Halloween 2012

We hope you all had a nice Halloween. In a way Halloween is almost like the beginning of the holidays for me. Now it's already November. Thanksgiving is around the corner, then Christmas, of course followed by New Years. We participated in our usually Halloween activities. First up, the ward Fall Festival/Trunk-or-Treat. My cousin Heidi and her family are out East for a couple months for a work training her husband Marc has. They came down last weekend and met us at the church building. We had a great time with them and can't wait to have them back next weekend!


The trunk-or-treating was amazing short. There were some fun games inside though for the kids afterwards. I enlisted the kids to put together their own costumes--just like last year. We do not have a great selection of playclothes, and their costumes reflect that. Next year I am going to have to sit down with them all the first of October to see what costumes they want to wear.


I love Heidi and Marc's shirts!


After the party we drove over to Walmart. Lee went in with Heidi and Marc to show them his office and gave Heidi an eye exam. I stayed with the kids outside.


Marc and Heidi and family spent the night at our house. Before bed we played the Europe version of Ticket to Ride and then talked. It was really fun. The next day I also watched my friend's girls. The kids had fun outside with the leaves. The big tree in our year still has lots of leaves on it. I really don't want to rake until they've all fallen off.


On Monday we carved pumpkins and decorated sugar cookies. Next year I think Clark should try his hand at carving his own pumpkin! I carved a mini one for Elden and it was super easy. We saved the seeds from both types of pumpkins and will hopefully plant them next year.


Haley put her pumpkin in the cupboard...good thing she asked Lee to come and see it! There might have been a big problem on our hands later....


I didn't get any pictures Halloween night. We left later than I wanted and I wasn't very happy about that. I am sure my family wasn't happy with my mood either! After this Halloween I have some ideas to make next year's better. Thankfully there are chances to constantly improve! First we went to the town's Halloween Hoo Doo where kids can trick-or-treat at the local downtown businesses. Like last year, I hot glued some little advertisements on little packs of cookies that Lee handed out. Lee ended handing out candy a little early. We trick-or-treated at a couple of neighbors and then went to another neighborhood. Sadly people around here stop handing out candy pretty early--8pm. But with school being the next day, that's definitely a good thing. Halloween night I finished preparing address label's for Sheldon's wedding announcements. Then I watched a Hallmark-type movie, sorted candy and looked at house plans on the internet. I stayed up way too late!

After about 3 hours of sleep I woke up at 5:45 so Clark and Cal could get to their 7am dental appointment. (I scheduled a 7am appointment so they could be on time for school...of course they were still late!) Sadly Cal has a cavity--his first one. Clark still doesn't have any thankfully. We're private pay as we don't have dental insurance. But I am glad that we are able to pay to get his tooth fixed. I am considering looking into a private dental plan, but the billing lady said sometimes they're not a good deal. I'll see what I find. Recently Haley and Shanna had their teeth cleaned at a mobile dentist that comes to the school here--first time "at" the dentist. Neither of them have cavities either--yay! This service is the cheapest for a private pay patient like me. Last year I didn't have the boys teeth cleaned with the mobile dentist because of my pride--it seemed to me that the bulk of the kids that used the mobile dentist couldn't afford dental care (they won't turn anyone down because of lack of finances). So it's a great program, but I didn't do it and just took them to a dentist that I knew of through church. This year though I bit the bullet and just had Shanna and Haley go to the mobile dentist. And even with paying full price, it's the cheapest cleaning one can get around here (that I know of). Okay, that turned out longer than I thought, ha ha. That's the dental situation around here...that no one asked about. I'm impressed if you read about it! The next big event around here is Thanksgiving and Sheldon's wedding.