Carry Me Trick-Or-Treating

Seth is still too young to get the concept of free candy. He thinks it is all too much work! Last year he made it through about 25 houses but wanted to be carried from porch to porch. This year, Seth had his choice of outfits. We have the incredible hulk, spiderman, batman, darth vader, a pirate, a cowboy and even a fireman. Gathering manly dress-ups has made this halloween season a snap! He kept changing his mind and at one point he said he was going to be a fisherman. No problem ~ we have everything we need, already. We put the finishing touches on Chloe's Dorthy costume and we just kept waiting and waiting for the time when we would actually have to dress up for Seth to make up his mind.

Mo Mo Man was a hit in the neighborhood! He loved wearing his helmet to all of the parties but the bike was pure genius from house to house. He would gladly ride it to the porch steps of every house, yell out "trick-or-treat" then race back to his motorcycle to Zoom down the driveway:

Chloe was still faster and probably will be for some time but they did take turns ringing the door bell. She would run ahead and stand there and wait and wait and wait. The weather was so nice and we visited as many neighbors as we could until we stopped and our friends Andrea & Jeff's house for an evening of dinner and games with a bunch of families. The kids played together downstairs and the adults, well we laughed the night away. I haven't played spoons forever! So much fun!!! But sadly, my kids couldn't keep their eyes open past 9 pm even with all the candy their hearts desired. Thanks again, Andrea!!!

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Happy Halloween/Happy Birthday

Dan's family was able to get together on Friday night to celebrate Josh's 25th birthday and Mahonri and Moroni's 4th birthday ~ as well as have a Halloween costume party!

For Dessert I made some scrumptious cupcakes:

The yellow ones are white cake mix, my friend Wende's but also Lisa's lemon frosting with a bit of raspberry jam inside! I just strained the seeds away and added a little powdered sugar before piping it in!!! {You can call my Martha!} They were so, so good!!!!!

A couple of good witches, gone bad:

Dan dressed as Charlie Brown trick-or-treating ~

he kept getting rocks! What a Block Head!!!

Seth was dressed as his Motorcycle Daddy!

Our Tigers ~ Gwen & Tai:

Josh and his many EYE's & our girls:

Grandpa Jack Skellington & Grandma Ursela:

I think Uncle Jared's costume was The Best! I loved the joker in Batman Begins and Jared was very scary with his girlfriend Gangster Echo:

The general theme at the Davis house was G.I. JOE

Nate and his boys:

We had a witchy pinata:

Don't you think Dan's goatee transcends every hair style?

The games were fun, the food was great and the entertainment of ten children running amok was priceless! They all went home with baskets full of treats and prizes!!! Thanks everyone!

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Wonka Bars

This morning we started the day without the rush of getting ready for school. Instead we were rushing to get everything checked of my mental to do list for the day. Being the day before Halloween and having a full day to actually run errands that take more than the meager hour I have during morning kindergarten, {take a breath} and wanting to do something with the kids in their candy induced sugar high that every other mother in the valley isn't already doing... We met Auntie Erin at Auntie Laura's work and then headed off to IKEA! Laura and Brittany called the night before asking Chloe what their favorite candy was. Her response was a wonka bar. After Laura asked me what the heck a wonka bar is, her immediate response is to rush out and spoil her lucky nieces and nephews!!! They got these Giant Wonka Bars:

The kids got to play at IKEA's smaland and Erin, Maggie and I had an hour to shop till we dropped and the dang store is big enough that I almost did. The buzzer letting us know our kid free time was up started vibrating and flashing while I was scanning my purchases. I will post pictures of the kids' monster bathroom and their bright new colorful towels and rugs from IKEA soon.

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Dorothy on Parade

This morning she got all dressed up for the Kindergarten Costume Parade. She has been so excited about being Dorothy. Each time we would pass the Halloween aisle at the grocery store she would adore and fawn over all of the fabulous costumes. We found this sparkly Dorothy and bought her up. But Chloe always appreciated looking at other costumes. I would ask her if we should return our Dorothy and get something else and I was surprised that she consistently and adamantly refused! I found her Dorothy wig, ruffle ankle socks and basket at wal-mart and the shoes at target. We borrowed Toto from a neighbor and she is in absolute heaven!

This is Seth in front of the kindergartner's pumpkins. They painted them black and made cats and bats out of them. Seth was having so much fun with their bubble blowing machine.

This particular Dorothy is not to shy to send us a friendly wave. There were times I thought she was going to give out autographs. She kept saying, "Can you even dye my eyes to match my gown?"
I was surprised that only the kindergartner's could wear their costumes. For the older children, if their teacher so deemed, they could change into their costume for the class party... It was so much fun!

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Carving Pumpkins

Last night we were scheduled to carve pumpkins. Chloe and Seth both decided not to eat their dinner. Instead of begging and pleading or prodding and punishing I simply told them that if they didn't finish their dinner they would not get to carve pumpkins tonight. You see, I was too tired to do it and this was way more convenient! So they sat ~ untouched on the dining room table waiting for tonight.

And Chloe and Seth were waiting to see what I would make for dinner tonight to determine if they would choose to eat. I gladly informed them that Halloween is going to be here very soon and tonight was the only night left we had available to cut pumpkins. I told them that I was o.k. with not carving any pumpkins this year. We could move them back out to the front porch and just let them rot away until Thanksgiving, uncarved and unloved...

They ate their dinner: Seth was not as gung-ho as Chloe, he thought it was very gross!

Every year we say that we are going to save some seeds to plant in the spring but every year we are so glad to be finished carving, that we clean up the slimy, stringy orange guts as quickly as possible and put our proud pumpkins on display.

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Sugar Cookies

Since our house has been sick, all of my energies were used to get both husband and children better. There was hours of snuggling on moms lap while they were burning up with fevers, nights while I stayed awake next to them, stroking their hair in anticipation of their next whimper. I read so many stories to my babies that I thought that I too was coming down with the swine, because my voice went horse and my throat was scratchy. There were days that they would have no fever and Chloe and Seth would play and argue like they were feeling fine, but that swine can be tricky and fooled us twice into thinking all was well ~ during the night one or both of them would burn up with fever and we started over from the beginning. Chloe missed nine days of school and her very first field trip, Dan missed three days of work and we all missed his cousin George's mission farewell. But we are getting back to normal ~ as normal as we were before...

It seems that we have had to cram a months worth of Halloween activities and traditions into this final week of October. I finally got around to making pumpkin sugar cookies for Dan. I was able to wrap them all up and send them off to work with him and got away with only eating two!!!

These are his mother's sugar cookies, they are the best!

It is the only cookie dough that I am tempted to eat. Seth sat so patiently waiting for me to tear the excess dough away from the pumpkin cutout. He was very happy that Chloe was at school:

But we did save her the last little bit from the last cookie cut!

It is such a simple act that shows my love for Dan ~ I try to make him a batch of sugar cookies each month. But it was so nice to have everyone feeling better, both healthy and happy, to make some pumpkin cookies! Yum!!!

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It's not a thankless job!

Chloe presented these special notes to me with her heartfelt appreciation of taking care of her. Then she asked me, very nicely, if there was any way that I could do a better job of it and actually get her well... She and Seth both had high fevers Saturday and Sunday night. I don't think either Dan or I have ever been more tired. I was hoping Chloe would be well enough to go back to school but after a morning of no fever or medication and an afternoon nap ~ she started burning up again... I called her pediatrician who advised not coming in without certain symptoms and because Chloe and Seth are drinking plenty of fluids and not dehydrated they are probably just going to get over it on their own. But like Chloe, I wish they were already healthy and happy!

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Chloe's Back!!!

She's back!!! Chloe has been sick with a med~high fever for the past two days. She missed her first ever field trip and the chance to ride on a real live school bus!!! I have been so afraid of the swine flu and all of the horrible complications and deaths that have been in the news. I think she has had a little flu because as long as she was medicated her fever was low and she acted very normal ~ all running around and teasing her brother, eating and drinking all regular like. Usually her fever would spike in the night when the medication wore off. I moved our small TV & DVD player into her room and she spent all of last night up watching movies. I was so glad that when she finally did wake up, she had no fever! She's Back!!!
Dan went fishing this morning with Seth & Uncle Guy while Chloe and I went to our wards Super Saturday and made this paper wreath. It was shown hanging on ribbon but I think I am going to put a tall hurricane jar in the middle with a candle and other holiday items!!!

It was a little time consuming but I might make one for each season!

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