Costume Party

Halloween is such a fun time of year and having little children around has made dressing up so much more fun for me!  Sadly, I was unable to convince my little family to dressed up together in a theme this year, but you'd better believe we will next year! Anyhow, M was a very convincing Darth Vader--he swapped his Storm Trooper costume from last year with his best bud's costume from last year--and added a fun little push button Darth voice to his mask; Li'l J was Batman, in a costume we got on clearance last year the day after Halloween (which he could hardly wait through the year to wear!); and C-sta (who is a full-fledged walker now!!) was our little ladybug in a costume J-rod picked out and insisted she wear (it's so-o cute how when he makes up his mind about something regarding his little girl...there is NO changing it!).

As the date for our ward trunk-or-treat activity approached, M's concern for my not having a costume increased.  Finally the day of, about an hour before we were to head on over to the activity, I threw something together (using inspiration from what I was wearing that day) and I came up with:

A BYU SUPER fan!

Too bad BYU forgot to show up for their HOMECOMING game against TCU that night--UGH!  By the end of the night I was a devastated BYU super fan, sigh.

M and Li'l J in the costume parade

Zippy the SUPER fan w/C-sta our sweet little ladybug,

with a very creative Lady Liberty behind us.

The COOLEST Batman around!

Trunk-or-treat!

Thanks to our AWESOME ward activities committee, our ward trunk-or-treat activity was so much fun--you guys did an great job putting on a fabulous party, thank you!!  We had a yummy chili-cook off, a fun costume parade and contest--it was so neat to see SO many adults get creative and dress up along with their cute kids!--fun games on the courtyard, and of course, lots of families that passed out TONS of candy from the trunk of their cars.

On Halloween night ready to got trick-or-treating

Halloween weekend, J-rod's awesome brother D, his beautiful wife M, and their CUTE 4-month old son li'l C came down to celebrate Halloween with us--SO fun! We went out to lunch with them, played lots of games with them and then they went trick-or-treating with J-rod and the kids while a friend and I stayed back on our driveway to hand out candy to the massive waves of trick-or-treaters in some cool costumes. 

Since my SUPER fan costume didn't bring BYU any luck the week before and since Halloween was a bye week for BYU, and since M really wanted me to dress up on Halloween, I decided to go a totally different direction with my costume.  Drawing inspiration from a GIANT glittery bouncy ball we found at the store the day before, this is what I came up with...again, kind of at the last minute:

Madam Zippy iz re-dy to tell you your for-chun now

Baby C: the CUTEST little 3-eyed monster EVER!; Uncle D;

Batman; Madam Zippy; Darth, & our little ladybug

If you noticed that the picture above seems a bit smoky, it's because our neighbors had a fog machine going and the slight breeze in the air was blowing the fog our way.  Madam Zippy didn't mind however as it added an awesome effect to her mysterious fortune telling persona.  Notice my fortune telling table in the background?  I kept my 'crystal' ball in the bowl of candy and got some pretty fun responses from many of our trick-or-treaters that really bought into my get-up! When I told one girl that I saw lots of candy in her future, she said, "REALLY?? How do you know?" Ha, ha!  I had a few little guys ask if they could touch my crystal ball and one that wanted to take it home with him!

It's a good thing we put glow-in the dark necklaces and bracelets on the kids because in the confusion of getting everyone ready to go trick-or-treating, Li'l J decided the rest of us were taking too long and he couldn't wait for us.  Li'l J joined up with some random group of trick-or-treaters and started heading down the street gathering candy from about four houses before we noticed he was gone and finally spotted him thanks to his bright blue necklace!  Oh what a scare he gave me!  The kids had a lot of fun trick-or-treating (and by 'kids' not only do I mean the little ones, but the big ones too--especially Uncle D!) 

Li'l C-sta discovered that she especially like Kit-Kat's.  By the end of the night, our little ladybug who had been wheeled around in her big red carriage by her dad, had gotten into her treat bucket and made her way through TWO mini Kit-Kat's...notice in the picture below, how not only how happy she is, but how she is literally COVERED in chocolate from HEAD to TOE!!  Some how C-sta even managed to get chocolate all over the soles of her shoes as well as the inside of her red carriage--this of course made J-rod and Uncle D very squeamish as they come froma long line of members in the S family that CANNOT stand the least degree of sticky on a child!  Thank you Aunt M for stepping up and stepping in to help me get C-sta ready for her bath that night--you're a angel!

All in all, what a fun Halloween we had and we're so glad that Uncle D, Aunt M, and cousin C could join us for the fun!

Since I didn't manage to get a close-up of baby C in is cute costume on Halloween, how about a couple pics from the next day as we were all hanging out before they had to head home?

Aww--Daddy's whittle guy!

He is just SO sweet, with the BEST disposition!

We all enjoyed meeting cousin C!  Not having been around too many children younger than her, at first I was a little concerned about how C-sta might resond to baby C...I needn't have worried.  Most kids C-sta's age just don't have the coordination yet to keep their little hands from inadvertantly coming down too hard when they want to touch a baby, but she was So incredibly gentle, amazing really.  Each and every time she was near him she was very loving, softly touching him, carefully kissing his head, calmly hugging and snuggling up to him, almost as if she wanted to hold him.  Once when C-sta heard baby C awake from a nap, she took off as fast as she could crawl over to check on him and be by his side...almost as if her life depended on it was--so cute!  I was so entralled watching C-sta each time (entralled and on my guard, just in case), I never did reach for my camera...didn't want to spoil the magic I guess!  Baby C was very patient as C-sta explored her nurturing side with him, thanks Baby C for being so good.  Hopefully next time we're all together we'll get a couple fun pictures of all the cousins together. : )