Hallloween Happenings

Halloween has come and gone and the excitement that has happened around this holiday is frightening.....
First, Kate finished up her last day of gymnastics and was very excited about the ribbon she received. She loved learning new things and being able to run around the mats, learned how to do the "bridge" and "seal" stretch, and I think liked the trampoline the best. She is quite the gymnist and catches on to the routine quite quickly. We'll have to see what the future holds for her!

A few days before Halloween, we were blessed to get our first snowfall for the year. One day it was only an inch or two, and then two days later, it threatened 4-6 inches but we only got 2-4 maybe and it melted within a few days. There were still a few piles here and there for Halloween but overall, it was gone. However, before that happened, the girls were sure to play in it, throw snowballs at each other and taste a little here and there.

At school, they had a "Monster Mash" put on by the PTA where you could go and eat food, dance to music, raffle for baskets, get your face painted and encounted the spook alley. The kids had a great time dressing up that night and playing with their friends in their costumes. Kate and one of her friends were going through the spook alley and her friend bailed out about half way through, but not my Kate, she just kept saying, "It's all fake, don't worry!" This coming from the girl that we have to convince to go on Pirates of the Carribbean. Go Figure! Kate and Liz got matching face paintings and they were just too cute!

All dressed up and to the Monster Mash we go!

Cole has found some great friends in the neighborhood and loves playing with all the other boys and riding around like crazy! Here he is with one of his buddies, Aiden, who they have become good friends quickly.

To add to more of the excitement, we also got to go trick-or-treating at Jared's new job. The kids thought it was pretty neat to go and see where Jared worked and to also have a chance to get more candy, of course! Not all the desks were handing out candy so it was a treasure hunt to try and find the desks with the balloons to find the candy. They thought that was pretty fun, and Lizzie just kept up with the other two and kept saying, "Hurry up, mom." Like I was the slow one!

And to bring a little "Dunyon" tradition to New York, we held the annual Halloween Party at our house with two families and I tried to do mom and Kim proud with my food preparations. Being pregnant, so many things sounded good that I think we may have had just a little too much but don't worry, I ate it for the next few days so it wouldn't go to waste. Of course we served spider rolls....

meatballs, bat (chicken) wings with homemade blue cheese dip, frothy punch, spider ice cubes, the monster taco ring (a great idea from Kim - but sorry I forgot a picture!), a pumpkin cheese ball and crackers, and fruit with a delicious caramel toffee dip.

And of course, we had games - what kind of a halloween party would it be without donuts on a string? The kids just loved it but for some reason we couldn't get the dads to do a round!

The flour game - here's our barbarian, Jacob - Cole's buddy - digging for the penny
And the candy bar game was also a hit. It got a little rowdy for the little ones but the older ones just loved tearing right into it and Jacob ended up eating most of the bar! I think Cole got a few bites but these two were the biggest competitors of all! It was a great night of fun, games, and great friends. Not quite the same without family, but I thought of the great things family has taught me and I love the traditions we've started!

Then...the pumpkin carving was on Sunday afternoon for our family home evening. Kate picked our eye shape, Lizzie wanted a Mickey Mouse nose, and Cole wanted the jaggedy mouth.
And here's what we ended up with! We had to take pictures in the laundry room since it was the darkest and the kids could see the pumpkin the best.
I was also able to help in Kate's classroom the day of Halloween. She had a party and there was a parade through the school all dressed up. Kate's parade was in the morning and Cole's was later that afternoon. I had a hard time doing the video and snapshot at the same time so this was as good as we get....Here's Kate with her class.
After all the excitement, it ended with a great night of adorning costumes and glow bracelets, trick-or-treating around our neighborhood, running around with friends and when the kids couldn't decide which candy to pick, Jared was happy to help them out. It was fun to meet more or our neighbors and see everyone come together and we thought it was just so cute as Lizzie walked away from the houses saying, "Thank you" at every one and going back to tell them if she had forgotten. Although, we did miss being in our last neighborhood and having the pizza party with the Hennis family and trick-or-treating with the Grays. But I think we've had enough Halloween excitement to last us a year!

Kate - our 50's girl. Cole - Captain Jack Sparrow, and Lizzie - our little mouse. Funny little side note...they were so excited about going out that night, I forgot to put on their face make-up and didn't realize until halfway through trick-or-treating! I'm just going to blame it on the pregnancy....Happy Halloween!