Costumes- Part Deux

After PIGWAB and the trunk or treat, plus an entire year of planning and talking about PIGWAB, our kids were a little burnt out on the Scooby Doo plan. Isaac was burnt out before it began.. Freddie was kind of lame anyway. Daphne's "Daphne" costume had lost it's luster for her, so I told the girls that if we had any hand-me-down costumes in our box, they could wear one of those. So for trick or treasting last night, they pulled out some oldies, but goodies:
D0es anyone remember this little combo-
Daphne, 4, as Little Bo Peep and a 4 month old Tori as her sheep:

Well, here is 2 year old Tori as Little Bo Peep. (She's much taller than Daphne was at this age!)

And Daphne in a Lady Bug Costume that was once worn by her cousins:

all together now:

It was rainy and cold on Trick or Treating Night (Saturday up here in Mormon country)...so we took the umbrella and the van with us in case it started pouring on us. Just before we left, a child came to the door with a bloody mask thing and Victoria was terrified. She kept talking about it and asking about it and was so concerned. She was very frightened of all the decorations and so our trick or treating experience looked a lot like this:
> I carried her from door to door and she was too frightened to say anything or even hold her bag out. Isaac and Daphne were having so much fun that she insisted on going with them, just in my arms. Anytime we saw a scary decoration, she would bury her face in my shoulder and say, "Cary! Cary!"

After a while, I got a little tired of this exposition and Matt took Victoria and me home while he escorted Isaac and Daphne around for more loot!

They were having a blast, running from house to house and Daphne came back to the car crying that her throat hurt. Uh- oh.

Here they are with their treasures:

Later that night, Daphne went to sleep in tears. The next morning she woke up with a fever and vomiting... so we missed Stake Conference and went to the Urgent Care Clinic instead.

DX: Strep Throat.

Bummer, dude.

Daphne's First Real Hair Cut

I love long hair. I don't really know why. Perhaps it is because I am overtly feminine at any given opportunity. I'll pick red, purple or pink over blue or green almost any day. I've always worn my hair long and I actually have no desire whatsoever to check out any of the adorable short doos on my own hair. I love it long and will probably be one of those old ladies with long gray hair.
Anyway, we have moved into the phase of life where Daphne has her own opinions about her hair. Actually, we moved here about a year ago, when she started asking to cut it short. At first, I tried to talk her out of it- I love her long, gorgeous blonde curls. But it seems that the longer it has gotten (or the older she gets) the curl is falling out more and more.
One day several months ago, I said, "Daphne, if you really want to cut your hair, let's do it." It's your hair and I want you to decide." And do you know what she said?
She smiled really big and said, " I like it long."
So... it's been long and longer and even longer after that. I can't leave it down and just scrunch up the curls anymore- it gets to stringy and the curls fall out. In fact- I'm afraid that she has a hair curse that my dear friend Carole lives with. The top layer is relatively straight, while the bottom layers are increasingly curly the closer you get to the bottom. Bummer.
So, when she said she wanted to get her hair cut, I was glad. I really wanted her to have some autonomy and choose and I hoped that this might give new life to her curls.
Here is our before pic (no combing or anything that morning):


And after (with some scrumching and gel):
I know it's not short... it's still pretty long. But we took off a good 3 inches or more. And I think it's just adorable. She always is!

Trunk or Treat 2010

Tuesday night was the Trunk or Treat at our Church. This is always such a fun event and we usually have a great turn out. Unfortunately, the weather was awful that night! We had rain, sleet, cold, and wind! Ick.
So, we had no trunk decorating, and everyone moved inside, which is a whole lot of people in the church building. It was a little crazy and crowded at points, but we had a blast!
Remember how Isaac was completely traumatized when I forced him to be Freddie?? Well, I made up for that by letting him be the grim reaper for the Trunk or Treat! Pretty creepy..
I'm not prepared as a mother to deal with having a son who wants to dressup in bloody, skeletal, zombie type costumes. I can handle the weapons, it's the half-dead stuff that turns my stomach. I mean, this is my child, we're talking about! So, I was mean and wouldn't let him wear a freaky mask. (Which is a good thing, since Victoria has been shaking in her boots every time she see's something creepy!) We decided he could still fit into our theme as the villain!

Cutest thing ever!

We moved on to play a few games:

This is the infamous "throw your fishing line over the sheet and get a piece of candy back" game... the pinnacle of excitement.

One more family shot!!

Triple Ten

Did you know that October 10, 2010 was a Holiday?? Well, it is in our family anyway. 10/10/10 is what the Hunters refer to as PIGWAB , which you can read about at this post. After reading about this little tradition, the inevitable question is: "What will you do after 12/12/12?" And the answer is: I don't know!! I'm sure we'll vote on it. That's how we came up with the name PIGWAB anyway, which stands for Party In Gear With Out Any Beer. I know, we're a little odd. But we like it that way.

PIGWAB fell on one of the busiest weeks ever for me, so it was a little crazy around our house. I had the "play" musical thing (Women at the Well) I was performing in at Church that week, Isaac playing soccer, Daphne starting gymnastics, PIGWAB on Saturday and Sunday and I had to teach a lesson at Church that weekend as well. Whew- I'm worn out just remembering that weekend.

So this year's theme was Halloween, of course, and we took that theme very seriously. We had a costume contest, a pumpkin decorating contest and everyone had to supply a game to play.

We came up with what I thought was an excellent idea for our Pumpkins...


Pumpkin People!

Matt worked his tail off the day beforehand to put these guys together and I think they turned out positively adorable. I can't believe we didn't win the contest, but oh, well. It was just for fun, right? Right?

On to the costumes Contest, which was SO. Much. Fun.

Last year, the day after Halloween, I went to Target for the 50% off Halloween stuff and we came across a "Daphne" Scooby Doo costume. Daphne was with me and said, "Wouldn't it be fun if I were Daphne for Halloween?" Knowing we had PIGWAB to plan for next year, I thought, "hey that could be fun...." and I picked up the costume for $8 or something like that.

Then, while chatting with the mom of one of my students, she mentioned that they did a family scooby doo thing for Halloween that year, and offered me their costumes!!! So we had Shaggy, Velma, Daphne, Scooby and I just had to come up with something to make Isaac Freddie. (About which he was completely NOT enthusiastic)

To complete the look, I set about to make a Mystery Machine out of cardboard and butcher paper, and I think it made our entrance quite dramatic and funny!!

Shaggy and Velma

(Isn't my Matt the best? his pants were way too small for him 'cause he's so ginormously tall and I know he was super uncomfortable the whole time- I love you, Matt!) :

Daphne walked around that morning in her costume saying, "You can just call me by my regular name."

I know we totally slacked on getting enough pics of our costumes, which I plan to recitfy on Halloween. (with the exception of Isaac, whom I promised he would never have to wear that again!)

Here's Matt's oldest sister, Paige and her crew as the crow and scarecrows:

Matt's brother Jude and his family are now a group of 7 thanks to the birth of Savannah Rae this Summer, so they went with the best known group of 7 around, The Dwarves!:

Somehow my picture of Rae & Dave's crew got deleted, so you may have missed this pic. The Johnsons have a Star Wars kind of life going on... they even named their second son, Luke Skywalker. Seriously.
So, it was pretty natural for them to work with that- all their costumes are amazing, but Penny's is my favorite- I heart her wig!!

Matt's parents were Pirates, which was a little disturbing if you ask me. I mean, Marsha is like the quintessential maternal figure and seeing her with skulls on her head just felt a little wrong. Their costumes were incredible, though... they looked great- I laughed every time I looked at them!

Here is Uncle Jeff, who was dressed as a "Chick Magnet" , surrounded by all the chicks!

These are disgusting little witch treats I made for the kids. We had some issues with them... a lot of the problem was that I made them in the tiny sliver of time between carving the pumpkins, writing a lesson plan, fixing dinner and performing in Women at the Well. So, I just let it go. They are kind of lame, but it was a fun idea....

Since those were sooo gross, I made pumpkin bread for the grown ups and anyone with taste buds.

After about one hour in our costumes, we were sort of done. Our wigs were itchy and we didn't want to mess them up while we were eating, so we changed. Isaac couldn't have been happier.

Daphne had some makeup on to go with ther costume, and despite much discussion regarding crying and mascara, she got upset and has very dark mascara issues going on here... but anyway, in these pics they are decorating pumpkins, the activity brought by Jill, our adopted sister who comes to PIGWAB faithfully every year. She is one of the sweet, dear missionaries who taught Matt's uncle Jeff and helped bring his aunt VaLoy back to the gospel, for that we are intensely grateful and she has become such a sweet part of our family. Jill was an expert nanny for years and always brings the most fun things for the kids to do. I can't believe I don't have a picture of her or VaLoy! I guess I have officially become one of those mothers who only takes pictures of her own children.

Auntie Val also made thes darling trick or treat bags

which are so sturdy and the kids will be able to use them for years. We LOVE them!

Matt and I brought our traditional game, Bobbing for Apples. We figured that this is our last year of weather warm enough for the game. Sydney was a brave soul and started us off:

Matt was brave and fast!! I think he got one in like 35 seconds or something...

Raegan made an amazing spider pinata and the kids had a blast trying to destroy it...

(yes- my child is wearing socks with sandals. I had to give in to get her to wear her costume, which of course she wanted to wear non-stop until I needed her to wear it.)

Isaac did some serious damage...

Then we had pumpkin bowling... which I think was Jude and Natalie's game...

Victoria had a hard time keeping her pumpkin on course- I think she has my sense of accuracy and aim.

Auntie Val brought this fun game...

you are supposed to sit back like this, put an oreo on your head and get it into your mouth using only your face muscles. It was sooo hard! Marsha was the fastest and the expert at this task!

Soooo... have I mentioned how much Victoria adores Abby (she's Jude and Natalie's oldest daughter)? For some reason, almost a year ago now, Victoria just attached herself to Abby. It was around the time she started saying Abby's name. I remember taking her to Costco and she just sat in the cart singing "Abby, Abby, Abby, Abby". It was so adorable. (It must have been a while ago, because she never stays in the cart anymore).

Now, when we go over to Marsha's, Tori follows her around like a little puppy dog. Abby is so sweet and patient with her, helping her and teaching her new things. We love Abby and are so grateful for her taking Tori under her wing!

So, in honor of his Shaggy costume, Matt shaved off the top part of his goatee. The next day, he went ahead and shaved the rest off so we could see his face for once. So here he is, all bare-faced:

You know how you always hear stories about kids seeing their dads with or without facial hair for the first time and they freak out or cry or whatever? Well, Matt has had his goatee for about 7 years and we were really curious what would happen. So, I prepared myself for their reaction, especially Tori, who is always a little wary of new things.

So, Sunday morning I got them all ready downstairs and cued up the video camera when Matt came down the stairs. And do you know what they did?

Nothing.

Tori ran right up and asked him to read her a story. And the other kids thought he looked just fine. It was rather anticlimactic. Kind of like this anecdote.

All in all, we had a magnificent PIGWAB! We had a blast and are so thankful to Auntie Val and Marsha for all the hard work and effort to make such a wonderful time for all of us. I know the kids will have magnificent memories!

My Girls

I love having two girls. I love all three of my sweet children, of course, but it is definitely fun to watch these two sisters. Girls seem to be so much more unabashed with their affections (not to say that they aren't equally as demonstrative with their anger, as well) . Some mornings they wake up screaming at each other, but most mornings they wake up happy to be sisters... all snuggly like this: So here they are sporting their new "Sisters" shirts. I'm such a sucker for coordinating outfits. And Gymboree.
Anyway, the night before this, they were choosing their clothes for school the next day and the girls conspired to wear these. Tori is super easy to convince; she loves matchin' with anyone in the family.
After they layed everything out, Daphne ran into the bathroom where Isaac was dutifully brushing his teeth and said, " Hey, Isaac! Sisters ROCK! and tomorrow I'll prove it!" Then she looked at me and winked.
I love that sassy girl!!
And her little sister, too.