Friend Birthday

 

Since Meili was turning the big 5 this year, I decided it was time for a friend birthday party. We invited a few of her friends that there moms are really my friends-so therefore, she friends with them, we invited a couple cousins, and a few friends from preschool (which was pretty tricky since I have never met their moms, and just had to take her word for it that she was good friends with them.) But since she spends a good amount of time with them every week, and talks about them, I decided it was worth to see if they could come. When all was said and done, we ended up with 8 little people in my house on Friday afternoon (and Grant when he woke up from his nap.)

Of course, with Meili's birthday being on Halloween, costumes are a must. I love seeing all the kids in their cute costumes. 

 The pictures are out of order, but we played some games: Pin the face on the Jack-o-Lantern, Pass the Pumpkin, Bingo, and Four Corners. I had lots of ideas for fun Halloween foods, but since I feel like kids load up on too many treats anyway the week of Halloween, I decided to do healthier foods instead of treats and cake and ice cream.

 

 

 We had banana ghosts, hotdog mummies, spiders on logs, bug juice and olives (that look Halloweeny :) (Really the skewers were supposed to have olive, cheese, olive, cheese, but my cheese froze so when I tried to cut it, it crumbled.) Aside from that mishap, the food went as well as I could have hoped.

And yes, kids have too much sugar, but they still need a treat at a birthday party. So we decorated sugar cookies :) because that's what I do for everything. (Every holiday, for activity days, and for birthday parties.) Overall, everything went as well as I could have expected. William didn't want to leave his mom at first, but it was his first birthday party, and he did eventually warm up, and Isaac was mad when he realized that Meili was the only one opening presents, but besides that, I thought it was a lot of fun. I love watching Meili grow up, and enter into this new stage of life!

Carving Pumpkins

 This year we decided to free-hand our pumpkins. I had gotten this long skinny pumpkin that I was excited about. Originally I was going to write "Happy Halloween," then I decided that was too big and would take too long, so it was going to be "Halloween," until I got to the O and decided there was no way. So "Hallows" it is.

 Josh is the world's fastest pumpkin carver. He had 3 faces carved out of two pumpkins, in the time that it took me to scoop the guts out of Meili's. I tried to stick to the face that Meili drew on her pumpkin as much as possible. Her's in the top one.

 And Josh carved this face on one side of Grant's and Mike Wazowski on the other side. Grant spent his time climbing on the table trying to stab pumpkins with as many sharp objects as he could. Meili drew the face on her pumpkin and helped carve a little bit of it. None of them would have anything to do with the guts inside though.

 It's worth it to carve pumpkins just to get pictures of Grant in that shirt, right?

Halloween Traditions

I said in one of my earlier posts how much I love this time of year and all the family traditions. These pictures aren't quite in order because this was the Monday before Halloween, but I was too lazy to switch them around.

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 We went to the corn maze at the American West Heritage Center. Luckily they also had some smaller things for the kids to do, because you can only keep kids interested, and in sight for so long in a dark corn maze.

 Then, earlier in the month, we went to the Halloweenie Roast. There is a family in our ward, whose parents put on an event every year. It's free, and so cute, and they have a barrel train, a wagon ride, a campfire to roast marshmallows, and other cute things to see. The kids love it!

 

 The pictures don't show it, but Grant couldn't get enough of the barrel train. He would get in his car, and wouldn't make a sound. He was mesmerized. (Until it was time to get off. Then he would throw a fit!)

 That looks more like it!

 We got so many pumpkins this year that we painted some and carved others.

 We had a hard time deciding costumes this year. I figured that Grant is young enough that he wouldn't really care, so we probably should just find something that we could borrow from someone rather than buying it. But I couldn't resist when we saw this Paw Patrol costume at Sam's Club. Grant is currently OBSESSED (did I say obsessed) with Paw Patrol. Even after buying it, however, I was nervous that he would like the idea of it more than actually wearing it. Nope! He loves it. He loves the hat, he loves the backpack, he loves it. He's excited to put it on, and he's sad when he has to take it off. It's funny though because this character's name is Marshall, and that's the only one of the names that Grant can't say. But it was the costume that I thought was cutest. So he just calls it "Fire truck."

 The first time that Meili saw his costume, she said, "Aw! Cute!" So now everytime Grant sees it, he says, "Aw, toot!" It is pretty "toot" if I do say so myself.

 And then, there's Meili. Aye, yi, yi... This girl is going to be the death of me someday. She has so many opinions. I think I brought it on myself by giving her so many choices, and making her a part of the decision making process, and now we're paying for it. I told her in the spring that I wanted her to be Cindy Lou Who, and she said she was fine with it. (We even said that Grant could be the Grinch, which he would be so good at:) Then she decided that she wanted to be Elsa, and I told her that she could basically choose anything but Elsa. Then there was Hildy from the TV show the 7D. Then there was a genie from the show Shimmer and Shine. I was pretty excited about that one, and we even went to Joann with my mom to pick out fabric for the costume. Then she decided that she wanted pink hair, and a beautiful dress. So she said Aurora, but I said that she doesn't have pink hair. Then we went back to Elsa. Finally she narrowed it down to a fairy and the choices she gave me were an evil fairy, a pirate fairy, a butterfly fairy or a vegetarian fairy. Yeah. You heard me. A vegetarian fairy! So... I decided to take the butterfly fairy and run with it, before she could change her mind again. 

We tie-dyed a shirt, made a tutu, and a headband, and she had some tights that went along with the colors, + some dollar store wings, and Ta Da! We have a butterfly fairy!

 Another favorite tradition is always the Pumpkin Walk. Between the displays, the bus ride, and hot chocolate afterward, pretty much nothing spells fall for me like the Pumpkin Walk. On the way in, Meili said, "This is going to the best day ever!" Oh, everything's more fun with the kiddos! Sadly, the enthusiasm lasted like two displays before she said, "Let's go do the fun stuff." (The little wood board picture cutouts.)

 This was the display that The Family Place (AKA: The Child and Family Support Center, AKA: where I used to work) made. I thought it was cute!

 And now we have... Peter Pan...

 ... and Wendy

 I don't know why, but I find it amusing that Meili is the one offering Psychiatric advice. Probably the same reason my dad teases me about a career in Psychology.

 I have these exact same two pictures from the last two years as well.

 Just a couple more stragglers from the Halloweenie Roast. That car looks so much smaller when Josh is in it, than when Grant is.

Build a Bear (or Unicorn)

 Meili has been telling me for MONTHS that she wanted to go to Build-a-Bear workshop for her birthday. So I promised her we would and a couple weeks ago, we made it happen. I knew it would be more expensive than your average stuffed animal, but I wasn't prepared for how much more expensive-and therefore, did not prepare Josh nearly enough. So now we have a very expensive, very well loved addition to our family. And hopefully she will stick around for awhile, because it's probably never happening again.

 It was pretty cute to see Meili help put the stuffing inside her new Princess Celestia, and they do a little ceremony when they put the heart inside. The pony has a birth certificate, and my parents came with us, which makes everything in Meili's life more fun. They made a big deal out of her birthday and gave her a certificate.

 Meili picked the exact opposite as I would have for everything. I would have gotten the Chuck Taylor's and roller skates, but she got the little pink pumps. She is so.... true to herself. There's not even a way to describe Meili in one word, but she is true to herself.

And here she is admiring her new friend. So far Princess Celestia goes just about wherever Meili goes. Sadly, when we ask her what she wants for Christmas, she still says, "A fluffy Unicorn." I was hoping Princess Celestia would suffice, but apparently because she can't actually ride the Unicorn, we will need to be on the search for another one for Christmas.