it was unsustainable.  It is too hard to take that many kids out and do fun things every day with out help with packing up, un packing, meal prep, clean up, etc.  We made it through the week, but I couldn't have done it week over week, and I was TOAST by Thursday, completely exhausted, and SO behind on anything other than day to day survival.)

She also saved places for my friends and their families - because everyone is jealous and loves benefiting form my wonderful, selfless teenagers.

The line she saved us from waiting in!

I loved taking pictures of all the kids we know at trick or treat street.

This is Noah and Megan's drama department. 

Addie and Adaley

Zoe

Our loot afterwards!