Harry Potter Halloween Party

As if we haven't had enough parties this month, I thought our 'family' Halloween dinner could have a Harry Potter theme.  It took some coercing, but everyone was a good sport...

Kai said he would be Ron Weasley, and Keala didn't like the idea of being Hermione, so she opted to be Luna Lovegood. (Except she kept asking us to remind her who she was.)

Ryan was Draco Malfoy, Kasey opted to be a Dementor (look how happy she is, though)!  Austin is the older Harry Potter, and Sam came as the younger Harry Potter.

(Forgot to get a photo of Sam - oops! Maybe BFF mom can email me one!)

Brent is Snape (yes, he should have worn more black, my bad!)

I am the lovely, yet slightly crazy, Sybil Trelawney. Such a perfect fit!

(Side note: Brent, G'pa Bill, and Kasey have no idea who the characters are!) ...not Potter junkies.

G'pa Bill was Mad-Eye Moody, but our photo is out of focus. Sorry!

G'ma was gonna be Minerva McGonagall, but she missed her flight and got stuck in Cali.

After dinner we played the "Mummy wrap". You will notice how each teenager's personality comes out in their wrapping of each of the kids.

Ryan is very methodical and orderly. True to form!

Kasey is very competitive and gets the job done at whatever expense!

But she has fun along the way! (Keala couldn't see by the end of the game!)

By the way, Kasey won! (winner winner, chicken dinner!)

Austin just does what hes asked, no rhyme or reason.

He didn't care that he lost, but he got mad his paper kept tearing. Patience Austin!

Afterwards the 3 little kids played "Witches stew" where they sucked a Halloween creature onto the end of their straw and tried to see how far they could walk before it fell off. 

(It was a short-lived game.)

G'pa's "Mad-Eye" kept falling off so we just let it go.

Meeja took our photos (shes still under the weather, but was a good sport to come and enjoy the festivities with us!)

 Kasey keeps forgetting to look scary!

How can you look scary when you're so cute! We all had a lot of fun!

I forgot to show Ryan's tatoo. By the way, he made his own wand! Pretty cool!

Everyone have a Happy Halloween!

Frightmares At Lagoon!

Saturday morning I told the kids to dress warm for Lagoon.  (I brought extra clothes for everyone!) I told Keala to wear a warmer jacket - she ended up with my 'extra' shirt.  (And Kai ended up wearing the 'extra' shirt I TOLD him to wear in the first place!) I still don't get how kids don't listen to their mothers!

But as soon as the rides started - everyone was all smiles. (And we KINDA forgot how cold it was!)

Brent and I lobbied for which rides we were and were NOT doing with the kids. We both suckered each other into at least one ride we didn't want to do... This was the one he didn't want to do. (I got stuck on a spinning ride - it was the first and last one of the day for me!)

Brent recieved free tickets earlier this week for Lagoon.

I had been wanting to take the kids all summer and never did.

I was so glad we were able to do it this Halloween weekend!

Once the sun came out it was the perfect day, warm and beautiful!

This trip was the first time Kai, Keala, and Sam had ever been to Lagoon.

Meeja had sinus surgery this week so we offered to bring Sam to give her a little 'R and R'.

This was the first trick-or-treat maze of the day, but not the last!

We stayed here in 'toddler' land for most the afternoon... It was a blast!

(We finally got Kai to ride some rollercoasters for once!)

After too many 'spinning' rides, Kai chose to sit this one out.  Keala and Sam were all smiles until...

The ride got stuck! Keala started crying and mom started laughing. I couldn't help it! Kai was standing next to me saying "mom, its not nice to laugh".  After a few minutes they finally got the ride working again.

The kids were asked if they wanted to do it again... Of course they did!

Yes, we did ALL the toddler rides! Why not!

Brent and I sat and relaxed while the kids ran from ride to ride.

Yes, I cut my hair. Don't worry, 'some' people didn't notice either!

These girls were so cute! (I have no idea who that other girl is!) But she was adorable!

 They all were so excited to try everything out. It was nice that this was new for each of them!

Keala got to trick-or-treat these witches. They were really sweet to all the kids.

We also found another maze were the little kids could trick-or-treat in different rooms.

Some rides became our 'favorites'!

Keala loved hearing me yell at her from the ground as she went around and around.

On their second time around Keala instructed me to stop kissing Brent so I could keep yelling at her. Well, ok then!

The train ride had the longest wait of the day.

However, Brent said it'd be worth it to see the second best zoo in Utah.

(Doesn't Utah only have 2 zoo's?)

It turned out to be such a beautiful day!

Some of the smells weren't so beautiful... but the zoo WAS impressive!

We got a snack at 'Dippin' Dots' and coincidentally a show started right where we were. It was fun to watch. (Warning to all those aspiring to eat Dippin' Dots one day... you're taking your life into your own hands!)

Whats that behind you honey?

Aside from snacks, rides, trick-or-treating, and posing for pictures... we had a GREAT day!

This is the best picture I've got of Brent's hunting trip last weekend.

Somehow I don't see any hunting going on.  But we're supposed to believe they really do hunt! 

The End

Welcome to the Family!

On behalf of Kai, Keala, and myself we would like to congratulate Justin and KaRyn on their engagement.  Kai and Keala are excited to have KaRyn as their new Step-mom!  She and Justin plan to be married by the end of the year.  I know KaRyn will be a great blessing in Kai and Keala's life. We are grateful that she has had such a positive influence on Justin's life and wish them the best of luck. Now that Justin is able to baptize Kai we will most likely schedule his baptism on the first Saturday in December. (We can't sooner since Brent has to go out of town in November.) I'll keep you all posted... So many exciting things to look forward to!

Have a Happy Halloween!

Thank you Laurel M. for posting on Facebook! Made my day! Enjoy!

Welcome Fall! -(And Parties!)

We call ourselves the 'Nik-Pak', 'Partners in Crime', '2 Peas in a Pod', 'Kindred Spirits'... whatever you want! But I have to blame her for this whole party-thing we did! Nikki Thacker wanted to do a "Breakfast with a Witch" party (that was somewhat cheaper than the one at Gardner's Village), but this is what all the planning transpired to....

Somehow we went from having the party in Claudia Pierson's barn... to MY house. (Claudia's hay barn would have been so much more cool - but cold!) So I was fine hosting it here (for warmth's sake.)

Kai and Keala helped me decorate (somewhat). But sat still enough for me to trace their silouettes for the 'Wall of Fame'. After calling the neighboring families we discovered that "Breakfast with a Witch" was the wrong time of day... so the party moved to the evening. (And early in the month, hence, last night!)

I called my mom laughing that perhaps people might not appreciate the 'Bishop's wife' serving kids desserts in shot glasses, but I couldn't resist, so I ended up making chocolate pudding 'samplers' anyways. And we loved 'em!  I love the cup size! (Just big enough to get a taste and move on to more!) (I know Meeja would appreciate the theory behind that too! I got cho back girl!)

After making 5 batches of bread sticks I had to sit down! But thank goodness everyone brought an array of delicious finger foods! We had an amazing veggie tray, caramel apples, chips and the BEST homemade salsa! We had 'Chicken Fingers' (that really looked like fingers), adorable chocolate spider cookies, chocolate cupcakes, pretzel snacks, jello cups, grapes, olives, (and bread sticks!)

Thanks so much to everyone who helped make this YUM and FUN!

We started a little after 6:00 and people just kept coming and coming!

And the costumes were adorable! This is Logan, and baby sister, Betsy. He regularly babysits my kids. But this week Kai got mad that I sent him to Gran'ma's while I went to a meeting because he wanted Logan, or 'a fun' babysitter. Hello!

Even the parents caught the spirit! Christina AND her husband both dressed up along with their 3 boys! Awesome! I noticed the smaller the kids... the cuter they looked! How does that happen!

I was expecting a big crowd so we moved all the crafts into the garage. (A big thanks to my honey for letting me boss him around all day to get the garage well lit and festive!)  It actually stayed pretty warm too!

Nikki brought the crafts (I did the food!) Here the kids are making skeletons out of dried spiral noodles and gluing them to black paper. They also made scary apple mouths with almond sliver teeth! Cute! At a 3rd table they decorated a Trick or Treat bag with google eyes and Halloween die-cuts!

If you weren't eating around the table inside, you could relax on the couch and have Nikki read you a fun Halloween story. (The kids prefered to run around outside!) But the adults didn't mind while we visited with each other inside.  I was suprised how well everything flowed despite the number of people here.

Keala and Kai showed up a little late. (Sometimes dads forget things.) But at least they made it, and had fun running around with the rest of the kids! So the total count: about 34 kids, 14 adults, and 1 dog. (And Maggie loved every minute of it! - She loves people, and especially crumbs on the floor!)

I love my Martha Stewart butterflies. (They are my favorite Halloween decoration -cool, but creepy too!) On the way out the door the kids took home a pair of 'Bones-Sunglasses'... whats a party without stories, crafts, games, food... and bones-sunglass-party-favors!  Thanks again everyone - for all the FUN and YUM!