Since Halloween was on a Saturday this year, we got to dress up 2 days in a row!
Pat and I are usually really low key with costumes. Pat was inspired by a
student and did an Avatar-ish theme. He is Avatar the Last Knowledge Bender.
Melody had a rough morning and just wanted me to hold her, but I was helping the girls get ready for school
with their costumes. By the time they left she started to calm down. She is really good at directing me where
she wants me to take her, and this moment it was to the light switches. She has only done this a handful of
times, but it made her happy. I was originally holding her, but needed to make myself breakfast, so
I pulled a chair up and let her play with the lights. After that, our day seemed to go better.
Since Jaina is in AM Kindergarten her parade was at 10:45am, about 20 minutes before
she was done with school. I got Melody bundled up, since it was a bit chilly, and we
drove over to the school. It was fun to see her in the parade and I know she was
excited to do it since she had seen Xander and Mara do it for a long time.
Jaina and her good friends Ashlyn & Evan Murphy.
We went home, had lunch, then it seemed like we needed to turn right
around and go back to the school for the big kids parade at 1:00pm. Here's
Mara wearing shoes from a friend. She was clunking all over the place, silly girl.
Xander was glad that this was his last time doing this sort of thing. I've heard
that the Jr High doesn't allow costumes at school, which will make him happy.
We went home, put Melody down for a nap, and hung out until about 4:00. We got Melody up, got everyone
in their costumes and headed up to Orem to visit Mana at the bank. She loves when we come to visit.
After the bank, we met Morri, Liza, Carter & Addi at Taco Amigo for dinner, then headed back to
their house to hang out for a bit. I left the family there, and headed over to my Uncle Gene's viewing
in Orem. He died on Oct 21st. It was good to be able to see my family and not worry about cranky
kids. When I got back to Morri's it was getting late and we decided to head home. Usually when we
are together on the weekends, the girls always want to have sleepovers. So this time Addi came
and slept at our house, while the boys went to Watergardens Theater to see Man from UNCLE.
Saturday morning (Halloween) was the day of my Uncle Gene's funeral, so I took Mara & Addi to Addi's
house so they could hang out some more while I went to the funeral. It was a great service and I was glad
that I was able to be there and support family. I feel for my cousin Megan. She is Gene's youngest daughter
and she went into labor on the 30th and had her 2nd child that night. So she missed her dad's viewing
and funeral. I can only imagine the anguish she was feeling. But we are blessed that we have
amazing technology. Her husband Dave attended the funeral and used FaceTime to help her
participate and witness the family prayer, funeral and grave side service.
After the funeral I went and picked up Mara so we could go home and get ready for the fun
Halloween festivities. She must have stayed up way too late, because she was so tired
on the way home that she fell asleep. I snapped the picture at a stop light.
We got ready and headed back to Orem to go to Grandma & Grandpa
Tolman's house for the traditional chili, donuts, and trick or treating.
Melody was in heaven picking out candy from Grandma's candy bucket.
She tried quite a few different candy bars, but never finished one.
It's so fun to have holiday's with cousins. Here's Jaina with Olivia as Rapunzel, and Maddox as Baymax.
Group picture. Pat's cousin Cody and his new wife Capri came to hang out with us
too. Melody wouldn't be in the picture unless she was held, and she was a little
nervous around Maddox. She didn't know what to think about his costume.
These girls headed to the basement to play for awhile and make music.
Mara got in character and played with a ball like a cat.
Grandma's favorite thing at Halloween: dancing with the grandkids to Monster Mash.
Gwen brought these fun little props for pictures.
Finally it was time to go trick or treating. When Melody saw this fire
hydrant she pretended that she could look through it, it was pretty funny.
And we're off!!!
She finally was warming up to Maddox.
Melody was so happy to carry her own bag and kept calling it a 'pocket'.
These kids were a lot faster than the rest of us.
Jaina, Maddox, Mara, Olivia, Addi, Xander and Melody.
Melody kept saying 'trick treat' and was so happy all night and loved to walk
around with dad and watch all the kids. It was a whole new experience for her.
Jaina was taking handfuls at a lot of the houses so her bag was much heavier than everyone else's.
Xander and Mara decided to stay in Orem and Trick or Treat with Addi for awhile. So we headed home
with Jaina and Melody, got them bundled up and headed out to a few houses in our neighborhood.
Everything on the floor was Jaina haul!!
She had a great time sorting and choosing her favorite candy to keep.
Morri brought Xander and Mara home around 9:45, then Pat took Xander to the Watergarden's
theater to see Gremlins on the big screen! So I was the one to help Mara sort her candy.
Over all it was a really fun and busy Halloween.
I'm just glad that it's over and we can move on to other things.
