Halloween

Halloween, Halloween

What a day!  Halloween was full of parades, parties, candy, and trick or treating!

Here Tanner is with his class getting ready for the Kindergarten parade. 

 This was a BIG deal for Tanner this year. He has NEVER been a fan of dressing up for Halloween.  He was such a handsome little goofy!  He was all smiles walking through the parade.  I was so glad I could be there. 

 My shy little Tanner planted himself center stage for their Thriller dance. 

It was priceless to watch.  He will still show me his Michael Jackson moves... they are something else!

Ashlyn's parade was a little more chaotic with the ENTIRE school... It was insane!  But she definitely stood out in the crowd.  She was so cute! 

She had a hard time deciding what to be this year, and one day I was rummaging through some old storage totes and found some old dance costumes of mine.  She tried on this little flapper dress and decided that would work.  She had no idea what a flapper girl was (and we will keep it that way), but didn't care when she knew she got to wear feathers, sparkles and heals. 

Logan loves Buzz so we were excited when my brother already had a Buzz costume.  He is obsessed with a lot of things, but a current obsession (that has actually lasted about 2 months) is BUZZ WOODY as he would call it.  It is not Toy Story, or Buzz Lightyear, but Buzz Woody.  The first night we had the costume he was so excited to wear it, but after about 5 minutes he realized it was vinyl and I think he got claustrophobic in it.  So for the month leading up to Halloween he would have me put in on him every day, but would only wear it for about 30 seconds before he demanded it off. 

 You can see how thrilled he was... I just wanted ONE good picture of all three of them in their costumes together!

 The buttons did the trick!  Our home teachers came over the night before Halloween and when Logan showed them his costume they made a big deal out of the buttons.  When I thought Logan was going to end up trick or treating in his clothes we reminded him of the buttons.  This magic button makes him fly... and he even has a laser button on his arm.  He was loving it after that and wore his costume all night and has made me put it on him every day since.  He gets me with his lasers and tells me to cry and then he laughs and pushes the big red button and flys off saying, "To Infinity and Beyond."  Sounding more like, "To Infi and Yond!"

 Is this not the perfect goofy picture! 

And I got a picture of ALL 3 of them in their costumes smiling... and kind of looking at the camera!



Reflections

Ashlyn entered the Reflections contest at her school this year.  The theme was "The Magic of the Moment"  She composed her own song, and did a really good job.  They were judged on their work, but also on their interpretation of the theme.  She decided a magical moment in her life was watching the stars come out at night at her Grandpa's cabin with her brothers.  She was a finalist in her school and won this awesome trophy and she will be moving on to the District level.  We are so proud of her.

 

Her Principal Mr. Giles. 

We have loved the changes he has brought to the school this year, and she thinks he is about the coolest principal ever!  He plays funny songs on the speaker in the morning and when they reached their fundraising goal for the fun run he had to wear a tutu and roller skates all day (my kids still talk about how funny it was).

 Grandma and Grandpa Wells came to see her get her award. 

And Ashlyn is never one to shy away from attention!

 Tanner didn't want to enter reflections, but he was pretty proud to show us his monster hanging on the wall outside his classroom.

Carving Pumpkins

One of the best parts of growing your own garden is the pumpkins!  The kids watch a little seed go from a little green plant sticking out of the dirt, to a large yellow blossom, then into a small green ball that grows bigger by the day, and eventually turning orange into a recognizable pumpkin.  They stake claim on which pumpkin will be theirs to carve early in the summer trying to figure out which one will grow to be the biggest.  We thought we planted giant pumpkins this year... they didn't end up being giant, but we did get plenty for our family and even grew a few extra for the neighbors (the vine grew under the fence and gave them a few pumpkins). 

Logan was right in the middle of the festivities.  He has LOVED Halloween this year, once he decided it wasn't scary.  When they first put the decorations out in the store Logan started getting nervous just walking in the store afraid we would walk by the scary Halloween stuff.  I decorated the house and he hid under the kitchen table and told me,  "Halloween Scary."  So I put treats out and told him, "Halloween Nice, you get treats."  He liked the treat idea and decided some parts of Halloween are nice.  He will let you know what parts are nice and what parts are scary.  I love his drama (most of the time), we will be reading a Halloween book and he will hug me every time he thinks there is something scary. 

He insisted on carving his own pumpkin by HIMSELF.  In his words, "No, Logan do."

 Ashlyn looks ready to operate on the pumpkin!  She hates the smell of the "guts" but wasn't about to wimp out and let mom and dad carve her pumpkin so she came up with her own solution.  A medical mask... why not?

 Tanner wasn't going to let a little smell get to him... he dug right in and cleaned out his own pumpkin.

I can't believe I didn't take pictures of the finished products.  They carved their own faces and put candles in them.  They looked awesome! 

Disneyland Pictures

Pictures of our fabulous trip to Disneyland!

Family Pictures

We had our family pictures taken the other day, and while we were all dressed and matching we had my father-in-law snap a few photos of us too.  I love my little family!