Why We Are Worn Out From The Month Of October

Decorating:



It's always more fun decorating then taking down. Here's some pictures of our spooky decorations from this month. These pumpkins came out for parties and for Halloween night but spent most of the month on a special shelf in our house. We hung our 8 foot spider from our chandelier in our entry way and put webs all around him so it looks like he's coming down to get you.

Sleepy Hollow Night:

At the beginning of the month we went to an outdoor amphitheatre to watch the play of Sleepy Hollow. They had a lot of colonial activities to participate in. The girls loved the hayride best we think. (Here is a picture of Seth posing with Katrina Van Tassel, such a bloomin' lass)

Birthdays:

Seth and Karalenn both have birthdays this month. It was fun celebrating with family at Grandma Smith's house both times and on the night of Karalenn's bday the Willis' came and made dinner and dessert for her.

Kristen and Betsey flew in from LA to surprise Karalenn for her birthday because she turned the awful age of 30! (Sorry Kristen, I think you're eating chocolate in this picture, but you are in the other one we took too) :)

These are some yummy cupcakes that Makenzie invented and cooked for Seth for his bday. They were actually pretty good. All these years of experimenting is paying off. :)

We surprised Seth at work with a big candy gram and balloons for his bday and went out to lunch with him.

Thiller:

This was actually a lot of work and we had so much fun. We practiced all month and performed it for a Stake Talent Show on the 18th. There's a video of the performance a few posts below.

Parties:

We got together several times with friends throughout the month and made Halloween cookies and played etc. but here are some photos from the Halloween party that Kendyl had and the next day Makenzie's party.

With the older kids, we spent a chunk of time in the basement in the dark with a lantern telling add-on scary stories. Basically everyone dies at the end in all the stories. :)


I also played the guitar and taught them silly Halloween songs that you sing to regular folk songs using this great book. By the way- Gris Grimly is a wonderful illustrator.


Their other favorite part was wrapping each other up in mummies and timing them to see who's quickest. Afterwards instead of doing all the other games planned we just played in the toilet paper all over the backyard. Hailey was able to stuff half of it up her dress at the end. So silly. I gave them each a bag to fill up with tp and we ended with a "catwalk" showing off our costumes. They were hilarious with this. They all won awards for their costumes.

Witch's Night Out:

In October at Gardner Village they always decorate it so fun with dozens and dozens of ugly witches and have different events going on. We went with cousins and walked around finding all the witches and then another night Karalenn and her friend Janelle went for a late girl's night out shopping there. Everyone dresses up like witches and you wouldn't believe how crowded it is.

Pumpkin Carving:

Last week for Family Home Evening we carved pumpkins. They turned out very spooky if we do say so ourselves.

Halloween Night:

For more details about our crazy busy Halloween day and night look at the post below. We wear ourselves out every year with this holiday so that we can get ourselves to not be as spooky the rest of the year. It's the only way to be able to get ourselves to take it all down, sigh, and be done until next year.