72 hours of Halloween

I admit, I am slow. BUT, now that you have seen the pre-Halloween Halloween, it is time for our REAL 72 hours of Halloween. This year seemed like one thing after the other. I think that is what happens as kids begin to grow. They start to understand things and then they start to look forward to things, and finally...they EXPECT certain things (ie - decent candy, real costumes, actually carving the pumpkins and not just looking at them while they sit on the porch, etc). All things I have not previously had to worry about.

So, our Halloween actually started several days before and after the real Halloween. First, the school festivities. My girls decided that they wanted to look like the girls on the labels of their costumes. Thus, I had to go back to memories of my youth and try to remember how my mother got my hair to go curly...here are the results.

Granny, foam curlers are the absolute best at making straight hair curly.

Even Ms. Aeva got in on the action.

Now for the costumes. I remembered having this costume the night before Halloween. Aeva seemed to approve. She seemed to be most impressed with the fact that she had grown a tail.

and could now ROOOOAAAAR.

One of Gracie's friends was Princess Leia from Star Wars. Very cute.

One of Maddie's best friends was a baby. Also very cute. How did Maddie get so tall?

A little witches brew at the class party. I of course didn't sign up to help. Instead, I just showed up and expected to be given any and all left overs to take home to my family. It is a very cool way of "helping." I also discovered that I am a very good nacho maker and 2nd graders are very messy nacho eaters.

After the school parade and parties we were released for home. A very successful morning.

After school we moved on to the post parade Halloween play date. How can there be so many cute kids in such a small Valley? Love it.


The Junior High carnival. We found our friends again for a little cookie decorating. Sooo scrumptious! I was, once again, in charge of the left over cookie/frosting/candy eating. A mother's job is never done.


The next day (actual Halloween) we decided to start off with some pumpkin pancakes. I had some food color crayons that they decorated their pancakes with. SO much easier than real pumpkins.

I think Gracie's pancake is named Juan. She is picking up on the Spanish culture quite easily.

Then it was off to grandpas for second Halloween pumpkin carving festivities. At least it wasn't at my house this time. Grandparents are truly wonderful things.



I think Gracie's pumpkin may have some sort of "syndrome" but overall, very cute.

Maddie's pumpkin also has a slight vision problem. No worries, it has now been fit with the proper spectacles.

Tu-du!

Off we go. Is it possible that we left too early? Is that sunlight I see?

On Sunday, we went to Grandma Carole's for dinner. She is always making some sort of holiday treat. This year we had some yummy hot dog spiders...

breadstick fingers...

and scrumptious spider cake.

How can you beat that? A Halloween that left us completely tired, full of sugar, and happy as clowns.

Happy Halloween everyone!

Preparatory Halloween Festivities

A week before Halloween we had to have our preparatory preparation for the preparing of Halloween activity. It all started when my girls pleaded to carve pumpkins. I, not being as smart or quick as I give myself credit for, could not think of a good reason not to carve pumpkins. Troy mentioned later that doing any carving 10 days before Halloween was just a bad idea. I, however, could not come up with such an ingenious excuse. SO, the carving began...

Aeva is unexpectedly excited at the site of pumpkin guts.

Gracie, thinks that the guts are very slimy and should be thrown about without regard for cleanliness or order. Still, very cute...


Dear, sweet Madelyn is looking at her pumpkin from all angles to determine which would be the most elegant spot for her eyes and mouth. We must not hasten too quickly or all will be lost.

All of our sweet friends have come to join us on this excursion. One can never have enough pumpkin guts. The more goo and slime that can be found, the merrier the carvers will be.

In answer to my prayers, further semi-adult back up arrived. May we all bless and be thankful for any teenager that will assist with any preparatory activity. It is a rare thing and must be cherished.

The final results.

How much better can it get? This is one great group of chumps. Gotta love every last slimy one of them!Happy Pre-Halloween Halloween!

Chase your tail...

My awesome dad installed some volleyball poles in our back yard so we could play. He also added a hook at the top and hooked up a tether ball for a little extra fun. Aeva was the only one home when he did all this fun stuff. She LOVED it!

Here we have Aeva inspecting Grandpas work. She must certify that everything has been done up to her standards.

It appears that the pole has passed the test...

I got some good video of her chasing the ball around and around the pole. It took her a long time before she realized that if she just held still, it would come back to her.

or at least hit her in the butt.

Ahhh, finally. She has caught the ball. Life is good.

Sleep Tight

Grandma Rett and Great Aunt Holly made the girls some new, cuddly, soft blankets! The girls haven't put them down for weeks. I thought I would sneak in one night and tuck them in. Here is what I found...



Apparently Aeva reads herself to sleep at night. I am counting it as her 20 minutes of reading each day. I also enjoy playing a CD of multiplication tables, fractions, and square roots in the background as we eat breakfast. According to all of the studies, she should be very intelligent one day! I like to do all I can as a mother (looks good on my Mother of the Year application).

Thanks Grandma and Holly for the fun gifts. They will be worn out in no time!

On a separate note, Gracie has a little friend Mia that she plays with quite often. The other day she came home from Mia's house with some special treasures. I thought this one was pretty cute. I thought it was even cuter when I saw her actually using it...

It is funny because, of my 3 girls, Gracie is the one that can fall asleep in seconds. I asked her if the mask helped her sleep and she said, "yes, it keeps it dark so that I can sleep in when it gets light outside." Maybe I should buy Maddie one of those. She is my night owl.

Caribbean Cruise - Isla Roatan

Our next stop was Isla Roatan. This is an island off of Honduras. Apparently a lot safer due to the political uprising that is going on. Wish I was more into politics (maybe I don't). Anyway, we got to the island on our third day at sea. A beautiful port with tons of coral (not to be confused with corral - where the animals live).

This is a picture that I took from the ship before we got off. If you look in the bay you can see some of the coral. The water is sooo clear and nice.

We loaded up and headed for the island. It was once again raining and we were greeted with the this...

Apparently there are cross-dressers in every country. At least that was what we thought. Our first impression was to run but I got snagged taking a picture and was soon dancing around the port with these ridiculous looking "men." Anyway, we had signed up for a tour around the island and our guide ended up telling us the story behind the so called cross-dressers. Apparently the Indian people that first inhabited the island ended up going to war with another tribe. All of the men were being killed and they were worried that they would lose their land. The tribe decided to dress their men up as women and send them to war. The other tribe laughed when they saw the women coming down to fight. They did not discover the trick until it was too late and they were overcome by the army of "women." Anyway, that is supposedly how they kept their land and now the customary dressing up of the men is part of their annual celebration. Not so creepy when you know the story.

Also on our tour we got on a small boat and toured around parts of the island. There were numerous old ships that had sunk and were cool to look at. This ship caught on fire and sunk onto the coral. At the time it happened they didn't have any of the machines, etc to remove it. By the time they could have removed it, it had attached to the coral. They were worried about ruining the coral if they removed it so it has stayed there.

This is one of the homes on the side of the water. Apparently they build the homes over the water on stilts to help cool the homes in the hot summer months. Their boat is parked just beside the home. I thought it was interesting that their boat is larger than their house.

We were taken to a hut in the mountains of Isla Roatan to see the Indians customary dance. The women dance very similar to the hula that everyone has seen but there is more chanting involved. The men do more of the jumping around, seizure type dancing. The men also wear little bells all over their legs that make noise as they dance. All in all a very creepy experience. At least they passed around the marijuana pipe to keep us all drugged and calm. A good first experience with pot.


This is the bread that they make out of yucca root. They shred the yucca plant on that board in the front. They then have to squeeze out all of the starchy liquid with something very similar to cheese cloth. Once the liquid is taken off they can stick it together and bake it over an open fire.
Tasted a lot like warm cardboard. Could be very delicious with a pound of butter, dash of salt and a few sesame seeds.


Two of the boys on the island were playing marbles with pine nuts. These two boys asked me for "a dollar." I told them they had to show me how they play their game and then I would BUY some of the nuts from them. You should have seen how excited they got. They showed me their marble game and then handed me 4 or so nuts. I had to hustle them to get 6 nuts but I did it. Apparently the smaller green ones are much better than the big brown ones. They were quite proud of themselves for selling a "white woman" a bunch of worthless nuts. They must have thought I was pretty stupid to give them money for nuts when there were a billion of them lying around on the ground. They earned it and their smiles were priceless.

After our tour we had some extra time. We headed of to Tabyana beach. This is apparently the beach that you can't get on unless you book it through the ship. OR you can just tell the taxi driver to take you there and drop you off. We got there just as all the people from the ship were leaving. Very nice timing. This beach is near a portion of the Belize Barrier Reef, the second largest coral reef in the world. I saw my first underwater turtle here! I only saw his butt but it still counts. right? I got sooo excited that I came up to find Troy. He was too far away from me and when I went back down it was gone. Very sad.

Troy also saw his first poisonous eel at Tabyana. He didn't swim very long after that. Good thing I don't have any idea what is poisonous and what isn't. Makes for a much more pleasurable experience.

Zac and Aimee were our fearless companions on the trip. Here we have Zac showing off his manly physique. I think Aimee is trying to hide a laugh. We are such nice, supportive wives.

Another good stop at sea. We had a blast and enjoyed seeing some of the things that don't happen day to day here at home. I am truly blessed with a nice home, good food, and an amazing family. Now I just need a sea of warm, blue water and a bunch of coral to snorkel in whenever I want.