Halloween overload

Halloween is truly a kids' holiday.  Dress up and candy and sweets and parties.  So much fun.  And I enjoy watching my kids enjoy it.  It all starts with a costume...

Going back a few years to my first Halloween as a mother.  Of course I had to dress up my first child for his first Halloween as a race car driver:

You can definitely tell Clara is his baby sister!  Anyway it was getting together with families, Ward Halloween party, and trick or treating through our circle.

The next year I thought Spencer would make the cutest Fireman.  We even drove up to Park City where Brodie's cousin is a Fireman to show Spencer a real Firehouse and Firetruck and Firemen.  Also the same getting together with family, Ward Halloween party, and trick or treating through our circle.

 















By the next year Spencer was big into Cars and Toy Story so I decided it would be fun for him to be Buzz Lightyear.  This became one of his favorite dress ups which opened my eyes to the fact that boys love dressing up as much as girls.  Hence the current toy boxes in each kids' room stuffed FULL of dress ups.  Later on this Buzz Lightyear costume became one of Tessa's favorite dress ups (along with Wolverine) before she realized she was a girl.  However this year Tessa was only 6 weeks old so I got one of those bunting bags (like a sleeping bag with arms and a hood) and had her be a little frog.  This year my sisters and I went to a Scarecrow Festival at Thanksgiving Point (not Cornbelly's) with the little ones.

 

So by the next Halloween Tessa was just over a year old.  She was at the cute, wobbly just walking stage.  She was also so small for age and had such big emotions--up and down--that I just knew I had to have her be Tinkerbell for Halloween.  And Spencer was her best friend so I thought he should be Peter Pan.  This year I decided to actually do something more than the usual routines so I tried Boo at the Zoo.  But Spencer didn't want to wear his Peter Pan costume so I let him choose a dress up he had and he chose Buzz again.  Then I dressed Tessa in Spencer's old race car driver costume.  We also went to Wheeler Farm where we played some games, saw the farm, took a wagon ride, and even made a Scarecrow.  This was also Spencer's first school Halloween parade in preschool.  And after taking the kids through the circle Brodie took them through some of the rest of the neighborhood.

For the next year I already had decided Tessa would be a ballerina cuz I had gotten a great deal on clearance costumes in 2008 (Tinkerbell year).  As Spencer was really into space when he was 4 years old I decided to spend the most money I had spent yet on a costume for him to be an astronaut with a really cool helmet.  I was in early pregnancy stage and was really sick this year so we just did the family stuff, ward Halloween party, and trick or treating.

 













Clara came summer of 2011.  And this year Spencer decided on his own that he wanted to be Ghost Rider.  I tried SOOOO hard to convince him otherwise, but he wouldn't budge.  He was big into superheroes and understood that Halloween had a "scary" element so he wanted to be a superhero who was also a little scary.  Luckily Spencer didn't really know much about Ghost Rider and I actually did find a costume online.  But he couldn't wear a mask to school and his costume didn't make any sense without the mask.  So I also bought him a flame wig and painted his face on school day and for the Ward Halloween Party.  Tessa was adamant on being a Disney princess so I guided her towards choosing Snow White.  I even dared buy spray paint and sprayed Tessa's hair black.  Of course I couldn't get it completely out of the white part of her dress so now it's gray.  And I found a very cute little strawberry costume for Clara.  This year Brodie was in Germany over Halloween but my awesome sister came over with her kids so I could take all the kids trick or treating and still have someone at my house passing out candy.  (By the way in the picture my sister, Janelle, is the witch and my neices are Annie and a monarch butterfly).  I also did the whole Halloween themed dinner this time.

 

So that brings us to this year.  After last year Tessa told me she was going to be Ariel for Halloween this year.  She never changed her mind.  But all the Ariel costumes we found were more of a dress with a tail colored skirt and Tessa kept asking where the tail was.  So I finally found her a mermaid costume with a tail, but she pointed out it wasn't Ariel.  So I got her an Ariel wig.  She kept telling people she was "a mermaid with Ariel hair" rather than Ariel.  What a girl.  Spencer was going to be Ash--from Pokemon.  Period.  Once again we ran into the mask issue so for school I put paper over his red hat and used eyeliner to draw marks like Ash's under his eyes and make the part of hair that comes down Ash's forehead.  I wasn't going to spend money on a costume for Clara--just have her wear a small ladybug dressup of Tessa's.  But then a few days before Halloween I found this cute peacock costume on sale that I just couldn't pass up on.  And the kids kept asking what I was going to be so I gave in and got a Malificent costume.  But I thought painting my face green would be a little too scary to my kids so I just went with purple eyeshadow. 

This year we started the festivities by going to Cornbelly's (prior post).  Then on Tuesday we made and decorated caramel apples with a really yummy caramel recipe I got off Our Best Bites (look at my following list).  Super delicious and the kids LOVED making and eating them.  Of course the kids first just ate off all their toppings (mini M&Ms, Heath bits, Halloween Oreos, and melted chocolate).  Then Spencer let me cut his apple into slices but Tessa wanted to keep hers whole so she continued to eat all the caramel off and leave the apple.

On Wednesday Tessa got to wear her costume to gymnastics but the hair kept getting in her eyes and even fell off when she was on the bars.  Wednesday night was our Ward Halloween Party with a trunk or treat and then some games inside including the cake walk and fishing games.  On Thursday both kids wore their costumes to school and had Halloween parties.  Tessa's didn't include a parade or parents so I just went to Spencer's with Clara.  Their parade went outside the school and through the neighborhoods.  Of course this morning was the coldest yet, at 32 degrees.  However, I didn't see another Ash in his whole school.  At least his odd choices are original.

Thursday evening Spencer's play practice was a combined Halloween party where they did fun theatrical Halloween games and we brought candy that was combined and bagged and sent home with each kid.  Friday Spencer didn't have school so we went to IHOP for free creepy face pancakes for the kids.  I originally ordered one for each kid, but she only brought them out for Spencer and Tessa.  No problem as I had ordered pumpkin pancake combo plate and had way more than I could eat so Clara got some eggs, hashbrowns, a sausage, and part of my pumpkin pancake.  The older kids made their faces by putting mini-Oreos and candy corns on top of the whipped topping on their large pancakes.  Then they put some of each of the four different types of syrup (strawberry, blueberry, butter pecan, and maple) on top.  Spencer ate his whole pancake but after picking off the toppings Tessa only ate a couple bits of pancake.  So Clara also had some of hers.  After IHOP we headed to the library for the Monster in the Bathtub puppet show.  Which the kids of course loved.  Then we spent an hour reading books before checking out some books and DVDs to bring home.  After lunch Spencer's friend from school came over for a couple of hours.

On Saturday we headed over to Brodie's parents for a family Halloween Party.  Grandma Julie made cheese soup, Papa made chili and I brought some sliced baguettes and made some spinach artichoke dip.  After eating the kids painted and carved pumpkins.  I had a horrible cold, as did Clara, so I stayed in with her and put Brodie in charge of pumpkin time.

Then, of course, Monday was Halloween.  After school the kids watched TV and played while I worked on dinner.  I made breadsticks for Monster Fingers, tomato soup as blood soup, olives for bat brains, frog eye salad that I topped with green dyed pineapple rings and marchino cherries in the middle, cheese jack-o-lanterns (I cut pumpkin shapes out of cheese and used a toothpick to "carve" them), and apple juice concentrate mixed with Club Soda for witches brew.  Then we headed out.  I took the kids through our circle and then packed them in the car to drive them to the neighborhood where their primary teachers live (Tessa said she HAD to go trick-or-treating at their houses).  Then since we were in the car anyway we stopped by my folks before coming home.  Brodie then took the kids out to a few other houses in the neighborhood while I put Clara to bed.  When they got home I let them each eat one candy before getting them in their pajamas and to bed.  Now while I'm typing this they are devouring a huge box of Bottlecaps.  We'll see how well they eat dinner tonight.  Speaking of which, I should probably go figure out what I'm going to make and get started on it.

Cornbelly's fun and a "sleep"-over

I've never made it out to Cornbelly's with the kids before and I thought it would be fun this year.  Then I saw the price.  $9 per person (over age of 2) on M-Th and $11 per person on Fri-Sat.  That seemed like a whole lot for a corn maze.  I did get $2 discounts and we decided to go on Thursday of UEA since neither kid had school, although I knew that may mean super crowded.  We didn't head out until after lunch, about 1:00.

So I was really amazed at just how much stuff they had for kids at Cornbelly's.  I decided not to go through the really cool looking from the sky NASA themed corn maze.  I read that it should take about an hour to get through.  Um, not for me with 3 little kids.  Even not going through the main attraction we spent 4 hours there and the kids would have enjoyed another couple hours if I had brought or purchased food for them.  And their food was actually reasonable for an event--a hot dog was $3.50.  But eating at home was cheaper and Brodie wasn't with us.  Next year I think I'll bring a lunch and go a couple hours earlier.

The first thing we did was the Pumpkin Princess Playland.  They have tons of dress-ups and a stage for the little ones.  There was also a cute little carriage and pretend horse the kids took turns getting on.

And there was this wooden castle that had a ladder to go up to the next level and a slide down.  It also had a swing on either side of it.  These types of structures were ALL over the area.  From this castle to a boat, tractor, car, truck, etc.  The kids had fun playing in these all over the place.  Also in this princess area was a pony racing coral.  With inflatable ponies.  They had some different sizes for the big kids and the smaller ones.  The kids had fun on these.

We also watched some little pigs race, played on a large hay tower with tunnels running under it, took a ride on a "Grain Train", played on the really fun playground called Cornbelly Mountain, raced toy ducks by pumping water, and went through a couple small hay mazes.  We attempted to go in the "creature" which was a large blow up monster thing that you went in his mouth and a few steps in it was pitch dark and Tessa started bawling so we turned around and left and never really figured out what it was all about. 
There was a pumpkin blaster and corn cannon, rock wall, and speleo cave that all cost extra so we didn't do any of those.

The corn box was one of their favorite things.  Think a large sandbox in a building--but it was corn rather than sand.  The kids played around, picking it up and dropping it, making "corn-angels", and tucking their shirts in and filling them with corn.  All three of them had a blast here!  And there wasn't any sand to dust off later.  Although I was sure I'd find corn in Clara's diaper and not be sure which method it found its way there by...

Their other favorite thing was the inflatables.  They had a bounce house, one with a slide, one that was just a double slide, and a couple obstacle course types.  While there were a few employees around, they weren't timing kids and making them wait in a line.  They just let them go.  Most of these inflatables were the type you had to wait for the person in front of you anyhow.  One time I saw the girl tell some kids to wait for the bounce house until some came out because it was pretty full.  It was definitely too crowded for me to allow Clara in, which she was unhappy about, but the older kids played for about an hour until they were so sweaty and worn out.  Of course after a drink they ran right over to the play structures.

And we did the much advertised "Jumping Pillow".  But for this they limited the number in so we had to wait in line for about 20-30 minutes.  They had 3 different pillows.  One for little ones under 40 inches and their parents.  One for kids under 48 inches.  And one for any over 48 inches.  These were basically like fun looking trampolines.  While the kids did have fun on these, I think they had more fun on the inflatables where we didn't wait in line or have our time limited.

After this I thought since Cornbelly's was based on a corn maze we should at least hit the kiddie corn maze so we did.  The kids thought it was fun and it only took us 10 minutes.  This ground was hard, but I still made Clara walk as I was tired of trying to push the stroller over loose gravel.  They had wagons you could rent for $2 that had tractor tires on them that were probably easier over the gravel.

The only thing we didn't do was the "cow train" that was a tractor pulling little cars painted like cows.  It was next to the kiddie maze but there was a good sized line and it was already 5:15 so we just left at that point.  It did take a good chunk of money, but it was well spent. 

On the way home I could see the kids were exhausted, I felt such and didn't run around the inflatables and play areas like they did.  So I told them they could have a sleepover if they wanted.  I loved sleepovers as a kid/teen.  But Brodie and I have decided not to allow our kids to have an actual sleepover with friends.  We feel it's too risky these days.  But there are a couple exceptions.  One being babysitting.  Whether it be one of my sisters babysitting my kids overnight or me babysitting their kids overnight.  The other exception is with each other.  And because I don't want my kids to miss the experience of a sleepover I try to allow them sibling sleepovers every now and then.  And I try to really make it fun.  Sometimes they sleep over in Tessa's room, or Spencer's room, or the toy room.  One time when Brodie was out of town I let them sleepover in my bed.  That was a lesson learned and hasn't been repeated.  Another time when Brodie was out of town I let them sleepover in the TV room.  We've also slept in a tent in the backyard (and the mountains but that's technically camping) or on the trampoline.  And I usually let them have candy and stay up for a while talking and laughing.  Then eventually we start telling them they need to be quiet and sleep.  This goes on for a long time and they usually fall asleep around 10 or 11.  And wake up early.  And are tired and ornery the next day. 

So I had a feeling they would actually sleep this night.  I let them get all their stuff together in Spencer's room.  Foam couches, sleeping bags, pillow pets, water bottles, tissue boxes (Spencer will never sleep anywhere without a box right next to him due to his propensity to bloody noses at night), and leftover candy from Tessa's birthday pinata.  After reading stories and singing I left Spencer's room at 7:45 telling the kids they could talk until 8:30 and then they needed to be quiet.  Of course not a single sound came from them until 6:55 the next morning.

Jungle Jim's on a cold day. And pumpkin time

We came back from New York on a Sunday to 80 degree weather.  The kids had even gone swimming at Aunt Tiffany's over the weekend.  Then on Thursday I measured 2 inches of snow on my back deck.  Yes, this is Utah.  So I quickly tossed out all the very summery clothes, leaving some mid-temperature clothes as it's going to return to 70 this coming weekend, and added the long sleeves and pants.  This past Friday the snow was gone, but it was still a bit cold outside.  Well, not that cold in comparison to what it will be in a couple months, but when the weather drops 30 degrees in a matter of days I feel 50 is FREEZING.  So we opted for an inside Friday fun day activity.

We pulled into Jungle Jim's around 2:00, as it's Spencer's early day.  I had an Entertainment book coupon for buy one get one free, but I noticed on their website they also had this deal for any weekday before 2:30 p.m.  I don't know if they always have this deal or if it changes, but I went ahead with my coupon since it expires at the end of this month anyhow.  It's like $9 per kid, except kids under 2 years are only $6.  And adults don't have to pay.  If your kid is small enough to need you to accompany them on a ride, they'll still let you go.  Friday fun days are getting more expensive as the kids get older.

So we first headed to the carousel.  Clara LOVES riding on the carousels.  I remember when Spencer was little and he was scared to death of these.  Not surprising if you know my cautious kid.  I think he was probably 4 years old before he would actually ride one without screaming in fear.  Tessa always seemed fine with them, but she didn't LOVE them the way Clara does.  Maybe Clara just gets more exposure to them being the 3rd.  In any case, we went on this ride the most--4 times while we were there.

Then we went to the large swing.  The two older kids went to a swing and I kept Clara back since I couldn't exactly swing with her.  But she was squirming, kicking, and screaming.  I asked the kid working it how fast the swings went, and he said very slow so I decided to let her go.  I was so scared the whole time.  It did go slow enough that they hardly even pushed out, but I could still imagine Clara slipping down and tipping out.  She didn't and she loved it.  I didn't really look at the other kids to see if they loved it, nor did I take a picture, as I was too focused on Clara staying sitting the whole time.  The kids did talk me into letting them swing one more time and I was just as frightened.  Then we went to the little spinning things (like Disneyland teacups).  I was definitely riding with Clara on this one and Tessa decided to come in our little spinner too.  Spencer went in his own.  The lady who worked there spun each one as they went around.  Spencer liked his spinning fast but I used Clara as my excuse for spinning slow (really I get motion sick so easy that it didn't matter if Clara was in there or not).  The kids said they loved this ride but we only went back on it one more time.

 

From here we skipped over to the airplane ride.  The first time we went on it the two older kids each had their own airplane and I shared with Clara.  This ride was definitely built for a kid and I had a hard time fitting my legs in the airplane.  And I'm barely taller than a "kid" at 5'2".  So the kids of course love this ride and the first time they just kept the joystick pulled back so they flew high the whole time.  The second time they went up and down more, but by then Clara had caught on that the joystick controlled it so she held on and screamed if I tried to touch it.  But she didn't understand pulling it back so we stayed low the whole time.  The third time we went it was more crowded so the older kids were planning on flying together but the seatbelt had broken so they had tied it together and therefore it was too tight that it barely closed with just itty bitty Tessa in it so Spencer had to go ride in the last one, that wasn't a color he wanted.  But I think he forgot by the time he was flying again.

Then we headed over to the Jeep Safari.  I felt okay having Clara ride with Spencer, telling him to make sure she remained sitting.  The jeeps really moved so slowly that I felt even if Clara managed to get out, she would be able to climb out rather than fall.  The second time we came here the guy couldn't get it to work so I had to pull my kids out of the jeeps.  We later saw them moving just fine so we ended up going a third time, letting Clara ride with Tessa this time.  It looked like she thought about getting out a couple times, but she managed to remain in the jeep.

After the jeeps the kid headed to the playground.  Spencer seemed to really enjoy climbing up and all around and sliding down the slides.  Tessa kind of meandered about, not too excited but still enjoying herself.  Clara couldn't really get anywhere.  I put her inside one of the areas and she just kept getting stuck in the netting as her feet were small enough to go right through the squares.  So I put her in another area that was kind of bouncy like a really weak trampoline.  She just kind of rolled around every time someone would step on the ground.  So I took her out.  Then the big kids went in the bumper cars.  I didn't feel like taking Clara on that one as the cars looked quite small (if Tessa could drive them they had to be small).  So I tried to pacify Clara while I laughed my head off at the other kids.  Spencer could drive it pretty well but seemed to only have one goal in mind--to bump Tessa.  Tessa kept her foot pressed all the way down but either had the wheel turned all the way and held it so she just kept spinning in a circle, or did the back and forth deal where she would zig zag around.  She must have had one major headache after that ride, but she was smiling and laughing as much as Spencer.  I think I laughed the most--it was really funny to watch them.  We ended up coming back one more time when it was crowded and Spencer had a harder time finding her to crash into and Tessa kept getting stuck against the guardrails and didn't know how to get out.

I think after the first bumper car ride we repeated the airplane and carousel before taking an arcade break.  Then the kids went for the roller coaster.  It's the kind that spins around and pushes you to the outside of the car.  Once again I get motion sick.  I rode this with the kids the first time we came here, about 3 years ago, and I still remember how sick I felt.  So I sent the two older kids together and I held Clara back.  They LOVED it.  At first you could see the surprise on their face at the speed, but they smiled and laughed the whole time.  After it goes forward a few times, it stops and goes backwards.  The kids ended up doing this one twice.

There are 7 rides and the climbing/sliding playground.  There are also arcade games that take a token that costs a quarter.  Some of them are out of order or don't give you tickets.  In any case, you can only ride the same 7 rides so many times before getting sick of them even though the wristband is for all day.  So we also had to buy $5 of tokens and ended up with enough tickets to get the kids each a sucker and a few small toys (that I refer to as choking hazards that will be treasured dearly for a few days, then forgotten and thrown away).  Clara thoroughly enjoyed her sucker.

And a couple hours was plenty of time.  Being indoors and having as much fun as they did in these 2 hours makes Jungle Jim's a once a year with a coupon place for us.

On Saturday we headed to Farnsworth Farms to let the kids choose pumpkins and so that we could buy some peaches to bottle.  What would you know, the kids thought the playground was the funnest part.  Oh how I wish we had one in our backyard...

When it came to choosing pumpkins Spencer chose quite a small one.  I think he wanted one he could carry by himself.  But they do enjoy choosing pumpkins off the ground rather than out of a box.  They wanted to carve them immediately and were disappointed when I told them they'd have to wait to do that project.