Trick or Treat - for real

It felt good to be HOME for halloween, trick or treating with the Schwendimans, back in the 'hood'. The kids loved being together again, running from house to house. I just love chatting with Shelley and Neil, and surprising neighbors at their doors that I haven't seen for a couple of years.



If you look in the background behind mason, you'll see our old house. We wanted to trick or treat there so we could peak inside, but nobody was home.



Chelsea got to spend the evening hanging out with Sarah and Taylor. They went to help out at their church party, went to the haunted corn maze (which Chelsea swore she would never do again but found herself there anyway), and then back to the Castros for movies until I came and snatched her back to reality.

Driving crazy

Grandma called last month and said "we just bought a car that we'll let Chelsea drive". When I told her, she couldn't contain her excitement! Then I told her the rest of the details. hahaha She loved it anyway and she's a natural at it. I was a little nervous as I watched Mason take off with Ethan. I was sure they were going to crash into eachother. Cord also loved it and kept wanting to take more turns. Trouble is that the steering wheel is very sensative and Cord likes to help drive. We were all over the place. Brianna missed out because she got to go to a friends birthday party, but I'm sure we'll drive again. I'm even thinking it would be a fun birthday party for Cord. He loves cars!

Jumping Jax

How should we let the kids get out their energy while waiting to go trick or treating??? We let them run and jump for 2 hours. We were celebrating Caleb's birthday at Jumping Jax this morning. What's funny is that this is in the building that Mike was working in before he went to law school. The company closed their doors a few months after he quit. So it was ironic to be in that building again 2 years later. It was full of bounce houses and slides and the kids could do as much as they wanted for as long as they wanted. Cool! They were tired when we were done.

Trick or treat - practice

We had a lot of time to "practice" trick or treating. First the kids and daddy went to our wards trunk or treat on tuesday (I had to work). Then we travelled to Utah on thursday to spend the weekend with cousins. On Friday we went to Uncle Eric's law office to get candy, then trick or treated around the halls at Skywest where grandpa works. The kids got sooooo much candy there and it was fun to show off the grandkids. Then that night we went with grandma and grandpa to their trunk or treat to top off our bags. We had so much we didn't need to go out saturday night, although I don't think the kids would have let me get away with that. We had to buy Mason a new bag because his was so heavy it was falling apart. We emptied Cords bag into another so he could start over on saturday. Good thing Chelse is willing to "help" Cord take care of his candy :)




Cords bag got so heavy he couldn't carry it so he just dragged it. It took a long time to get through the halls of skywest because Cord and Caleb had to stop and hold hands between each cubbie. We cherished this moment because in the past they have usually fought creating a lot of time-out opportunities for each of them. It's nice to see them becoming friends. We didn't plan for the Buzz lightyear/ Woody (cowboy) combo but it turned out good.

Most of the grandkids with grandpa - Don't you love the Pullsbury doughboy? His costume was a big hit everywhere we went!


Mason's at our ward trunk or treat with Nicholas and Thomas. Cord is getting used to his cowboy duds!

Going to school with grandma

Mason is off track for the month of October, which means he misses out on all the fun halloween things at school. I felt bad because Elementary is the fun time to wear your costume to school and participate in a costume parade and this is his last year. Because we had "nevada day" off of school, we decided to head home and crash grandma's school parties. The kids got to help out at school which they LOVE! Cord walked around with grandma and waved to everyone. He was loving it! Mason walked around with his cousin, Ethan. His class put together a haunted classroom that we got to walk through. It was fun to be at school with grandma.

Carvin Pumpkins

I work the next three nights and then we are headed up to St. George for Halloween so tonight was a good night to have some family time and carve our pumpkins. The boys each picked their pumpkins yesterday at the pumpkin patch. That's why Cords is so small, he wanted to carry it himself. Brianna wanted to make her pumpkin a cowgirl to match her costume like she did last year (ie, pirate theme). They all did a great job and did most of the work on their own. Cord thought his was a cool puzzle as he put the pieces in and out of his jack-o-lantern. Mason always wants to make his "dead" and stick all the carving tools in it. It's like a tradition and he loves it. Either way our house smells like burning pumpkin right now but that's OK.








HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Pumpkin patch take 2

Finally, the wind wasn't blowing and i'm not working so the boys and I decided to try the pumpkin patch again this afternoon. The girls didn't want to join us for our halloween festivities. I still have a hard time remembering that they are teenagers and it's not cool to do "baby stuff" with mom all the time. I just want to have all my kids with me having a fun experience. But I can't let that stop me from doing fun things with the little ones like I did with the girls when they were little. I have to let that go. So we did and we had a nice time. I was surprised that Cord wanted to do the bigger rides instead of the bounce house things. But Cord laughed infectiously the whole time he was on the ride. Mason even did the bungie jump ride. He was excited, then scared, then happy he did it. He went so High! Cord and I laughed at him the whole time. After our tickets were spent the boys picked a pumpkin to take home and carve later.