Hooray For Halloween!

We had plenty of spooktacular activities to keep us busy during the week of Halloween.
Saturday the 23rd, Ryan's mom had her annual party for the grandkids. It was fun and simple. The kids came in costume and played games. Ryan's sister Alondra made yummy scones for everyone to enjoy. Shirley had the basement all decorated with Halloweeny stuff.

Cousin Malory and Cora. Cora wanted to be a ghost this year. Easy enough. And she looked pretty cool!


I don't think Cora liked whatever game was being played at the moment.


Jane wanted to use the costume Cora used last year, a "candy corn witch". I really liked the outfit and it suits her well. And once again, easy! Halloween was very low stress for me this year.

Jane with cousin Cassie.


Wow, she's really getting into character here. Yep, she looks like a dead person.

A bunch of Ryan's cousins' kids were also in attendance. I forgot to get a head count.



The kids had fun and Shirley sent them all away at the end of the evening with treat bags. What Halloween activity would be complete without candy?


~ Friday, October 29th, Oliver and I met up with my mom and cousin Fletcher (who is 3) to go trick-or-treating at the Anniversary Inn. That started at 1pm. I only knew about it because I scoured the internet looking for fun Halloween things to do. Both my sister and my brother-in- law worked there several years ago. Walking through the themed suites brought back some memories. Ryan and I got to stay there a bunch of times thanks to the family discount.

I didn't get any pics of the boys trick-or-treating there, but Fletch was dressed as Snake Eyes and Ollie was a train engineer. They both needed prompts at each room to remember to say "trick or treat", which is kind of awkward for me. Next year I'm hoping Oliver will be more excited about it. I feel like a crazy woman urging my kid on to collect as much candy as he can. I can't help it. I'm a candy whore. It's been that way for as long as I can remember. I don't know what it is about trick-or-treating, but I've always been obsessive about it; getting that free candy, as much as possible and as fast as possible. No dilly-dallying. Even though I know I can (and I do) go to the store and buy candy anytime I want it, I still get that trick-or-treat "feeling" when Halloween comes, and I get so excited. It's in my blood. Which makes sense, because with the volume of sweets I regularly come in contact with and consume, I'm certain there is a fair amount of sugar in my bloodstream.

No matter what time of year it is, whenever I ring someone's doorbell or knock on a door, when someone opens it, my automatic instinct is to yell "TRICK-OR-TREAT!" I actually do say it, maybe half the time, depending on whose door I'm at. It's always worth a shot, right?


~ Saturday, the day before Halloween, was our tri-ward Trunk-or-Treat. It was a lot more fun than I had expected it to be, once I got over the rage I was feeling when we were 10 minutes late, despite my best efforts to be early. Ryan got home from work a little later than I expected, which turned out to be about 20 minutes before I wanted us all to be there. No matter what, it seems like I'm never allowing myself enough time to get ready for anything.


Jane with her rather wide smile.

Cute Engineer Ollie. His hat was giving him problems. When he puts it on, he pulls it down to squash his ears, then we can't see his eyes. But if I try to adjust it so it's not covering his face, it must feel weird on him because he always takes it off. There is no happy medium. It's either too high or too low on his head.



Here's my pal Maria with Kenley. Aren't they precious? Her husband was dressed as Walt Disney. Should have gotten a picture of all three of them.


We happened upon Maisie and Maren. Maren made their costumes- an owl and a tree, in case it wasn't obvious enough. So cute! She is so crafty.


Oliver was a little overwhelmed with all the people in costumes. I think after he saw one guy with a creepy mask, he got kind of apprehensive. He was very quiet the whole time we were there, and wouldn't say a word to anyone handing out treats. :( By the time we were half done begging for candy, he was wanting to go back to daddy at our van.

I found this gift bag at Honk's Only $1 and instantly knew I had to wear it. Good thing Halloween was coming up or I might have tried to pass it off as a dress and wear it to church.
Imagine my dismay when I saw a teen-aged girl there with a similar costume. She told me she thought of it first. I begged to differ.


Ryan getting into the candy he was supposed to be passing out.


The girls (Cora, Jane and Malory) helped me decorate the back of the van earlier in the day for the occasion.
If only Cora could have held that face the whole night!


I don't know why it looks like Cora has a white mask on her eyes.


Here we are at home after the Trunk-or-Treat. Ollie was done with the hat. Doesn't he look cute with a mustache?


I like how the blurriness could be mistaken for creepiness here. And the blur to the left (Jane) adds a nice touch as well.

Cora and Malory are such good buddies.



I was telling Cora not to smile, but to look serious like a ghost.



They got a pretty fair amount of loot at the trunk-or-treat.





~ On Halloween night, when we took Malory home, the kids happened to be in their costumes and we happened to get out of the van and walk around Malory's neighborhood, ringing doorbells one by one. The people inside the houses gave the kids candy. We did this for about an hour, until Oliver started wanting me to carry him. (Ryan opted to stay home.)

Cora threw together this last-minute mime costume for Halloween night. She was tired of being a ghost. I applied her makeup that we copied from an online image. I thought she looked pretty cute. And once again, it was easy!

She looks so grown up in this picture (and so drugged).

It's hard to believe Halloween happened over a week ago already! Time is going by so fast. We must be having fun or something.

Oliver's 3rd Birthday!

Our baby isn't a baby anymore. When we tell him he's 3 he answers with, "No, I'm 2!" I guess he's in denial.

Ollie has really been growing up the last several months. He's talking more than I ever imagined he would. He wasn't in any hurry to talk, and I sometimes wondered when he'd get around to it. It's fun to hear him speak his mind in complete sentences now. He is so good about saying please and thank you. I never really had to drill it into him, like I had to with the girls. They still need prompts sometimes. Even when I'm just giving him food, he responds with a resounding "Thanks, Mom!" It makes my job so much more rewarding knowing without question that he appreciates my efforts. =) And it's tough saying no to him when he follows every request with the sugariest "please?" he can muster.

Oliver's Birthday was Thursday, October 28th. Since Ryan had to work 2-10 that night, we celebrated on the evening before so he could be included. He met us at his parents' house after work for cake and ice cream, etc. My parents also came over. Ryan's sister Bethany and her kiddo, Royce, were there too. It was a jolly little gathering.



Here's the cake I made. I wasn't sure what I was going to do until I was doing it. I almost just made a generic brown cake with "Happy Birthday Ollie" on top, but after I put the cakes in the oven to bake I decided to use this new Thomas play set as cake toppers. I was going to give the set to him for his birthday anyway, why not make the presentation more fun? If I had come up with the idea before baking the batter, I would have done a rectangle cake so I could have made a better track. Since I was ill-prepared and couldn't go to get any other decorating materials, (I waited until Ollie was down for his nap to start on the cake) I was forced to work with what I had on hand. I used green-tinted coconut for grass; crushed mixed nuts for rocks between the tracks; and cut up Twix bars for the railroad ties. And just a few days earlier, Shirley had given me a tube of leftover black icing from her Halloween stuff, which came in very handy for the track! I would have been screwed without it! Whenever I try and make black frosting, it ends up kind of purplish.

It was a cinch to put together. Any old dummy could do it!



I set it in a box with a lid to transport it so Oliver wouldn't see it until it was cake time.

Soon enough, the time arrived.





It's hard to tell by the expression on his face, but I think he kind of liked it!


After we sang to him and he blew out the candle, he helped himself to the cute little trains. They don't have moving parts or anything, but they are still fun for him. He likes to line them up on the floor like he does all his other trains and trucks.


Cora holding (and singing to?) Royce, who is also a Thomas fan. He and Oliver are great at fighting over trains together. I like Ollie's expression as Jane is squeezing him. He's not buying it. He knows she's only after his new trains.


The whole fam.


I would have pushed for a group picture of everyone there, but I didn't think either of the grandpas would have been able to stop chatting for long enough to get in the shot before Oliver lost interest.

He lost interest pretty fast.



And then, the moment Jane had been waiting for... present time! She'd hopped around before, during and after cake time, asking if he could open his presents yet.

I got him a couple of boring shirts. He likes the train one.


Jane and Cora picked out an Emily train for him. Jane's just a tiny bit thrilled to show it off to him.


Notice Jane in the background. She likes . . . present time.


The other shirt I got him. I've persuaded him to wear it once already. He looks handsome in blue.


I got him a garbage truck because he gets so excited when he hears or sees a real one around the apartment complex or driving down the road. He calls them dump trucks. =)


Even the mini garbage cans open and close.

And here is Emily, the new addition to his fleet of trains.






-- The next day was his actual birthday, so I wanted to make it feel special for him. Before he woke up, I blew up a bunch of balloons and scattered them all over in front of the door. That made me a little light-headed.

Finally he woke up and came out. I had been waiting and ready with the camera for his initial reaction, but then I decided to grab something out of the kitchen, and of course it was during that moment when he came out.

He still wears a diaper at night, but most mornings he is dry. The one night I left him in his undies as a test, he wet all over the place. I should have at least bothered to put some pants on him before photographing him. Oh well.



Happy Birthday to our super little guy.

Jack-O-Lanterns by the Lytles

Sadly, I think this is the first year we've ever carved pumpkins with the kids. If we ever have done it before, I forgot all about it. The girls and I have painted a few small ones in the past, but we'd never cut them open and ripped their guts out before.
The girls really wanted to get with the program this time. So on Friday, Oct 22, that is what we did. I took the kids to choose their pumpkins from a produce stand. It was hard to decide which ones to get, but we settled on some before too long.
We got home and let the fun begin.

Ryan helping with Jane's pumpkin.

I didn't get many pictures while the carving was in process because my hands were all icky.
Jane absolutely refused to touch the pumpkin innards. She hated the smell of it all.

I like how this pic turned out with an eerie haze. Probably apparitions of the pumpkins we had just murdered...


And here are all of them. From left: Cora's, Jane's, Oliver's (completed by me) and Ryan's.

Ryan made his a pirate. Pretty neat, huh?

Cora drew hers like this on the pumpkin and I cut it out for her. She's so artistic. I'm not sure what's going on with the left eye, but I thought it looked really cool. Very original. The candle light didn't show through very much on that side, but it was just enough. More than what the camera captured below.

Jane mostly drew her own and I cut it out.


Ryan preparing to light the candles. Why do the girls look so nervous?

Cora's





It was a fun time had by all.