Halloween Fun

So Halloween is not a big deal here in Australia.  Not everyone participates in trick-or-treating, the kids don't wear their costumes to school and there aren't any school Halloween parties.  Not to mention no pumpkin patches, haunted houses or any other plethora of Halloween festivals and carnivals to choose from like back home.  But despite it being difficult to celebrate it how we would have liked, we still managed to get some Halloween activities and fun in.

I kept seeing pumpkins at the store, hoping the price would drop the closer we got to Halloween and well, it dropped about 2 cents a kilo.  So I decided to go for it.  But when I weighed the first pumpkin, which was the smallest and it came to $13, I decided the kids could all share one pumpkin to carve.   One was certainly enough.

Will was quite impressed with the pumpkin.  After we bought it, he kept asking to cut it up so he could eat it.  I think he thought it was like a watermelon.  But after we cut it open, he was no longer interested in eating it.

 After we cut it open, Will kept saying, Bleh, gross!  Over and over, it was too cute.

 None of the kids would dare put their hands into the pumpkin and scrap out the seeds.  So it was all up to me!

 Finally, Lily worked up the courage to stick her hand in, after I had already gotten most of it.  Haha.

 Here is the finished product.  The girls told me how to carve everything on the pumpkin.  Thank goodness, it was nothing fancy.

 They wanted it to be scary looking, I think they succeeded.

 On Halloween, I talked the YM/YW into doing a Trunk-or-treat Halloween Carnival type thing for the primary kids.  It was a huge success.  Every one went all out with their "trunks" After I had suggested trunk or treat, I realized that they don't even call it a trunk, they call it the boot.  No wonder so many people were confused about the concept at first.  Haha!  

Anyways, the girls had costumes all picked out and then 2 days before Halloween they decided they needed to be something scary.  So they decided to revisit the witch and her black cat theme.  I think their costumes turned out well with only a few days notice, plus it was 100 degrees that day, so the purple and black stockings I got for the witch were definitely not wearable and I had the black cat in shorts.  It was just too hot!  We even swam before going to the Halloween party!  Will is supposed to be a pirate, but, of course, refused to wear his hat.  So he doesn't look like he is dressed up as much of anything.

 Will is throwing off his pirate hat in this pic.

 Here is the black cat and witch duo in 2013.

 And here they are in 2009.  Haha, so cute!

 This is our trunk, for the Trunk-or-treat.  Everyone was so impressed with our actual carved pumpkin.  All the young women said they wanted to do it for and activity next year.

 Here are all the other trunks or boots!  Everyone did super awesome!

 Here are some primary kids awesome costumes.

 You cannot tell me that that isn't the most adorable thing you have ever seen???  Love it!

 This is Dantae, one of our Young Women.  I think she gets the best costume award.  :)

 One of my favorite families in the ward, the Newman's.  Hayden, the husband, is the ward clerk, and there was a bishopric meeting after the Halloween carnival and I dared him to go in his costume and he did!!!  He was the only one!  Haha, I totally owe him some cookies or something!

 This is one of my personal favorites, Ava's friend, Jaslyn, dressed up as a broken wind up doll.  Adorable!  Isn't her mom so good at make up?

 Can't really tell but there is her wind up switch on her back.

 There's Sienna the puppy.  Her and Will have a love hate relationship.  They were best friends this night though.

 This is Cohen and Kye. They are school friends of Lily and Ava's.  Cohen is in Lily's class and Kye is in Ava's.  So my little missionary girls invited them to this church activity.  I think they had a good time and their mom was telling me that she had been to our chapel before with her cousins who were Mormons.  So I'm excited about this prospective missionary opportunity.  They really are an adorable family.

 Here are our sister missionaries dressed as nuns!  So funny!  I introduced them to Cohen and Kye's mom but I told them to take off their head pieces first.  I didn't want any confusion!

 Playing the games.  :)

 This is Chloe, in an amazing costume done by a very talented one of our young women, Heidi.

 Will and Sienna just loving the bobbing for oranges!

 They were probably so hot, and that was probably so refreshing.  I kind of wanted to go dunk my head in!

 One more decorated boot.

 I hadn't announced my pregnancy to the ward yet, so I decided to go as a bun in the oven, hoping that people would catch on.  I put my due date as the timer.  I think everyone just thought I was wearing a really lame costume when finally someone asked, are you trying to give your husband a hint?  And I said, no, I'm trying to make an announcement.  And after that the word spread.  :)  Should have went for something more obvious like the zombie baby breaking out.

After the trunk or treat the girls saw kids trick or treating around our neighborhood and really wanted to also.  So I thought why not, we'll give it a try.  We had some success, but it was a frustrating process because there was no way to know who was participating and who wasn't.  So if there was a light on at the house, we would knock and probably every 4th house we tried was giving out candy.  I was really wishing we were in America at that moment because all the kids were really enjoying trick-or-treating and just loving it.  Nobody was whining about having to walk so far and so on, and I just kept thinking, oh man,  they would have loved this back home this year.  But that's alright...maybe one day.  :)  They still got plenty of candy between the church party and our short stint trick-or-treating.

It turned out to be a pretty good holiday, even away from home.

Lastly, I had to document that even though it was 100 degrees, I still made and had the traditional chili that we always do on Halloween.  And it was delicious, since I didn't get to eat it until about 9 pm and by then the sun had been down and it had cooled off enough to enjoy it.  It was a great Halloween.

More Randomness of Life

I have quiet a few really strange and random pictures that I just took because I thought someone was being cute or weird or funny.  So I just put them all together in this random collection of photos.

Here is that cute little Will playing in our still empty cupboards.  I finally have lots of cupboard space and nothing to fill them with.  Except adorable little children!

 Here's Will trying to ride Ava's bike.  He'll get it before we know it.

 Haha, Ava put these gloves on her feet!  What a crack up!  I think she totally looks like a creature from a Dr. Suess book.

 Will got this awesome handmade with love towel from his grandma for his birthday and on the day, he wasn't so sure about it.  But he has since warmed up to it and can't get enough of his monster towel.

 We were at Target one day, just looking around, and Will and Ava thought these tutus were too much fun.

 Ava loved this kitty and wanted it so badly, but I wouldn't pay the $25 to get it for Halloween so she settled for a picture with it.

 Out shopping again, aren't these things so creepy?

It was a particularly hot Sunday afternoon, and we were playing out back.  The aircon that we have has condensation coming off of it and it trickles down in this spot.  Will was loving the little drip.

Here are some cute ones of the girls.

One day a couple weeks ago, Ava threw up in the morning when she woke up, but then was feeling fine by the time I had dropped Lily off at school and called in sick for Ava.  so here is Ava's "sick" day at the park.

It was this same day at the park that Ava told me that I shouldn't have named her Ava because Ava is a naughty name and that she was born to be naughty.  Hahaha, what a crack up!

Look out, Here Comes Thing Three....

So I am expecting baby number four!!!  Yay! And I wanted to tell my family in a creative way because I have never been able to keep being pregnant a secret long enough to tell anyone in a creative way.  So Lily was Cat in the hat for book week and so I decided to go on a Dr. Suess theme and write a poem that sounded like Dr. Suess.  Then I thought Lily could dress as Cat in the hat and Will and Ava could be thing one and thing two and the new baby could be thing three.  It ended up being as cheesy as it sounds, but it was still fun to do.  So here are a few of the pictures that we sent home to family and the poem that went with it.  :)

 We are such photogenic people!  Hahahaha!

Here's my corny poem:

It's Halloween time, 
So we're sending a rhyme.
The cat in the hat has some very good news,
That she can hardly wait to tell all of yous. 
So fast as a fox, 
Let's look in cat's box. 
In her box are two things, 
You will see something new. 
Two things. The cat calls them
Thing one and thing two.
But when the cat opened the box, 
She found a surprise.
The cat in the hat could not believe her eyes.
Instead of two things in the box, there were three! 
Three things in the box? Oh my, my, how could that be?
Thing one and thing two ran out fast to come play.
But thing three won't come join them until the beginning of May. 

We can all hardly wait to meet thing three!  :) 

Last Day of October School Holidays and More...

We went on a bike ride to the park on the last day of school holidays in October.  It was a beautiful day and even Will rode his "bike" all the way to the park.

 Here is Will on his bike.  I brought the stroller just in case, and I was glad because I did end up needing it on the way home.  Will's bike hung nicely on the stroller handle.

 Here are all three eating the picnic they packed.

 Here are the girls new bikes.  I actually bought them something brand new and for no particular reason.  It was a strange day, I was having a real lapse in judgment that day.  Haha, just kidding, they did need new bikes.  Look how big Lily's bike is.  I cannot believe I have a child that fits on that huge thing!

 You gotta love Ava's passenger riding in the front of her bike.  Cute little stuffed bunny.

 Here are all the kids swinging.  Lily is being the super big sister that she is, pushing Will and not even caring if she got a turn to swing.  And Ava was even swinging herself on her stomach.  I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do.  :)  Just sit back and admire. :)

 Here we are on our way home.  Will and Lily waiting for our little slow poke, Ava.  :)

 Here she comes.  :)

 The next day it was back to school for their fourth and final term of this school year.  I can't believe it is almost been a year!

Here is just a few more random pictures I decided to throw in this post.  This was the gross looking spider that decided to emerge from who knows where on the treadmill while I was having a nice little run.  I know it looks small, but it creeped me out.  I did finish the run but I kept my distance.  I turned off the treadmill and ran to go find something to smash it with, but it was gone.  It came out to play again another time and that time, I had Cory smash it.

 My super perceptive friend, Ali, made us dinner one night just out of the blue because she said that I seemed really tired.  Now no one wants to hear that, but if it gets me a dinner that I don't have to cook, I'll take it.  And she was right, I was really tired.  I wanted to text her a picture of the kids enjoying the food, but look at my picky eater, Ava, plugging her nose!  I did take another one that I forced her to at least smile in, no matter how bad she thought the food smelled.  And for the record, it was delicious.  Can't be offended by someone who thinks plain noodles and plain browned ground beef is the best meal ever.

 One day when I was taking a shower, Will helped himself to Ava's pillow and blanket and made himself a bed and took a nap.  Love that kid.

 Here is Will after an afternoon swim.  He is a swimming maniac.  He loves the pool! Which is very good news since it is the only thing we have for entertainment around here.

 Ava really loves to put on my clothes and shoes lately.  She's pretty cute with big feet.  :)

 One night we heard fireworks going off, so we all ran outside to the yard to see if we could see them.  And we could.  These pictures are terrible, but the kids had a fun time watching a firework show from the yard.  Not sure what they were for.