Halloween!

Our Halloween was great this year. It was a lot of preparation and work, but it was really fun so I guess it's all worth it. On Thursday, we had our ward party, but before getting ready and going to that we carved our pumpkins from the pumpkin stand.

This picture is kind of scary, with me wielding a knife so close to Kaiya, but rest assured no harm was done.

Here's the end result with our little family of pumpkins. Patrick did his and Kaiya's.

Kaiya, checking out the pumpkins

This isn't a great picture, but I wanted to get the back of her costume so you could see the wings.

The costumed family on our way to the ward party. In case you couldn't tell, I am a bumblebee, Kaiya is a ladybug, and Patrick is a tattooed biker guy.

Here's Patrick and Kaiya at the ward party with their prizes for WINNING the nursery age and the adult costume contests. I was so excited about it. I made Kaiya's costume, so I was especially proud of the win. We almost lost to a cute kid in a poodle costume, but luckily, the ladybug won out. Some people in the ward had thought that Patrick wasn't wearing a costume, but was just some guy off the street in for the free food. I think many were relieved when he went up to be judged for the contest. I told Patrick that I was so excited that we were a family of winners and he said, "yeah, well, except you". If you know Patrick you know that's funny, not mean, but I thought it was hilarious and couldn't stop laughing.

I wish I had taken better pictures of Kaiya in her costume. It turned out so cute and I was so pleased with it. I am not very proficient in sewing, so it was definitely a project for me, but I really enjoyed doing it!

On Halloween day we had our friends Dylan and Cassey over for a mini Halloween party. That meant another day of baking and cooking and cleaning for me, but luckily Ginger, who was out for our ward Halloween party, stayed the night and played with Kaiya while I got things done in the morning. We had a good time with them too. We had a Halloween dinner, plenty of treats, and watched Hocus Pocus after Kaiya went to bed. Of course by the time they got to our house, I was exhausted from days of sewing, baking, cooking, decorating, and cleaning, so I didn't take one picture! I'm mad at myself now, but I guess it will have to live in our memories (and on our blog). Halloween was really fun this year. Now we just have to put all our decorations away and get ready for Thanksgiving!