All the Festivities Know as Halloween

PHEW!  We made it!  The past couple of years it seems like Halloween is a month long event and it's kind of exhausting.  I can't imagine how people with more kids do it. 

This year Natalee decided she wanted to be a Veterinarian.  This was a pretty easy costume to put together and I was very happy that I was able to convince her to go less extravagant. 

Our first activity of the month was our Activity Days Halloween Party. We made a craft, a candy necklace, played a game and ate donuts off a string.  I think everyone had a fun time and it was awesome to see all the girls in their costumes.

Activity #2 found us at the annual neighborhood carnival.  So much fun, but so many people and 

 Oh yeah, Natalee and I Kareoke singed.

Activity #3 was a visit to "Scary Hill."  Our little water park/fun center does a $7 deal in October with several activities.  We've never done it before, but decided to give it a try this year.  We really had a fun time.  Here's Nathan and Natalee on the Haunted Hayride.  This is my new favorite picture.

They had skeletons in all kinds of funny poses and situations.  Here are the skeletons on the tubes and lounge chairs.  Our other favorite was a skeleton in a bathtub, skeletons picking cherries and a skeleton that ran a tractor into a tree.

 I didn't know ball pits still existed.  This little Miss was pretty happy that we finally found one.  She didn't want to leave and I wanted to dip her in hand sanitizer.

This is some blasting game that didn't work very well.  It reminded me of Buzz Lightyears Astro Blasters at Disneyland, because you were shooting at targets and each other to score points. However, the targets weren't recording any scores and half the guns were broken. It was kind of a let down. However, Natalee had no clue what it was supposed to be like, so she just had fun pelting us with balls.

I won our golf game, which is noteworthy because I never, ever, win golf.  The score was

Mom: 56

Dad: 72

Nat: 98

Natalee was bummed that she didn't break 100, even though she claimed to know that we were going for the lowest score.  The above photo is my hole in one.  Also noteworthy - I don't think I've ever had one before. The course was so cute with all kinds of Halloween touches.

 The Rock Wall was a bit of a challenge for Nat, but she finally made it all the way to the top. She got to be the only kid in the bounce house.  She thought it was so cool for about a minute until she realized that it's more fun with more people, so she talked me into going in.  That was embarrassing.  I couldn't stay upright and kept slipping on my socks.  When I came out, I felt a little drunk.

 We might make it a tradition to go to Scary Hill!

 The Saturday before Halloween, Nathan took Natalee to an event in Farmington that was sponsored by Radio Disney.  I didn't go so there were no pictures, but she came home with so much stuff.  She won a pair of fairy wings and wanted to change her costume.  I'm mean and told her she couldn't change this late.  She wasn't too upset and said she'll just use them next year.  She's so agreeable like that most of the time.

Ah, the pumpkin carving.  The guts are my favorite part! Really, I want to know where this tradition started. Who knew that hollowing out a giant squash and putting a face on the front and candle inside would be so much fun.  We held Natalee off until the Monday before Halloween so that we wouldn't have moldy pumpkins and they actually turned out pretty cute.

 

We let her decorate this pumpkin at the beginning of the month so that she'd quite asking when we could carve the others.  I think this picture is so funny. She's got the crazy eyes!

This year was the first year since Nat has been in school that they've had school on Halloween. Her school did a costume parade. It was a little overwhelming, but Natalee was so happy. 

Finally it was time for the main event.  Nathan went as a Panda Bear to his work function earlier in the day and he was a good sport to put it back on to Trick or Treat. This was she could be a Vet at the San Diego Zoo, which is her greatest aspiration in life.

This was taken about 2 hours before November 1st.  It's so much work, but so much fun.  We really did have a great month of Halloween fun!