Tuesday, November 01, 2011

A Fabulous Halloween Weekend!

It sure was one heck of a Halloween weekend!

Friday night was going to be low-key, hang out at home and relax. Yeah, not so much. Kylie and Josh’s class Halloween parties were Friday afternoon, so John and I took some time off work and headed over to the school (along with my dad) and bounced between the classes (I think we spent more time walking the hallways than actually in the parties, but whatever). After the parties, Kylie’s BFF Rachel came over (she was spending the night) and Josh’s friend Merritt came over for a playdate. Kylie and Rachel set up a spa for me that included a foot bath/massage, a real massage, and make-up!

The afternoon/evening was going great, kids were playing, having fun, and apparently that triggers something in us (John specifically) to mix it up a bit. He suggested that the girls go to open gym at Kylie’s gymnastics. They have a neat thing on Friday nights that lets you pay a small fee and kids get to play on all the equipment for an hour and a half. Once Josh heard that Ky and Rachel were going, he wanted to go, so we called up our neighbor/friend Noah and he went with him. So my dad stayed with Ryan and Colton (who had gone to sleep a little earlier) and we loaded up the car and took the kids to Buckeye. We dropped them off and headed to the grocery store to pick up stuff for our little get-together the next night. After that we needed to meet someone to get adult flags for Josh’s football practice the next morning, so we waited around for this person for a very long time, and by the time we were done with our errands, it was time to pick the kids up! So we loaded them all back into the car and took everyone home and put everyone to bed!

The next morning John and Josh headed out to football practice and worked around the house getting ready for the people that were coming over later that night. When John and Josh got home, Kylie and I headed out to get her some fangs and then to exchange a hair dryer I had gotten. We stopped at the Halloween store and the fangs that would work for her were $17, so I told her we would wait and look some other places first. Went to another store and didn’t find anything. Then went to Ulta to pick up some make-up and exchange my dryer. Kylie got some cool make-up put on that would go with her costume later that night. Then they told me that they didn’t have any more of the hair dryer that I wanted, but another store did (that happens to be over by where I work, about 25 minutes from my house!). The coupon expired that day, so we had to go, even though we were running so late!

We got over to the other Ulta store and got the dryer. We quickly went into another Halloween store and found the same fangs that we had seen earlier (except they were $3 more here!) and Kylie agreed they would be good. We walked up to check out and the line was wrapped around the store! Now we had been in 3 Halloween stores, and this was the only one with such an obnoxious line! We had no choice but to get in it :( Thankfully, I think we only waited about 15 minutes, and in all we were only about ½ late to the party…thankfully John was home and had the food ready to go for everyone!

After we all ate dinner we got the kids in their costumes and headed into downtown Powell for Candy by the Carload. Local businesses dressed up and handed candy out of their trunks to all the kids. It was chilly, but not super cold, and all the kids seemed to have a great time. After we were done there, we went back home and the guys all watched the Buckeye game, the kids played downstairs, and us girls sat in the kitchen and chatted about Pinterest :) It was so fun that the last people didn’t leave until around 11:00!

Sunday we headed to church (we were definitely pretty tired!) and then back home for lunch and naps. Our nanny Miss G. came over to watch the kiddos so that I could watch Joshie’s football game with NO INTERRUPTIONS!!! It was awesome! The only downside was that they lost :( But Joshie had a touchdown catch and some flag pulls, so he had a good game.

After the football game we headed home and John surprised Josh and Ryan with tickets to the CBJ game! They got dressed up (it was “kids in costume get in free with adult”) and headed out. I played with Colton for a while, talked to Kylie while she worked on her projects, and finally put Colton down for bed around 7:00. Then Kylie and I started making the food for our Halloween potluck. Kylie peeled the carrots and chopped the celery with a sharp knife! After we were all done with the food, she got ready for bed and then we played Uno and Boggle. I had such a great time hanging out with her! And I love that she’s old enough to play some fun games :)

She went to bed around 8:45, and as I was cleaning up and thinking I would get to sit and relax, Colton decided he wanted to get up and play. So he and I got some one-on-one time together :) John and the boys got home around 9:30 and they told me all about the fun time they had! John put them to bed and then he and Colton had some fun playing together.

Monday was another crazy day! I left work 2 hours early and headed home to get ready for our Halloween/trick-or-treating night. And of course, as I was loading the kids up in the stroller to pick Josh and Ky up from school it started raining! So I covered Colton up, gave Ryan and umbrella, and off we went! When we got home, I threw everyone’s clothes/coats into the dryer. Then we started getting costumes on and food ready. I made a Buffalo Chicken Chili in the crockpot that turned out really good! All the neighbors participating filed into our garage (we had the header going) and the kids ate dinner. After dinner it was time for pictures, and then off we went to get candy! Thankfully the rain was gone, the sun was out (setting, but out) and it wasn’t as cold as it could have been!

As usual, we stayed together through the first half of our neighborhood, and then the dads followed the big kids as they took off and my neighbor and I stayed back with our little ones. It was so neat to see how much difference a year made with Ryan! Last year he was so slow and it was such a struggle, but this year he was off and running and kept up with Zora! After they were done we headed back to the house and sat in the heated garage and drank hot chocolate and ate dinner while the little kids played.

The big kids stayed out until 8:00 and then came home and dumped their candy out on the kitchen table like last year. I can’t believe how much candy they got! It filled up three large bowls! I got everyone some awesome Nutella hot chocolate (tasted fabulous!) and slowly the kids trickled out to go home and get ready for bed. After our kids were in bed John and I cleaned up the house (the cleaners came today) and then crashed!

Another fabulous Halloween down in the books!




















1 comment:

Sherry said...

Dang girl how on earth do you do it all and still remain so calm and carefree??? You are totally amazing and know what? That composure, fun, awesomness ( is that a word? should be if it isn't) is going to trickle down to each of your kids. They too are going to be amazing adults with tons of love to give everyone!!!
Love all the pictures!!