Halloween in all its Splendor

I absolutely LOVE LOVE Halloween and we had a fabulous time, celebrating it all month long. It started by getting the decorations up end of September and enjoying this holiday for a while. The previous post tells about our first Halloween Party with my old co-workers and friends. I guess they still like me, or put up with me, because they allowed me to come back to the Halloween party. The rest gets jumbled up because there were so many events, so i'll just tell about them.This was the Fall Festival at a local park. I need to write the city a letter of appreciation for a job well done. The had lots of carnival games that were age appropriate and halloween themed. My kids had a blast. They gave out hot chocolate and cinnamon rolls and my kids ended up with gift certificates for a free kids meal at Del Taco. They were elated. We spaced wearing our costumes, but met up with Carson and his mom. Hi Mario! Love the gloves.

Back somewhere towards the beginning of the month, I got together with some girlfriends and they taught me how to make homemade caramel apples. Boy, they were good. This was the first time I had ever made them. The homemade caramel was to die for and the if that wasn't good enough, we dipped them in white chocolate and decorated. The mint grasshopper cookies took the cake.

One of our holiday traditions (as long as we are in the area) is Thriller of course. We had a hard time finding a babysitter so we ended up taking Olivia with us and she had a ball. She waved her hands and bounced around on our laps during the whole thing. Maybe that is a sign we should put her in dance, but she really liked it. She liked it from our seats, from a distance, and nothing up close. That freaked her out. Howie enjoyed it again, but for some reason, didn't have the nerve like he did last year and wouldn't really take any photos with the characters afterwards, I only got a shot with him and a Zombie before the show started. Maybe he was just too tired and grouchy.

We just LOVE LOVE LOVE Thriller. If you are in the area or have the opportunity, Oddssey Dance Theater does a fabulous job. I guess there are about six locations across Utah that do it each Halloween.

This is our tradition and version of pumpkin carving. I think it is because I don't like carving, too messy. Not to mention the frugal side of me hates to let a pumpkin rot because I can use it in baking throughout the seaason. There is one draw back, I do miss roasting the pumpkin seeds. Howie made a face on the front and Livy on the back, dual purpose pumpkin.

Attended Howie's school Halloween parade around the track. It was fun and there were a lot of great costumes. Howie is the Thing from Fantastic Four, but they aren't allowed to wear masks. He was a trooper to clunk around in those feet.

Trunk or treat at the church. There was a poster board in the foyer that talked all about it. I swear it said our ward, turns out it wasn't. Oh well, we joined in for the fun anyways. I guess there will be confusion when multiple wards use one building. The kids had fun regardless. We brought candy to hand out from our trunk. We did contribute. I feel justified in helping them eat their soup in breadbowls (yummy!) because we contributed, not just party crashed the place.

Livy is a munchkin, Howie the Thing, Tommy a mad scientist, myself a ghost skeleton.

Attended the Halloween Mansion, a must every year by Green Valley and Howie enjoyed the train rides. They are so cool, they give out FULL sized candy bars.

A Goulish Family Photo

Livy picked up the trick or treating thing pretty fast, what kid doesn't? Some people even dressed up. It was great.

Me and my kiddos on Halloween, comes close to perfection in my opinion.

Livy giddy about her booty. Hope you enjoyed a SAFE and hApPy HaLlOwEeN!

Muuuhhhhhhhaaaaaa

(that's my spooky laugh)