Thursday, October 29, 2009

Halloween Overload

Growing up, my mom always hated Halloween. She has even been known to put up her Christmas tree on Halloween night as she was giving out candy. Last post I told you Halloween makes me tired. That's not to say I don't love Halloween. I start out the month of October all jazzed to do Halloween right--the kids help me decorate the Halloween tree:


and the hutch:


The boys wear new Halloween pjs from grandma (Sammie already has too many pjs!):


We buy new t-shirts (once again, they each have two--don't ask!):


Please ignore how trashy Luke looks with no socks and how bad my paint is chipping around my front door. Any day now the husband is painting the door and trim black--right babe!

Anyway, we always make a trip to Engh's pumpkin patch so the kids can get a picture in the pumpkins and run through their corn maze and play on the pirate ship. We NEVER buy our pumpkins there--way overpriced:



I always take the kids to Gardner village to see their witches. They are really darling. Of course, my potty-humor obsessed children love "Witchy Poo." Their favorite:


I love these pictures of my kids:



We always go to Rasmussen Farms to buy our pumpkins. The pumpkins are only three bucks a pop and Ryan loved pulling the wagon around the yard:



This year, we started a new tradition (because obviously we weren't doing enough Halloween stuff) and went to Cornbellys by Thanksgiving Point. Ashley and her boys are in town so we've been having a lot of fun with them.

Ashley is the fun aunt:


My kids loved the slides:


Except for Ryan:


and just like Lagoon, Luke loved the baby rides:


Ashley's cute Max on a go-cart:


My favorite part of Cornbelly's was eating dinner at Thanksgiving Point afterwards. I decided they have the best fries on the planet...or maybe I was just really really hungry.

Finally, Sammie dressed as Little Red Riding Hood for her Halloween party at ballet:


I'm starting to see why my mom hated Halloween.

14 comments:

The Mostess said...

I'm scared to add 2 legged kids--I already have too much Halloween junk going on with Lancer and the 4 legged kiddio.

The Village, throwing 2 parties, going to parties, pumpkin carving, costumes for 2, tricking Dogface into wearing devil ears...it's exhausting.

But I am ALL about the pumpkin patch. And once I saw all of the parents using my 'haunted graveyard' on the stage as a photo background, I felt good about my hard work. But I need a solid year to recover.

Jen and her men said...

I love October, hate Halloween. I got up this morning, got myself ready, got the school kids in their costumes and drove to the school...where I sat for almost 2 hours (with an ornery baby) to see the Halloween "parade". Then I hurried home with my kindergardener (and ornery baby) to get him ready for school and into his costume. Then we will go back to the school at 12:30 where I will sit through another parade (for the afternoon kids) and then go to my 3rd graders class to help with his party. Then pick up all the kids and come home. (Are we done yet?) I'm so glad that we don't have to go trick-or-treating until tomorrow night! Hallelujah! We get to do this again!

Ashley said...

Halloween is definately easier with little kids and without the school stuff. I like all the pumpkin patches and cornbellys etc. bc I would have to do something with my kids anyway, it might as well be something exciting and harvesty. I hate feeling obligated to do stuff though. And I am already sick of Halloween stuff on everyone's blogs. (Not yours--all the other blogs!) And I have yet to even update my own with it all. Blah.

P.S. I can't wait for Christmas!

Linda said...

Just reread Jen's comment and you will know why I hate(d) Halloween! In addition to that I always had Jazzercise Halloween parties (so I had to come up with a costume) and when the kids were little, I went to school to do "Halloween Jazzercise." But that's not really the reason I hate Halloween these days. I still love all the things you mentioned in your blog - kids, KID'S costumes, pumpkin patches, trick or treating, CUTE, kid's decorations. What I detest is the adult crap - the gorey, ugly decorations on lawns and the excuse it gives hesian adults to party and wear scanky, nasty costumes. Halloween has been hijacked by adults!!

Liz said...

Amen, Linda! It's become such a skank-est!
And, yes Brooke, the fries at T.P. are totally the best!

Travelin'Oma said...

These are the such cute photos. I love Little Red Riding Hood. I overdid Halloween when my kids were little, and got sick of it by the time they could actually remember. I HATED school parades when I had to drag toddlers along (during naptime.) Now that I have no kids to worry about, I actually don't mind Halloween. It looks like you're creating great memories.

Vermont Madsens said...

I cannot believe how much you have done for Halloween! Your awesome costume, two costumes a piece for the kids. How do you do it? Our left-wing society here is anti-holiday in the schools, thus NO celebrating of any kind. I have been very vocal about complaining about it, but I must admit my Halloween has been much less stressful than yours. That's even with planning our ward Halloween party! Hope you have a wonderful Halloween!

Mandee said...

it's true- TP does have the best fries in the whole world. Good chicken strips, too.

Cute, cute kids. Fun Halloween- you are so glad you missed the party. COMPLETE CHAOS.

Amy M. said...

Sammie's costume is so cute and I love Luke's skeleton pj's. I should have purchased.
Halloweentime really is so busy. Oh and both of my older kids want different costumes for tomorrow. They are tired of their current costumes because they've worn them to ten events already.
Your witch costume is out of control cute. You must teach me about it on Monday.

Christie said...

I don't like Halloween at all. Mostly for me it's the candy that kills me, but add to that all the crap you have to do? Ugh. I'm ready for Thanksgiving to come already.

Em said...

Cute cute kiddos! You are lucky UT has so many cool fall-y pumpkin patches for families. How fun.

I personally hate the pressure Halloween brings. Your posts make me tired and I'm already exhausted trying to decide what Chuch and I should wear for our Halloween party TONIGHT. Still no costumes. I may resort to an old Thriller costume and make Chuche be a cowboy. Boring. Uninventive. Such is my life. :)

sheryl said...

Dittos to Linda.
Skanky Adults should be put in the graveyard, .... with that said... I loved the school parties. I would even find a tear in my eye at times when a child was so happy ...or so sad with all the party jazz. I especially loved Halloween because it was the day my twins were born. They love it because everyone remembers their birthday. This is the first year Shelly hasn't been home for Halloween. Our home is a graveyard. Not even a pumpkin made it to the porch. After the little kids are gone we will desert the place and go out to dinner and maybe a movie. Sorry teen age trick or treaters. (Even though I really don't mind them when I know them)

Marni Bown said...

You are such a good mom. You put us all to shame. Looks like you had a fun time and your witch costume is always a hit!

Linde said...

Yep, after dressing up every year I worked at school--I was tired of it and I didn't even have kids! :) It was fun with Jacob this year in that he kind of gets it a bit more.