Aaahh, October. One of our busiest months ever. It is ALWAYS like that, partly because of our own family stuff and traditions, and partly because Halloween is AWESOME, and everyone wants to get in on that fun.
This October was a little brutal for me, though. I was deep into the first trimester of pregnancy, and definitely feeling all the fatigue, non-motivation, and nausea and food aversions. My poor kids had a lame mom for October. But they were thrilled with all the unexpected TV they were getting to watch every. single. day. I couldn't muster up the energy and drive to keep the TV off; I'd just turn something on for an hour and a half (or sometimes more), and doze on the couch. And, as usually happens, the kids loved it, but were little monsters thereafter.
Despite feeling gross a lot of the time, and not feeling like eating almost ever, we still did all the fun October things, and even threw in a few new things this time.
Our traditional Halloween Feast was as fun and spooky as ever. We had bones and scarobs (as we do almost every year), Jack o'Lantern Pie, graveyard dip, and some kind of beverage. It was delightful. And for our movie selection this year, we watched the Winnie the Pooh Halloween Movie (which title I have forgotten).
There's this fun carnival-type event here, right over by Thanksgiving Point Farm, called Cornbellys. It's only here for the end of September, October and the first weekend of November. And basically it's a big corn maze+carnival games+play places for the kids+tons of food. We had to go at least once, and ended up going twice so that Daniel could come with us once, and it was really fun and way bigger and more involved than I'd originally thought! There were so many activities and games and little play areas for the kids, and so much yummy food. The corn maze was more intense than we bargained for. We really got lost, and were in there for at least half an hour. But the kids loved it. And they asked to go back to Cornbellys over and over thereafter.
Brian and Sammy invited us to go apple picking towards the beginning of the month, before the first freeze. There's a little farm right in the middle of American Fork that's a U-pick, and we went and picked some apples and a bunch of peaches, we got a little wagon ride, and some fun pictures in the pumpkin patch. It was fun! I'd like to do it again next year!
Camille and I had our birthdays, of course. Hers was epic. Mine was lame. We threw her a birthday party the day before her birthday and invited a bunch of her little friends, and some neighbor kids. They all dressed in their Halloween costumes, of course, and we played Halloween style party games (pin the nose on the witch, Halloween Bingo, Where's Waldo, Balloon Pop, etc.), the kids painted a Halloween craft, and we had cake and presents. It was very fun! I think the kids' favorite part was Halloween Bingo, because they asked to play it over and over again. We even had fun prizes for the winners (and losers) of all the games. It really was a fun party.
On Camille's actual birthday, which fell on a Sunday, we had a big family dinner and invited everyone over here for homemade pizza, among other things. We invited all the family closeby, and got a much bigger group than we'd expected. Luckily, we had plenty of food, and it was so fun to have so many people come.
Since I wasn't feeling good in October, I just laid around on my birthday. Brooke was off school for some reason, so the kids just played and I let them watch TV, and I just vegged all day. Daniel brought Thai food home for dinner (which is what I requested), and that was about it.
Daniel and I were put in charge of heading up the committee for planning the Ward Halloween Party. It was fun and slightly stressful to be in charge of such a HUGE ward activity. It's one of the best-attended parties, and we wanted to make it great. Luckily, we got a really good committee to work with us, we split up all the parts, and almost everyone did their parts well. We planned the chili cook-off and added a Mac and Cheese cook-off as well; there were carnival games with prizes, a cake walk, and costume contest. And it was a huge hit! Everyone loved it, from what I heard.
Trick-or-Treating was quite different this year. First of all, it was FREEZING that week, so our poor kids in their costumes were so cold. Also, I really missed our normal Halloween tradition from California, gathering with our friends for dinner and then trick-or-treating together. We went trick-or-treating with some of our neighbors here, which was fun, especially for the kids. But I still missed our friends back in CA. Jack and I cut our trick-or-treating early, so that I could take him to bed, and also because Brian and Sammy were coming over for dinner and games. Daniel and the girls got back a while after we did, and it took some work to settle them down enough for bed. And then we played a quick game before Brian and Sammy had to take Cap to bed.
It was a fun October!
