Happy Halloween: Part 1 of 3 - The Costumes

This year I asked all the kids what they wanted to be for Halloween a month ago and told them if they wanted to be anything specific they needed to tell me so I could get it together. But, alas, no one had anything in particular they wanted to be. I collected a tub of costumes 90% off the last few years. So, I pulled out the costume tubs, sorted out the costumes, and let them pick! The results were fun, diverse, and the kids were all happy with their choices! It made for a stress-free, easy, and fun Halloween!

Yonas enjoyed scaring people as a monster!
Ruby was Hannah Montana for the Renaissance Festival (more on that in a later post). The costume got itchy so at night she went as a hat-less witch. You can see her Hannah Montana in the later post about the festival!

Nolan made a really good ninja!

Silas was Spiderman last year, but that is all he wanted to be was Spiderman this year! People gave him a lot of compliments on his muscles!
Lettie was a spider 2 years ago... it still fit her this year, it just did not droop down as low. She wished the costume had yellow on it so she would look like a Halloween Spider. We have 3 different Halloween spiders that live in our bushes. She "takes care" of them!
Jovie was a really cute pterodactyl! She loved flapping her wings!
And last, but not least, It's a bird... It's a plane... NO! It's a curly SUPERGIRL!
We braved the rain and went trick-or-treating! We did our area of the hood walking and with a stroller. Then we took to the car and hit some more houses. The babies would lag behind, but all the older kids were great about helping them along and waiting for them. At the end the babies were pooped and stayed in the car. The older kids were really cute about sharing their candy with them after they went to the houses. And I made the mistake of telling them how much I loved Almond Joys and raving about them as I ate them. So, they insisted on giving me every Almond Joy they had and they wanted to see me eating them. Too much sugar, too much fun... the rain is falling and making a wonderful soothing white-noise... time for bed!

He told me!

To set this up, I have to let you know that Ruby will question EVERYTHING I do or ask her to do!

So, I am cutting the tops off and gutting 7 pumpkins... large pumpkins! I have to get ready for work soon. I had 4 hours of sleep (long story for another blog). Levi is sick so I am trying to get the hard part out of the way for him. I am busy and multi-tasking, and Ruby starts in on some "Why?"s! I have no clue what particular "Why" question led to this exchange, but it went like this:

Ruby: (Insert "Why" question here)

Me: Ruby, why do you have to always keep questioning me?

Nolan: (starts giggling) But mom, you just questioned her about questioning you!

He told me... that Nolan! Nothing gets past him! Levi and I just looked at each other and laughed!

Forget the Playground...

Grandpa's farm has all the play equipment a kid needs!

.

.

.

A Barn + A Bunch of Round Bales = A Hay Bale Jungle Gym!

Forget a Rock Climbing Wall when you have a Round Bale Wall!

.

.

.

Who needs monkey bars when you have ladders?

.

.

.

The hay loft of an old milking barn makes a great Fort!

.

.

.

You can't beat a water fountain that provides you with spring water directly from the source! Ice Cold too!

And pretty flowers on the way there as well!

.

.

.

And who needs a slide?

.

.

.

And of course, the tractor rides are always a hit!

.

.

.

You get to check out the source of most your meals over the next year!

(And yes, I am serious! One of these beauties is not in my freezers!)
And although the view was at times a little unsavory...

...the company and conversation was GREAT!

And as if that was not enough ... there is a water slide!

.

.

.

And if you do not feel like racing your siblings through the tubes...

... you can always see which of the babies' shoes makes it through its tube first!

(Just have your net ready, because it is no fun chasing them down stream... which we learned from experience)

There are multiple climbing structures!

.

.

.

And even a place to draw!

.

.

.

And instead of a balance beam, there are "balance posts"!
.

.

.

How we love the mountains!

Every minute is like being in a huge playground!

I can not wait to go back!

Ok... here it comes...

WAY TOO MANY pictures of SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE!

But I can't help it! It is my one Girl's Night Out a year!

A view from our seats! Great seats!

Always get best available on the side... NEVER the floor!

Trust me!

Here they come! The traditional white opening number outfits.
An upside down Ade!
The resident Ballerina. And Levi's favorite!
This year's winner Jeanine!

For the ladies, a picture of Jason!

The end of the Phillip and Jeanine "Mad" Hip Hop!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6-i362rscI

The "butt" dance! Such a cute dance! For those who did not watch the show this year, yes, this dance is about her butt. Mia Michaels choreographed and so cute. If you want to see it, go here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4-nmwoxp_4

Mr. Monotony! Cute routine... and Kayla seem to be in the most routines this year. Poor girl must be exhausted!

Romeo and Juliet Ballet.

Kapono! I always like the quirky Hawaiian dancers!

The Russian Fold Dance Spoof by Jeanine and Phillip.

Jason with Catelyn's booty in his face doing the Bollywood dance! Which was so much more awesome live I thought!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_zJKbm7I7A

The Sonja Superhero Girls Dance!

Kayla and Kupono doing Sonja!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQcfyY2SZ14

Evan and Melissa doing Broadway! This is my favorite picture!

The Tango/Hip Hop Dance with the water table! Jeanette was sick and was not there to do the dance. She usually does the water table. It just was not the same without her!

The "One" from A Chorus Line Group number!

The Zombie Hip Hop!

A Fosse number... Bye Bye Life.

Kupono's "infomercial" for SYTYCD work out DVDs. He looked good in short shorts.

The Boys Top 3 Group number.

The Russian Folk Dance spoof turned into an awesome group dance!

This guy somehow has a front row seat every year and he stands up and dances through most the performances. I would cry if I got a 2nd row seat and then realized I was behind this guy!

Brandon's Solo! He is such a powerful dancer that it makes you think he is a big guy. Even in-person on stage he just seems huge. Then you meet him in real life and realize he is shorter than me!

I refused to take pictures during my favorite dance, the addiction dance! But at the end I did manage to take a picture of Kupono's evil drug-addiction face on the screen. If you have not seen this dance, check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YS3qNcEBCv0

Same thing with this dance. Love this dance. This is the Travis Wall contemporary. It is an amazingly done piece.

There was very little ballroom this year. I think because Jeanette was sick. But there was this piece that was very well done by Randi and Evan. Also Brandon and Jeanine had their Paso Doble.

Jeanine's solo.

The breast cancer piece. This one is so powerful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EA6Nnez7bKI The final group number!

The end of the show! I am already looking forward to next year!

After that we stayed and, per tradition, met all the dancers. We just missed Jason, Jeanine, and Jeanette because they were sick. The only pic I got on my camera was of Phillip. I do have other pictures of some of the dancers holding signs that say thing about the business. But then I got into trouble because they are not allowed to promote products. I did not even think about it!!! I thought the guy was going to take my camera and make me delete them. But he was cool about it and asked that I not put the pics on the internet. Which I will not do. Because I am honest and all that. The only place they will be is on my "Wall of Fame" at work :)!

Here is us a Phillip!

I thought the picture was done, and ended up looking possessed!

Katie posted on her blog about today (the day after the show) going all wrong because of being out late the night before. The funny thing is I had the same thing. So, here is mine...

First off, on my way home (somewhere between 12:30 and 1am) there were no clouds in the sky and suddenly I see a flickering blue flash of light in the sky like there was lighting a long way away. I thoguht it was strange since they were not calling for storms. Then suddenly there is a HUGE flash of white behind me and blue light all around that lit up the trees all around me just like lightning had struck right behind my van, yet there was no boom, just a crackling sound. So it had me all shook up, so it was hard to go to sleep.

Then I had to wake-up for Muffins for Mom at school. And I am a little sick and it was hard to wake up. Basically Muffins for Mom is a way to get you in to buy books at the book fair. The problem is... the books at the book fair were rediculously expensive. They were full price. So I had to tell 5 kids we were not getting a book. Which made Lettie cry. And me feel bad. But each bedroom has a bookcase FULL of books, and then there are 3 boxes of books on top of the boys shelfs that do not fit on the 4 bookcases we have. We do not need another book. And they all wanted books that were overprices because they came with a neckace or stickers... sigh. I am a mean mom. I just did not want to spend $50 when they would have been more excited by a $1 store toy!

Then Nolan's teacher has been telling him he needs to pay for a rug he ruined, so I went to the classroom to check out the dreaded rug. Which was not as bad as it seemed according to the teachers note. He really does not have a mean bone in his body... just a lot of loud and impulsice bones!!! But the whole situation was frustrating and I ended up just crying on the way home because I know how it feels to be given a hard time by teachers.

Then I get home and go back to sleep for 3 hours where I dream that the SYTYCD dancers comeing to my shop and they keep turning off the lights and dancing with only the light from the outside lighting the shop, but when customers come in I turn the light back on and they keep turning them off again. And then my ice shaver completely falls apart (seriouly in pieces on the floor) and all my toppings fall over and my employee would not stop texting and then says she quits and walks out. Then I wake up and have to tackle the issue of freezing liquid in my ice block maker. And tonight is the hard night to be home because there is a lot of homework on Tuesdays and I knew I could not handle it so Levi said I could go to work. So, I have spent the afternoon putting pictures on my blog. He is so good to me! So, staying up till all hours, not good...

But in Katie's words...

It was ALL worth it!