Halloween 2009

This post will have lots of pictures. Our Halloween celebrations went over 3 days!!! So instead of 3 separate scary posts - I have them all together.

I will start off with the pumpkins. We actually carved them at about 6 pm on Halloween night. Better late than never, right?

The Witch - by Victoria

The Scary Faced Pumpkin- by Christianna

It all started on Oct. 24th. Laycee, our cute neighbor, had a special kids Halloween Party at her house. We were watching the boys while Heather & Aaron were at the Utah game. So we have here, a Renaissance Princess, 2 awesome ninjas & Laura Ingall's.

On Thursday, Oct. 29th we had our Ward Trunk or Treat. Guess what! Chris went this year as a.........COP! Shocker, right? The kids really like the flashing lights & police stuff. Actually, the lights were on as I was taking the picture, but it snapped it at the precise moment when they flashed off.
Here are the girls together: Christianna, Laycee & Victoria. You may have noticed that Christianna is in a different costume. Well, we had found out from Heather that a little costume shop up the road had princess costumes on sale. I was thinking "Awesome, cheap dress-ups!" and Christianna thought, "Awesome, I can be an actual Disney Princess for Halloween!"
Hence, the wardrobe change.

The next day we had the school Halloween parade & parties.

Here is Christianna with her cute friend Abby. They take all the kids and march them through the entire school. It is always fun to see what the teachers are going to do.

This here is Mr. Olsen, Victoria's 4th grade teacher.
Funny guy!

Victoria really wanted to go as Laura Ingall's. She loves to watch that show. I think it is because Laura has lots of freckles, just like my cute Victoria.

Victoria & Laycee - the vampire girl.
Laycee's posing was making me giggle a little. She took her part seriously.

Man, she does fit that princess-y part, doesn't she?

This year, Chris & I volunteered to help out with Christianna's class party. We had 3 stations: story time, mummy wrapping & a Halloween version of duck, duck goose. I was in charge of the mummies. They had so much fun wrapping each other with toilet paper.

Thanks Heather for that great idea!!

The last thing we did was make Halloween wind socks...pumpkins, ghosts & witches. They turned out super cute & the kids had a great time.

After a fun morning of games & treats, they sat on the carpet and sang songs until it was time to leave. They sang my favorite song from Kindergarten...the spider song.

Later that day, we invited the Lyman clan to go with us down to the Police Station for some Trick or Treating.

They had police cars, the SWAT truck, the bomb squad robot, a K-9 team, firetruck, motors and the Mobile Command Center outside to check out. The boys were loving that.

Victoria spent a few minutes making Moe feel all loved. He is the coolest bloodhound ever! His handler even gave Victoria biscuit to run away with. He started his howling and then after he was released, he ran right to her for the treat.

You can't pass up a chance to sit on a real police motor cycle...at least if you're a kid.

Victoria & Laycee

John & Christianna

Brett & Spencer
(Spencer, Brett's friend, really got into it!)

Gage

To me, it is looking like he is just too cool for this bike. Either that, or he was born to ride!

He cracked me up!

Tanner - a ball of sunshine wrapped up in cuteness.

He had a major piece of candy stuffed in his face.

On the top floor, swords a blazing, we got a picture with the Police Chief. He was laughing at John since he was swinging his little bag in front of his face...the picture taking was...let's say: difficult & funny. The picture I took after this one, the chief is hugging John so he couldn't swing his bag! It was funny.

Then, later that night....

Heather had invited us to have dinner with them. Sweet - since I had nothing planned. Once dinner was done, we visited & then later went to a fun Haunted House. It was actually built in our friend's yard for trick or treaters. Since we were in the ward, we got a sneak peek of it the night before. The kids loved it!

Finally, to top off our Halloween Festivities, we went Trick or Treating on our street on Sat. Oct. 31st. Brett and John were trying to avoid the camera...but sneaky me got John as he was peeking around the tree.

We had a fun time walking around the neighborhood and they got even more treats. One of our neighbors had these awesome pumpkins outside. Thought I would share.

And there you have it - our fun filled Halloween Madness!!

Halloween Party - no kids!

I have always dreamed of being able to go to an adult Halloween Party! SO imagine my excitement when Jennie tells us they are going to one & we are invited too! (One of these years, we are so going to host one.) Grandma & Grandpa stayed home with all 5 kids - Olivia came with us.

First, we had to get home from all our things, and with an hour until showtime - had to make dinner for the kids, make a dessert for the party, and get all dressed. There was going to be a costume contest as well as a treat contest and we WERE going to win that Blue Ribbon! PHEW!

Turns out we were an hour late. We could have been there a good 10 minutes earlier, but the invitation was lost and we drove through random areas trying to find the right house. THAT was lots of fun. So after many turns, Chris's elbow smashing into the giant cookie dessert, fighting off the urge to get car sick...we missed the voting entirely for EVERYTHING. I was seriously sad...'cause I felt Chris & I had some pretty good chances of a win.

Meet Professor Plum & Miss Scarlet. SO I am not looking so sultry sitting on that couch...but I was smokin!

Jennie was the Super Mom...or something like that. SO, pretty much, she came as herself. Dallas pulled out the ol' Ghostbusters costume and kept second guessing his choice all night.

We met a lot of very nice people from their ward that night. They were funny and friendly...and they brought good snacks...and...I remember NO ONES NAME!

So this is ???????

Papa Smurf & the pope, they are TIGHT...interesting huh?

Clark Kent & Lois Lane

Ummm....Cesar & his wife? (It was their house.)

Hey, I know him! Dallas!

And who is that?

ME - and I am mad that we didn't win either of the contests. GRRRRRRR

Now here is a familiar face! LISA!

Don't worry dear, I could never forget you. XOXO
I would have much rather seen you in that swan or duck costume though - another tragedy of being late.

Here we have some Hippies. Just if I could pull of tight one piece outfits like that and not send others screaming for the hills. sigh

Luckily we didn't miss Rock Band! This was the first time I braved it. It was a BLAST!
Chris was very hesitant, as he is with everything totally fun...(You should ask me about that one karaoke night where he was dancing on the furniture...I have pictures!) I personally loved singing and playing the drums. My hands were seriously getting cramps from the guitar playing!

What a great day!

How much can we actually pack into one day?

Jennie's kids had their Primary practice this morning so we were able to just spend time just us Fairalls. We walked down the road to a fun diner for some breakfast. We had a great time just chatting away and eating all the food. Turns out it was more expensive than eating at the hotel. Guess you live and learn.

The best part of the girl's day was time to swim in the pool. We had a blast! We taught the girls how to play Marco Polo. It is hard to keep your eyes closed to catch someone! At one point when I was it, I was just needing to catch Christianna. I kept getting so close to catching her & then she would be gone. Now she is not that fast...she is 6 for crying out loud...turns out Chris was moving her out of the way. The joke was on me & it was a funny one! Then they taught us how to play shark.


Chris took some time to challenge Victoria to distant swimming...underwater. It seemed like she was more concerned with going deep underwater instead of just skimming the top. It equalled a very not far distance.

What is this - ballet practice?

After we were dried and ready for the day, we headed to Jennie's Stake Center. They were having a safety fair. Pretty much when we got there, we met up with the family, I asked where the bathrooms where...and then went & threw up. I had not been feeling well really for the past day or so. After I got sick, I felt a ton better! Funny how that works, huh?

Anyway, I then got a lolly pop...and we let the kids check out the firetruck, thoroughly.

I was really off my picture taking game too on account of feeling ucky. But I am sure you are ok with that since I tend to put so many on here!

After that, we headed to the really cool shopping place called Scheels. It was alot like Cabellas with the one little exception-it had a Ferris wheel inside! So all the kids went on it...of course. Dad went to browse gun supplies, and Mom & I waited with the younger ones who could not go on and I took the pictures.

Chris went with Ethan & Rory.

Jennie went with Victoria & Christianna.

After that, Chris went to find Dad. We took the kids to another area where they had an indoor play place! They played in there for a good half hour or so. Chris came back with multiple packs of ammunition. But they were on sale!

Whew - it was a long day. But guess what! It wasn't over yet! We still had to go home, make dinner and a dessert for the adult Halloween party that night.

A sugar & pumpkin filled day!

To start off the family extravaganza - Grandpa made sure the kids had breakfast. What was on the menu? Fruit loops..a cereal, I might add, that I NEVER buy since I am a cereal snob. (Don't believe me, ask Heather.) Actually, I really try to make sure that the sugar content is low..the highest I go is 9 grams and that is Honey Nut Cheerios. I try to stick with 6 grams actually.

So, when I found out that they had not one, but two bowls of cereal...I just thought "Great!" But what are grandparents for? The spoilage of grand kids. Gotta love them!

Besides, the kids were pretty happy...and who wouldn't be all hopped up on sugar?

Chris was always willing to take care of Olivia. I think there is a special allure to someone else's baby, since you can hand them over if it gets to be too much. He even volunteered to change her diaper! I KNOW!!!

After breakfast, we all got ready and headed to the pumpkin patch. It was so much fun!

This is Emma, Dallas was tossing her into the air and I thought it looked pretty neat. It was such a gorgeous day.

Here are the cousins together - again, we are missing Alex in Texas. Without her, the cousins are NOT complete!

From left: Victoria, Ethan, Emma, Christianna and Rory

There were fun things to do there - this was one of them. I call it: "Knock over the funny Halloween men" game. Chris was watching over them trying to give them pointers. It is funny how he isn't patient with that - he kept trying to tell them the best way to do it instead of just letting them go. I couldn't help but laugh...inside.

See those funny little men?

"Uh...Ethan...that may not be the best an...gle..."

They had some farm animals there. So the kids enjoyed checking them out.

We were hoping that the kids wouldn't fall in with the pigs. We would have had a modern day Wizard of Oz moment.

I thought this goat/ram thing looked weird with the double horns.
I have never seen them coming out of the neck/face area before!

There were little wagons all over for the moving of pumpkins you were going to purchase - but they were used for rides instead. At least, that's what we used them for.
I would have figured that Victoria and Christianna would have been the ones pulling the younger ones....they actually took turns later on.

We then headed to the very fun corn maze. This was a first time for the entire Fairall family. I know, we are very sheltered. Dallas had his very strategic corn maze theory. As long as you always keep to the right of the path, you will make it out. He kept true to his theory and made it out. Chris, Jennie and I had no plan and just ran through and had fun and we made it out too - just before Dallas!

We waited at the exit for Grandma, Grandpa & Victoria to make it out..

So excited that we made it!

Two thumbs, way Way up!

This was too cute: We are thinking that Emma was tired from all that walking. She went over to the cash register area and picked up this chair and carried it all the way over to where we were all standing, set it down, and sat herself on it.

We ended up getting pumpkins for us...a green one, a white one and Christianna went with the regular orange type. Chris wasn't feeling the whole "pumpkin thing" this year. Oh well, his loss!