Costumes and Parties

Anda wanted to be Hermione this year and consistently insisted that I be Bellatrix, which I was happy to do. There are 13 spooky differences between these two pictures. Can you spot them all?

Dan actually took treats to some people from church like that. 'Tis the season, I suppose.

Lilah wanted to be a banana (or GOB), and she looked great doing it.

I considered making her Dobby, but come on--that is one cute banana.

I was super excited when we got invited back to the Carter Family Halloween Party this year. They put on a seriously good family party, and we are the lucky intrusive cousins who get to drop in. 

Anda was really excited that Harry was there and wouldn't leave poor Carson alone all night. He was very sweet to her, though, which I appreciated immensely. They even tied for the Cutest Kid Costume.

And of course, at the end, we hit up that amazing spook house their neighbor down the street puts up in her yard.

Dan and I got invited to a grown up party at a neighbor's house, too. We got the invitation at the last minute, and costumes were required, so we racked our brains, made a trip to DI, and actually ended up winning the "Best Couple Costume" award. Go figure. It was a great party, complete with a driving-around-town-and-even-creeping-into-large-tombs scavenger hunt (which we also won, thanks to Dan's creative interpretation of some local traffic laws).

Anda and I hit up the Provo Community Center Carnival again which I can't say enough good things about. They have tons of activities that are perfect for kids and it's only $3 a person. It's adorable. I didn't have my camera, but my sister took this picture of the place to give you an idea.

Of course, Halloween night itself was fun, too. I didn't get pictures of them together because I'm the worst, but Anda and I met up with a couple of neighborhood friends to trick-or-treat for about an hour. It was really fun now that she's old enough to sort of grasp what was going on and really get into it. The girls were cute and I think we stayed out just long enough to have fun and get some candy without wearing out or bringing home nine pounds of the stuff. Perfect. I'd say it might even top the year I made at least two little kids cry with my scary porch decorations! Maybe.

Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin Patch

Anda was sick the day her preschool class went to the pumpkin patch, so we took her later as a family. They had fun stuff there, just like last year, but it was cold enough that even Anda didn't want to hang around and play. I was okay with that--let's get a few pictures, grab some pumpkins, and head to the real party: 7-11's hot chocolate bar.

We carved them up later, but I didn't get around to taking pictures before they were all sunken in and gross-scary instead of fun-scary. I carved mine and Lilah's, and had Anda draw a face on hers for me to cut out, but I left Dan's scooped out and waiting for him to carve later. This is what "later" looks like in terms of a pumpkin.

That is straight up full of mold. Spooooky!

Halloween Crafts

I love Halloween! I was sick last year, so we didn't do much, but I feel like we had just the right amount of fun this time around.

Anda got really excited when I put out our little Halloween display on the entry table, and the spooky stuff outside, but she was disappointed that she "didn't have no Halloween in [her] room," so I tried a few crafts with her this year.

We made some of those cheesecloth ghosts my family used to make when I was a kid. They are really cute but they turned out so big I didn't really have anywhere to put them, so they ended up kind of awkwardly haunting the piano all month.

We also made some monsters (educational bonus points--she learned about mixing colors).

Protip--although it works on clothes, do not try to clean acrylic paint off of your kitchen table with rubbing alcohol. Dan had to come to the rescue with the furniture restoring magic on that one. I am why we can't have nice things.

I had my sister cut out some black shapes and everyone made pumpkins on paper plates to string up in Anda's room.

And, of course, we made cookies.

I was just going to make one big Halloween post, but now that I realize how many pictures I actually have, I have decided to break it up into several different posts so...stay tuned.

Family Pictures 2012

We picked the perfect weekend to go up the canyon and take some family pictures. Kirsten did a fantastic job, even though at least one person decided to look a little doofy in every group shot, and our smiliest family member was getting over a cold and did not smile once. I think that we got a few good ones anyway (thanks to the magic of Photoshop--I'm becoming a face swapping pro). Here are some of my favorites.

Virginia 2012

The girls and I went to Virginia a few weeks ago. We had a fabulous time and LOVED seeing Nana and Papa.

We ate tons and tons, of course.

And played a lot, too.

Amazement Square (the children's museum) was closed (AGAIN!!!), but they had a bouncy house place at the mall where we met up with my mom's friend and her little girl.

Anda played really hard--I don't know how well you can tell, but she is soaked with sweat in this picture.

And of  course we did the carousel right outside the bounce house. Nanas are for spoiling little girls.

I got to see some old friends.

And Anda made a new best friend, whether he liked it or not.

He did not like it. In fact, he would run into his crate to hide when he heard Anda coming into the room, but that didn't stop her.

We went to the safari park the one day it rained while we were there, which actually turned out just fine since you stay in your car the whole time anyway and the animals still came right up to the cars. Nana and I were with Lilah in one car while Jacob, Lindsay, Papa, and Anda were in the other. Apparently good times were had in the Anda car, which I felt bad about my mom missing out on, but at least we got to hang out with this emu.

I took the girls for a walk on Percival's Island one day.

And Papa, Lilah, and I got a Cheesy all the way before we left.

We spent our last evening at my parents' cabin.

This looks familiar...

It was really a great trip. I think it wore Anda out though.

The first thing she did when we got back to Provo was throw up in the parking lot outside the airport. We've cut down on the sugar a bit since we got home.

The only thing that would have made the trip better would have been Dan coming along (and then maybe I could have convinced him that we could all just stay!). The girls were actually pretty great, even during our two hour flight delay on the way out, but I have to admit that my only thought as we actually traveled there and back was "I've made a huge mistake." The whole airport/airplane experience alone with two small children was just stressful. It was definitely worth it this once, but we will not be making that trip again without Dad.

That said, we will definitely be making the trip again some time in the future. I couldn't deny these girls the opportunity to spend time in the best state in the union. And Dooley will be wanting to spend some more time with his best friend.