Twilight at Midnight (11/21/08)

My sister in law, Stephanie, and her roommate Bridget came to visit us for the weekend from Utah. One of their friends got married on Thursday. They flew in early that morning went to the luncheon, reception and then it was off to see Twilight at the midnight showing. On top of it all they both had colds. They are young college students though so they can handle it. I on the other hand being a mother of four was worried I wouldn't stay awake past the credits. I can't remember the last time I was up past tweleve.

Steph and Bridget made us t-shirts. I thought it was so sweet of them to think of me and make me one too. I thought they did a great job on the shirts. Bridget wasn't as happy with hers as she experimented by putting a vampire on the front of hers. She says she "took one for the team":-)

Here's our self portrait before the movie started. There were nine theaters open at the theater we went to and we got there at 10:00 pm....out of all nine theaters the best seats we could find were the fifth row from the front. I had heard people were waiting since 1, 3, and 5 o'clock. Wow.

Another self portrait of us eating popcorn. I thought it was fun being a part of all the excitment. I had never been to a midnight showing before. It was fun being in a theater that packed too. Highlights of the night would include getting to see the new previews for Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince and when the movie started some guy yelled out, "Edwards ugly" and some girl yelled back, "You're just jealous". That was pretty funny. I thought the movie was good. It beat my expectations. I thought they did a good job staying close to the book. I had a great time and yes I did stay awake the whole time. Went to bed at 3:00 a.m. and woke up at 8:00 a.m. The girls slept in til 11:00 a.m. Another benefit of being a college student. I thought it was fun being a part of all the excitment.

Halloween Night

"I AM HULK!!!"

"Don't make me angry..you won't like me if I get angry!!!" Jack loved being the Hulk. It was fun for us to make his costume too.

The boys were vampires this year. They wanted to be vampires last year and Chad and I talked them into being old men instead. They were excited. On Halloween night we realized we didn't have enough white paint. I went to the store to get some more and I couldn't believe how packed it was with everyone trying to find a last minute costume. Needless to say all the paints were wiped out. So Dad had to do what he could to get it on both boys. I think he did a good job.

"Boo"

Gavin was a ghost for his first Halloween. He didn't wear his costume for very long. He wouldn't let me give him a black nose either. It smeared all over his face. When Caden was a baby he let me do it (he was only 6 months though). He wouldn't put his hands into the holes and he crawled and got his outfit all dirty within minutes. What a cutie!

This is the only picture we got at trunk or treat this year and Chad took it. I was too busy taking care of Gavin. He isn't walking yet and he wanted to crawl, which I didn't want him to do in the parking lot so he put up a fight at times. This is the first year I passed out the candy...Chad usually does that. It was kind of nice to just sit down. Trunk or treat was alot of fun...it's my favorite ward activity. The only night our ward could get trunt or treat was Halloween this year. I like it best when it's a different night because that means two nights of fun. We usually have good food, trick or treat around the neighborhood and get some fold out chairs and sit out in front of the house and pass out candy. We also make homemade candy apples drenched in chocolate,chocolate chips and crushed Oreos. That's okay...we can look forward to that next year. The positive thing out of this was that I didn't have to paint Jack up twice. :-)

Green bath water. The green paint was a little harder to get off than I thought it would be. Not bad, but not that easy either. When we were done emptying the green water I had to scrub the bathtub really good to get all the green off.

Halloween Liturature Parade at School (10/31/08)

Instead of having a Halloween parade their school has a liturature parade. No witches, Goblins, anything scary and no masks. They also must bring the book to show what character they are. In the parade they carry around their book and a decorated pumpkin of their character if they wish. At first I was annoyed by this because it meant I had to dig out pieces of pirate costumes from their toy box to put something together for them because they are vampires this year and I didn't want them to go to school being nothing. Then I realized this is the only school I know of that lets them do anything remotely close to having Halloween fun...so I got over it and put something together.

Sonia...do you see yourself in the background? I had to put this picture of Cade walking in the parade because I asked my friend Sonia if she went to the school that day. She said she saw me but that I was in camera mode running thru the classrooms following the parade. When I was going through what pictures to use... low and behold...I saw Sonia sitting in the background. I got a good laugh from that.

I was volunteering in Cade's class today but I had to go back to Dylan's class after the parade to get a picture of him and his teacher Mrs. Neppl.

Cade's class. His teacher Mrs. Miller was Little Red Riding Hood. Can you find the Big Bad Wolf?

Cade and his classmate Dylan were both pirates. They were sitting on the floor watching the older kids walk thru during their parade. Classmate Dylan kept "high five-ing" all the pirates that came thru.

When I volunteer I don't usually bring Jack, but I figured since today was a fun day it would be okay to bring him. I didn't want him to miss out. Jack got a little taste of kindergarten. He LOVED the seesaw. He laughed the whole time. I was afraid he was going to go flying off at times since the other kids were so much bigger than him.

This is a picture of Cade's friend Kadie. He talks about her all the time. I was worried Cade would be too shy at school and that's not the case at all. On the first day of school when we came to pick him up he was holding McKenna's hand. That was a big surprise. Chad teased the poor boy so much we haven't seen him do that since. Now it's Kadie this and Kadie that. Her mom packs her little notes in her lunch that say I love you or have a nice day. She always gives them to Cade and he brings them home and puts them in his drawer. This is really a story for another blog but since I'm on the subject. Cade went on his first field trip to a farm. One of his best friends, Lily Doxey was there too. Lily and Cade are not in the same class though. A couple times Lily came over to talk to Cade and they sat by each other for lunch. Two of the times Kadie saw Cade with Lily she kept saying, "Caden Edgerton, Caden Edgerton, Caden Edgerton". Cade would look shy and Lily would just smile her smile. It was pretty funny.

Halloween morning (10/31/08)

On Halloween morning we had ghost pancakes to start the day. Thank you Tammy for the idea. You have helped start yet another family tradition for us (Chad thinks we have too many..but I know he likes them all. :-) The kids loved it! Even Gavin couldn't get enough.

MAD JACK (10/29/08)

Many might think "Mad Jack" is my third son Jackson....there are times we think that ourselves. :-) A couple of years ago the boys saw a jack a lantern on the internet and his name was "Mad Jack" so every year they want to carve out "Mad Jack" instead of a jack a lantern. Jackson loves it because he has the same name as him. This year they wanted Mad Jack to have fangs since the two older boys were vampires for Halloween.

Gavin has a raw pumpkin seed in between his teeth that was dropped on the floor. Yum yum.

I had to put this picture of Jack on here because he wanted nothing to do with pulling out the pumpkin guts like the rest of the boys. All he cared about was eating the cupcakes when the carving was done. He sat on the table and gaurded those cupcakes til it was time to eat them. I had to keep an eye on him or he might be the only one to get cupcakes that night.

The boys favorite part is turning off all the lights in the house and watching Mad Jack glow.

My favorite part is eating the pumpkin seeds. The boys do enjoy that too. Every year it seems I try a different recipe. This year I found a keeper. Sweet and Spicy. The boys loved them(although they do love Hot Cheetos too). The website I got it from had all sorts of different seasonings. Here's the recipe if anyone wants to try it out next year:

1. Do a mediocre job of separating the goo and guts from the actual seeds. Don’t rinse them or they won’t taste as good.

2. Add salt to the seeds. I suggest 1 teaspoon for every 2 cups of seeds.

3. Add the melted butter. I use 1 tablespoon.

4. Mix the salt (and/or seasonings), melted butter and seeds and then spread them on the baking sheet.

5. Roast them at 300 degrees for about 30 minutes. Stir them halfway through.

6. Take them out and eat them.

Pumpkin Seed Seasoning Ideas:

Sweet and Spicy: quarter cup sugar, 1 teaspoon salt and half teaspoon cayenne pepper.

Curry: 1 tablespoon curry powder, 1 teaspoon salt

Spicy Garlic: 1 tablespoon garlic powder, 1 teaspoon salt, half teaspoon cayenne pepper Southwest: 2 teaspoons cumin, 1 teaspoon garlic powder, 1 teaspoon salt, half teaspoon cayenne pepper

Roasted pumpkin seeds will keep for about a week in the fridge.

Haloween Packages from Aunt Steph (10/18/08) & Grandma and Grandpa (10/22/08)

The boys were excited when a package came from Aunt Stephanie in the mail. She gave them a Winnie The Pooh Halloween book and they each got a bag of candy corns and candy pumpkins, which they loved. Thank you Aunt Steph!!

Steph, I have to tell you that Cade carried this card around with him everywhere. He even described it to grandma over the phone when she called. He loved the mummy on it. The mummy is the "A" on the card. I think he may choose to be a mummy next year for Halloween all because of this card.

Next came the annual Halloween package from Grandma and Grandpa. They always look forward to this. Dylan reminded us when he learned Halloween was coming that they should be getting a package soon in the mail. Even Gavin participated in the fun of opening it this year. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa.

All the fun goodies along with some mail for Mom and Dad and the book "Summer of The Monkeys". That was a favorite book Chad's as a child and his mom mailed it to him so he could read it to the boys.

Schnepf Farms (10/16/08)

Our family loves to go to Schnepf Farms in October. We went last year and decided this had to be a family tradition to start off our Halloween and fall season. Since it is still so hot this time of year it helps us realize fall has begun. Chad took a vacation day and the kids were on fall break.

The roller coaster ride is by far our favorite. We go on the other rides some, but the coaster we go on over and over and over. Chad and I took turns watching Gavin while the other went with the older boys. Last year Jack wasn't big enough to ride and he cried and cried. I was 8 months pregnant with Gavin at the time so I just stayed with Jack. This year he was tall enough and he loved it. So did I. I love the look on the kids faces in the picture with Chad.

We saw the Billy Bob pig races. Billy Bob would pick 3 or 4 kids to come up and pick a pig to race and if they won they got a big plastic pig nose to wear. Billy Bob then picked 3 adults for the goat races and I was one of them. Of course I had to pick the blue bandana in the middle since all of my boys favorite color is blue. My goat was in the lead and we thought he was going to win but then he hopped the fence. The lady on the end there won. Oh well....sorry boys.

Chad took the boys on a ride in these pedal pushing carts. When he got back he asked if I wanted to take Cade and Jack. Dylan took off to ride a singleton bike. Sure..why not...looks like fun. Oh, My!!!!! First of all, Cade and Jacks feet don't hit the pedals so I was the only one pushing them. Second of all, there were a ton of hills once you went around the bend. When I came out the exit I had to call Chad over to bring the car the rest of the way in. That was embarrasing since there was a guy and his family waiting behind me. He was nice about it though. My legs hurt for days after that workout.

While on the go carts Gavin hung out in the hay. I think he was very happy to get out of his stroller.

We were close to going home now and the boys wanted to play on the big haystack.

The boys had a blast as did mom and dad. We ate some really good food and snacks and ended the night at the Sweet Candy Shop. That's how we ended it last year too. We missed the fireworks this year because we were so tired we couldn't wait another hour. We did see them last year...that's enough to hold us. They all fell asleep on the way home except for Dylan.