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!