Halloween Recap

Since I can't sleep (election tomorrow) I will do a recap on Halloween.  Maybe it will take my mind off the vote!  Seriously, going stir crazy.

Annie was so excited to be a bat for Halloween. She had wanted to be that from Day One and never changed her mind!  Here she is headed off to the school to help me with a party.

The morning of Halloween did not go so well.  This guy thought this was the world's WORST costume.  It was actually totally awesome.  Here he is sporting his awesome attitude. 

Here he is at the parade...covering up so no one will see his LAME costume. 

"Man, life is so hard when you have to go to school looking so uncool. I just wish I could wear a lame skeleton mask like every other boy at my school."

 Annie was allowed to wear a costume to dance too.  We just went with butterfly wings and called it a day. These two are so much fun. 

Even when they sneak on the computer and mess up my things!

 Here's the gang heading out the door...

 Notice Michael changed costumes.  The funny thing is I had Joshua wear that clown costume in Kindergarten and he still has not let me live it down. It was SO traumatic for him.  It was just SO humiliating and the girls all called him "clowney."  Every other kid was a superhero. Go figure.  Michael was pleased as punch being a clown.  So happy to be rid of that other costume!

Grandma was so nice to have us all over to eat some real food before heading off for the night!  It was fun to see all the cousins dressed up. Notice the fabulous weather!  Not always the case on Halloween in Idaho.  It was perfect. 

James-a handsome 1940's gangster.  

Luke was so cute in his chef costume, definitely a favorite this year!

Michael...our happy clown.  (Ran out of time to do his make up!)

Joshua picked and paid for his own costume.  It was a perfect costume because no one would even know he was only a few weeks shy of 14!  For all they know he is a sweet little ten year old under all that red nylon.  Since he came home with the largest bag of candy, I think he pulled it off!

These two looked awesome!  I will have you know that Sadie's dress came from my arsenal of old-school dresses.  Her hair looked SO good.  Then we had polar opposite Abigail and playing the rebel hippie.  

My little bat. 

TRICK-OR-TREAT!  

We took all the seats out of the van so that the kids could climb in and out easily. We are not just lazy...the houses up here are just really spread apart!  Even jumping in and out of the car we still do our share of walking!

 There is always a trunk-or-treat in the Church parking lot at 6pm sharp.  It is a fast and furious way to get a lot of candy.  I think it seems a bit like cheating, but it just wouldn't be right to miss it.  It is the only way to see everyone and if we didn't go we might miss out on sweet costumes like this-

These three cuties thought it was just as fun to pass the candy out. 

This is the peacock's mom (7 months pregnant) and her little mummy.  I loved their costumes!

 More friends from Church...people are seriously creative!

Joshua and one of his BFF's. 

Don't try to take this guy's candy!

The annual dump-and-trade!

I posted this picture of Sophie on Facebook that night with this caption:

"Sweet, mom and dad are trying to get the kids to bed, no one will notice me climbing on the kitchen table and stealing Luke's candy! It's awesome being child #6."

I realized I didn't even get any pictures of her doing her first trick-or-treating.  It was so cute and she LOVED it.   Seriously, that is another sign of kid #6-not one picture of her in her costume alone.  Don't worry Sophie, you might not have the pictures that the other kids had on Halloween...but they never got an unsupervised session alone with a big ol' bowl of candy. 

Now it is time to take down the Halloween Decorations.  :(

Olympic Park and Photo shoot gone wrong

Whenever one is on vacation there is always lots of car time.  Sophie loves to rock out to the music these days and on this day she was being particularly crazy.  She kept making that scrunchy face and everyone would laugh.  She is even throwing out a peace sign in the middle picture!

The kids always want to go to Olympic park when we go to Park City.  They were really sad that the alpine slides were not open.  We missed them by one week.  (I was not too sad because it saved us some cash.) We still had fun watching the Women's Olympic Team practice their jumps.  

It amazes me every time I see these guys jump.  You can barely spot out the jumper.  She is just leaving the jump and starting to fly. It is soooo steep. 

Trying out the bobsleds in the museum. 

We were even lucky enough to do a little powder skiing while we were there.  Here's Joshua...

Luke...

Michael...

James...

Here are some random pictures from a weekend after we were home.  This is Keisha, our neighbor, doing my hair.  Pretty fancy!

 

These guys are crazy!  Here they are playing dogs.  Yes, that is Annie in the kennel. 

We had our primary program in church a couple weeks ago.  All the kids sang so well and had their parts memorized.  They each told a way that they have chosen the right this past year. It was great.  The photo shoot...not so great.  Sophie was doing awesome.  Annie lost her natural sweet smile, I am so sad!  She is into this weird strained smile every time I try to take her picture and she usually tilts her head in a weird direction. Help! This one was the best.  Some other kids were on the sidelines crying and having a meltdown. 

We tried to pull it together outside, James is still not too happy.

We finally get Luke to join us, and Sophie takes a spill.

The dog joins us to see what the commotion is all about.  

I don't think today is the day for a family picture.  

Annie's face cracks me up.  Sophie is hating life. James and Luke are like, "We better cooperate now, Mom is mad." Don't even know where the other two are.  At least I can laugh now!

PS  Notice that Luke is wearing no shoes.  Yes, that is how he went to Church.  He could not find them.  I told him since he was on the stand for the program no one would see.  I wonder what his teacher thought in class.

Another busy soccer season...

I have to say I am a little glad that soccer season is over!  With three boys on three different teams, and Ryan coaching one team it seemed a little crazy.  I know lots of families that seem to have every kid in about three activities-not the life for me!  Scouts is a must around here, and I try to make them pick and choose a few sports a year.  However, here we go again...basketball has already picked up and swimming is about to start.  Even though I had planned on a little break from team sports when soccer ended,  I figure we might as well do them all now BEFORE Christmas.  I want to leave our schedule AFTER Christmas wide open since the kids are getting season ski passes for Christmas.
These pictures were all taken earlier this month at the boys last games and it already seems a lifetime ago.   The weather has changed from summer/fall to fall/winter.  Burrrrr.....

Luke's Team-

The bad news is that they lost every game.  

The good news?  By far, he was the best player. 

I think he was the only one on the team with some experience, and it seemed most of the kids were younger too.  

More good news?  Luke didn't seem to mind.  

Had to squeeze in a picture of Sophie.  I don't know why she was all dolled up in this dress-up outfit for the game, but she was. 

Michael's Team-

Ryan coached the team this year.  It was really fun because we knew a lot of the kids on the team.  They played great together and had a good season.  When they did lose, it was always close. 

Here Michael is with one of the twins on our circle...I can't tell which one.  (Carter, is that you?)

All these kids are in our ward.  

Had to throw in this picture because of the hot coach in the background.  (He would never let me take a "real" picture of him!)

He spotted me out!

Father and son...

James Team-

James loved playing soccer this year!  Even though he was on a championship football team last year, he decided on his own that it was just not what he wanted to do.  He had a great soccer team and they won most of their games.  It was also a bonus to have about six other boys from our ward on the team!

I couldn't go to the last game so Ryan had to be on camera duty.  He did a pretty good job! This is James and friend Logan, not an action shot, but I just like it. 

Ryan told me that James scored twice in this last game.  He is so much fun to watch play! 

That wraps up Fall Soccer.  We also have Spring Soccer here, but it really should be called Winter-Freeze-your-butt-off Soccer.  Seriously.