Neighborhood Halloween Party

Tonight we had our Halloween Party across the street in the Pollocks three car garage. We were worried about the weather, but it really wasn't bad with some space heaters. We had chili, chips, rolls, and lots of desserts.

I know this picture is blurry, but I wanted to show off the cute girls. Minnie Mouse Makayla, Allie as Ariel, Kaybree the witch, and Sienna as Princess Analese
Nate the pirate, Melissa the pirate, Minnie Mouse Makayla, and Allie as Ariel. I decided Nate and I needed some real costumes this year. Kohls had a ton on their website. Most of the pirate women outfits were pretty sleazy so I opted to just get the hat and use some jewelry to accessorize some clothes I already had.

Kind of an overall picture. It doesn't show very much, but it gives you a little idea.

Kayla, McKenzie, Alyssa, and Sienna enjoying their dinner. Kayla loved the chili so much she had a second bowl.

Krista and Chris Bourne, Kirsten the hula girl, and a Bourne daughter
Chris Jeppson and Nate the pirate Melissa the witch, AnnaMarie the devil, and Sophia the banana

Allie as Ariel and Xavier the monkey

Kayla and Allie with their pumpkins

Since we ran out of time before the party the girls wanted to poise for a good picture after we got home. Kayla was just getting ready to take a picture of Nate and I when the camera died. Nate used it a ton at work and forgot to charge it for the party. Ooops.

I think the party was a big success. We can't wait to do it again next year!!!!

Kayla's Halloween Party

Allie and I got to help at Kayla's school party this year. It turned out really well, and since all the mom's brought preschoolers, they got to join in all the activities too.

This mom read a fun story to the kids where they cut paper to make a house as she read. Then when the story was finished, they opened their houses to discover they cut a jack o' lantern too.
Since Kayla has celiac, the room mother asked me to be over the cookie decorating. I just made Kayla her own cookies and saved some frosting before the other kids put their gluten covered knives in the containers. All the kids loved piling their cookies with as much candy as they could hold. Then they would slowly eat the candy off the top until they made themselves sick. What fun.

They got to play with goo that the room mother made for each child. It is kind of like play dough by gooier. Also another mom wrapped them up like mummies with toilet paper.

Finally they got to color some fun Halloween pages. There were even enough packets for the preschoolers. (Sadly I think this is mostly due to the number of kids home sick that day.)

It was lots of fun, but I still think it's sad they don't let the kids dress up at school. I have very fond memories of doing that. I know there aren't very many schools that are willing to go to the effort anymore, unfortunately. Oh well, I guess the kids don't know any different.

Allie's Halloween Program

We are absolutely thrilled with Allie's preschool teacher, Miss AnnaMarie. She is actually our neighbor, just one house away. With 4 or 5 preschools in our ward, there aren't very many kids-only 4. One of the girls has been sick this whole month with strep throat, swine flu, and now something else. So there were only three kids for the program. It was still very cute and fun. Allie gets so much time socializing with friends that I am completely okay with such a little class. It gives them so much more one on one time. They also get to do a bunch of extra stuff that they wouldn't be able to do if there were more in the class.

Allie decided she wanted to be Ariel. She makes a perfect Ariel with her beautiful hair.
Lindsey, Xavier, and Allie getting ready to start the program.

Singing songs for us. They sang between 9 and 10 songs. I was very impressed with how well they all did. Allie really got into it and knew the songs quite well.

Singing another song while going in a circle.

The program was so cute. I wanted to share one of the songs with you. Enjoy!

Carving Pumpkins

Tuesday night Nate got home earlier than normal; so we set to work carving pumpkins while soup simmered in the crockpot. Makayla and Allison were so excited. They could hardly wait to begin. They were going to do it all by themselves-with maybe just a teeny bit of help from Dad and Mom. The girls anxiously waited while Daddy cut the lids. Then they looked inside...

"GROSS!!!"
"YUCK!!!"
"DISGUSTING!!!"
"I DON'T want to touch THAT!!!"

EEEEWWWWW! Even though she was disgusted, Kayla did really good at helping me clean out the pumpkin.

Look at that face. Allie was extremely disgusted. She would use the spoon, but she refused to touch the pumpkin innards.

We took a little break to look at the freshly falling snow.

Kayla got back to work poking the outline of Minnie into the pumpkin.

Daddy helped Allie work on Snow White. She really got into poking the outline for Snow White.
It didn't take long for the girls to loose interest. When they went off to play, Nate and I finished the pumpkins.

Nate did such a good job on Snow White. I couldn't believe how smooth all the cuts were and the inside of the pumpkin.

Kayla chose me to help her, which was fine, but let me just say, Minnie had a ton of little lines. It took ffffffooooooorrrrrreeeeevvvvveeeeerrrrrr to cut her out. Kayla was really happy with her Minnie Mouse pumpkin; so it was well worth the effort. The finished products outside in the snow. Minnie Mouse

Snow White

Gluten Free Goodies

Nathan came home from work today bearing gifts. One of the guys at Kennecott's wife recently started Day's Bakery. She makes and sells gluten free freshly baked yummies in Farmington. Nate brought home a list of products a while back. Everything sounded yummy, but I have not ordered anything yet. I have been hesitant to spend money on stuff I could probably make. Well yesterday the guy surprised Nate by asking if he was working today. He wanted to bring some samples for Kayla and I. Yeah, I might be able to make these things, but that doesn't mean they would taste the same.

When Nate handed me a grocery bag of goodies, I was shocked. I would say she sent more than a little sample. We hurried and ate a healthy dinner so we could feast on all the yummies.

Sour Cream Cookie Bats and Pumpkins
Cinnamon Streusel Coffee Cake

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

As you can tell, Kayla was very excited.

Everything was very delicious!!!! Kayla's favorite was the bat cookie very closely followed by the pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. I've actually made GF pumpkin chocolate chip cookies before, and I thought they were quite good. After tasting these, I should be embarrassed of mine. They were that good.

Since I have not yet been able to make a decent pie crust, we'll be picking up some pie for Thanksgiving for sure. We just might have to try her Bread Sticks or Muffins or French Bread or Strawberry Truffle Cake or....

Don't worry Dad, we saved a plate for you.

Cornbelly's

Saturday we made plans to go to the Benson Grist Mill for their annual pumpkin walk. It's free and people in the community carve pumpkins that you can go and look at. A bunch of crafters are there selling things and there are usually a few activities for the kids. We also planned to go to the pumpkin patch in Tooele and pick a pumpkin off the vine. At the last minute we decided since we were going to be in SLC for our ROCK party we'd try something different.

We looked up pumpkin patches on the Internet and found lots of different ideas. In the end we chose to go to Cornbelly's at Thanksgiving Point. It was not just a pumpkin patch and hay rides. It was a whole huge carnival type thing.

We started off by going on an egg hunt in a corn maze.
Each person could find three orange and black eggs hidden throughout the maze. You got to keep whatever was inside them and at the end trade in the plastic eggs for a prize.

Inside the kiddie corral there were tire swings, slides, floating ducks, a cave hay maze, a hay bale maze, and this cute train.

There was a princess area, complete with a coloring castle. The girls were hard at work coloring pumpkin pictures. We had only been in the princess area a few minutes when they announced there were Princess Carriage rides available on the other side of the park...

We hurried to the other side and forked over $3 a girl for them to go on the very last ride of the day. Princess Penelope was very sweet and asked the girls lots of questions about themselves. They had a good time talking with her, and they really loved the ride.

After the ride the girls climbed up this huge stack of hay bales and went down some of the 6+ slides coming down. It was a blast for them! But a little worrisome for Mom and Dad when you don't know which way they're going to come down. It was about impossible to keep track of them, especially since they were too busy to stick together.

We then went on a hayride. It was fun, but extremely bumpy. Let me tell you, the carriage rides much better. I have a new appreciation for what the pioneers must have had to go through sitting in the covered wagons. I understand why they said it was better to walk than ride. We had fun, but our backs were a little sore after our 5 minute ride. I'd hate to have to do that day in and day out for months on end.

Then we walked through a 3-D house. It was really cool. They have you wear the special glasses. The pictures on the walls, the floor, and walls were all done with the 3-D paint. It was a little weird when the floor looked like it was a good 6 inches below what you were walking on. Allie got scared, expecting something scary, and Kayla got a little worried when there were bugs all over the walls.

Next we got in line for the another tractor pull ride. Aren't they cute in their Halloween shirts? Thanks Mom.

Daddy and Kayla

Allie and Mommy

Next was the cow train. Again the girls were in the last ride of the evening.

Allie was completely worn out by this point...

or not. She is however quite the little actress.

Then we went to the giant jump pillows. They have three sizes for the whole family. The girls were both too tall for the smallest and started on the middle size.

They decided to head to the biggest but Kayla first stopped for a ride on possibly an elephant.

The big pillow was tons of fun! You could jump really high, but poor Allie could hardly stay upright with all the big bouncing going on (sorry it was really dusty and my camera focused on the dust); so Daddy had to hold her.

We then headed back to the princess area stopping by this giant rocking chair.

They have a whole area for dress up. They girls got turned into princesses. The employees were so good with all the little princesses and princes (it was the first time I've ever seen prince costumes). They also have an area where you can purchase costumes and hair accessories.

I guess this carriage was used at a Cinderella movie premiere in 2005. It would have been cool to go for a real ride in this.

Finally the girls jumped off any energy they had remaining in the princess castle bounce house.

The whole thing was lots of fun-not cheap, but fun. After all that we left without getting a pumpkin. The prices on their pumpkins seemed too high so we decided to just get them at Tooele anyway. It was a fun place to take the family. We learned a few things for if we ever go again. 1st-Do not use up all your cash to get in. Use the debit card for entrance so you have money for food and other activities. 2nd-Bring shoes for the kids that are easy on and off-you'll be doing that a lot. 3rd-Make sure you have plenty of battery life and room on your memory card. There are lots of places for picture taking. 4th-Go a little earlier in the day so you don't run out of daylight and have to leave before the "haunted" activities start. 5th-It is expensive. If all you want is a pumpkin, this is not the place to go. If you're looking for a fun family activity that will keep everybody entertained for hours, this is a good choice.