HALLOWEEN AND TURNING TWO

Last week was a crazy one for us. My husband and I are the ward Activities Committee Chairpeople, which means we got to plan the ward Halloween party. We survived with only mild to moderate marital strife. Our ward always does trick or treating door-to-door inside the church building. We ask the members of the ward to come decorate a door and pass out candy to the kids. Because we are in a student ward, there are only 4 kids in the primary (our 4 1/2 year old is the oldest). Then, we served dinner (soup and bread bowls) and showed a Halloween cartoon for the kids. Sounds pretty simple, right? Well, let me tell you something. There are a little over 50 families in the ward. We planned enough food for 80-90 adults (our ward activities have crazy turn-outs). We ran out of all the food. We set up tables and chairs to accomodate 96. We had to set up more. Every door inside the church (except the chapel doors, of course) were decorated. And the extra people just sat in the hallway and handed candy out as the kids walked past. Have you ever hosted a party for over 100 people? It is pure madness. But, it was so much fun. We were so glad to have that many come and just about everyone, adults included, dressed up. But, because I was just a tad busy that night, I only got one picture of my kids in their costumes. So, here it is:
Apparently, we were so busy with the ward party that we didn't have time to do great costumes for our kids. We just randomly bought these at Wal-Mart and called it good. My son is supposed to be the Itsy Bitsy Spider (why he's wearing a tuxedo, I can't figure out). There were white gloves that attached to the other spider arms to make them move when my son moved his arms, but he wouldn't wear the gloves, so the fake spider arms just hung at his sides. Also, that is supposed to be a top hat, but the size 3/4T was way too small for my 2 year old's giant head. I actually had to cut a slit up the back just to get the thing on him. My daughter is a Spider Princess. It is actually a witch of some sort, but she wouldn't even consider wearing it until we told her it was a princess. And, once I showed her the tights and mask, she was all in. Man, you know they are bad costumes when you have to give this much explanation for them! In keeping with the spider theme, my husband and I dressed as spider webs. I'm glad I don't have a picture of those because they were really, really bad. So, we are glad that Halloween is over! Now we can move on to the really good holidays.

For example, my son's second birthday. I have promised myself that just because his birthday immediately follows Halloween, he will never have a Halloween themed birthday party. Of course, after all the madness with the ward party, I woke up the next morning I realized I hadn't planned any kind of party for him at all! So, we just did a family thing for him. It was actually really nice and low-key and he had a total blast. First, we did donuts for breakfast (because I was craving them). He picked about 4 or 5 sprinkles off the top of his and then announced that he was "Ah Duh." I love that he doesn't put the last letter sound on any of his words. Anyway, we let him open his presents after breakfast so he could play with them all day. That kid got so much stuff I have no idea what I'm going to do for him for Christmas.

After that, we had a pretty normal day. The kids just played like crazy. The train set is a huge hit. He can't say train, so he calls it a "chugga chugga choo choo." I think just saying "train" would be a whole lot easier, but whatever. My daughter stayed home from school that day because she was sick, but she really said that she couldn't go because it was her brother's birthday and she wanted to be with him. I thought that was pretty sweet. I spent the majority of the afternoon making the Elmo cake and then I was so stressed about decorating it and tired from all the work that we decided to go out to dinner. We asked the Birthday Boy what he wanted to eat and he said, "Kix." You know, like the cereal. So, we decided a two year old was not allowed to choose and Mom (with her never ending pregnancy cravings) choose our favorite Mexican restaurant. Then, we came home and had cake and ice cream and the kids went to bed. I was actually sad for the day to end. We had a lot of fun as a family and my son was so into it and just knew that this was a special day. He was really cute and excited about everything we did.

It certainly was a crazy week, I'm glad it's over, and I can't wait for next year!