Anyone who knows Ryan really well knows he LOVES the PBS show Word World--especially their Halloween special "kooky spooky Halloween". He runs around yelling (because LOUD is the only volume he knows) AKOOKY ESPOOKY AHALLOWEEEEEN (phonetic spelling added for effect :-) The boys couldn't get enough of this fun holiday--what kid doesn't enjoy playing dress up, scarring people and eating a boat load of sugar? I even decided--instead of the well intentioned "candy rationing" that I naturally lean towards--to just give them their buckets from sun up to sun down for about 2 days straight and let them devour every last piece as quickly as possible. There was no long drawn out begging for more, it was five pieces at once, chocolate drooling, sugar coma causing bliss--hence the four sucker sticks poking out of Ryan's mouth all at the same time.
Funny how this holiday has made me grateful for our friends--in all my whining about living in Las Vegas, we've been extremely blessed & one of those blessings has been fabulous friends. First we headed to an "FHE" party where the kids got to "hunt" for treats in a dark back yard, eat monster pizzas & bone bread sticks and then pile into the backs of trucks (adult supervision was provided--don't worry grandmas) and take goodie plates to fellow neighbors & friends. The kids all had masks and LOVED ringing the door bells, screaming trick or treat and then running back to the trucks only to do it 8 more times that night!
We also headed to a party with family "L" and their adorable munchkins Gman and Lulu. It was a PJ party where we donned our jammies, ate chili & sloppy joes (slop sloppy joes, navy beans navey beans hoggies and grinders--ok I digress) sipped apple cider, sang Halloween carols (spoofs on Christmas carols) and watched an outdoor projector screen movie of the old animated Ichabod Crane & the Headless Horseman. The kids even put on those glow stick bracelets and boogied down in the backyard--just streaks of color running to Halloween music in the dark. It was fantastic--if we can't be with family, there are no better friends I would have asked for here!
We hit up the ward carnival and trunk or treat. Ryan was "plagued" by our friendly ward clown who consistently jumped out from between cars at little children, Ry guy in particular. Each time he would yell "ohhhh a spooky ghoooost". The clown would laugh getting a rise out of the poor kid and Ryan grew to love the clown. When he saw him at church the next day Chris said "Ryan, do you remember me?" Ry replied "ahhh it's the ghoooosssttt" which made Chris's day!
Last, since pumpkin day fell on a Sunday, we decided to have some friends to our house this time and cook "Dinner in a Pumpkin". This will be a long lived tradition in our home that started last year with our best friends in Kingman. They invited us over for the same dinner and it was AMAZING. We've since moved back to Vegas and they are now in Kansas but that didn't keep me from getting the recipe from Morgan and whipping it up on my own. It wasn't as good as it would have been if they were here but it was still pretty tasty (can you tell I'm missing you guys "W" fam??) You could tell all the hubbies were wary of the meal but after eating a few bites, a few went back for THIRDS (not Scott--other guys :-) The company was great and we're enjoying making more friends in our ward. The kids had a great time playing & handing out candy, wearing their Halloween pj's and I'm proud of them for not complaining that they weren't out knocking doors--with all the festivities that week, I don't think they missed it one bit.
You may ask where Collin was during all the festivities...he pretty much slept in his car seat the whole time. He is the most mellow AWESOME baby in the world. His personalitiy ensures we'll at least have one more :-)
All in all, we are pretty lucky to live in such a great ward and have amazing friends like we do. Life wouldn't be the same and Vegas wouldn't be tolerable without you all. Thanks!
