Happy Halloween!

I'll admit it...I'm a Halloween Scrooge.  Really.  I hate Halloween--the costumes, the seeming celebration of all things evil, and the silly trunk-or-treat thing.  Why do we do that even in years when Halloween doesn't fall on Sunday?  Anyway, in spite of my dislike, my children LOVE Halloween.  I have to convince them not to get out decorations before October 1st, and they think the candy bowl needs to be filled ALL MONTH LONG.  Because of their enthusiasm, I am developing some family traditions around this holiday that I can live with.

We eat cheese fondue for dinner.

We make Halloween treats.

I help them with their costumes well in advance, so they don't have too much stress about what they are going to wear.  And in Texas, we don't have to dress for cold or rain.  Nice!

This year we even made some new decorations for the walkway.

I've tried really hard not to rain on their Halloween parade.

I'm even letting them keep ALL their candy this year.

Our First Halloween Party

I've hosted several adult dinner parties this year, so I thought I would let the kids see me put the same time and effort into a party for them.

Inspired by my friend, Tiffany, I decided to let the children host a Halloween party.  With help, they planned it, delivered the invitations, and helped me get ready and set everything up.

We invited three boys Seth's age, and seven girls that are right around the ages of my girls.

They all came in their costumes.

We played games...

and musical chairs...

and Halloween Bingo.

Yay for Target and their $5 party games.  Makes party planning really easy!

Then we decorated yummy pumpkin sugar cookies, which with 13 kids is pretty messy, but they loved it.  Some of those cookies were so loaded with frosting and candy, they were disgusting.

We ended with "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" in the movie room with popcorn.

Our party was a hit, and a great time was had by all.

By the way, this was a GREAT group of kids.  We feel really blessed to be in this ward.  Our kids are making some fabulous friends.

South Padre Island, Texas

It's been over a month since Grandma and Grandpa went to the beach with us, and they haven't nagged me too much about getting the pictures up.

When I was about 14, my grandparents bought a share in a condo down near Newport, Oregon.  My cousins and brothers and sister and I all spent lots of vacations down there--together, separately, with or without Grandma and Grandpa.  We all have very fond memories--going into Newport for chowder and candy, searching for treasures in the tidepools down on the beach, watching storms through the big picture windows, learning to swim in the pool, feeding buckwheat pancakes to the seagulls from the balcony, and wandering all over the property with Grandpa.  After I got married and had kids, I was fortunate to have a few more trips to the condo with my own family.  What I loved most was the feeling that we had all the time in the world when we were at the beach.

I want my kids to have memories of the beach like that, so we invited my parents to come to South Padre with us.  I found a condo right on the beach, and we spent three days on the beach, going into town for lunch, and swimming in the pool.  However, I did not know my dad liked playing in the water!  It was always too cold at the Oregon coast.  I was surprised to see him spend hours letting the surf crash over him, but the water in the Gulf of Mexico is like bathwater.  We always say, "Hey, it isn't Hawaii, but the beaches are sandy, and the water is warm."  Going down after Labor Day also meant we had the beach almost to ourselves.

And it felt like we had all the time in the world.

This is how John likes to vacation--holding the kite for the kids.

Ellie kept practicing her "pirate face."  ARRGGGH!

I had never seen pelicans in real life before, but they are all over the

South coast.