Halloween

 

 

This year for Halloween, Ainsley was Little Red Riding Hood and Sam was a cowboy.  I made Ainsley a dirndl and a red cape to match.  Sam wore a cute vest someone gave us and his cowboy boots from Grandma Reese.  We had a fun month full of lots of halloween activities.  My good friend Melissa held a "Monster Party" for a bunch of the kids.  They decorated their own little cardboard monsters, colored oranges to look like jack-o-lanterns, and read monster stories.  It was a lot of fun.  

A few days before Halloween, we went to our ward trunk-or-treat and chili cookoff.  Tom made his delicious chili again.  The ward had a little carnival for the kids with games and treats.  Afterwards the kids went outside to trick-or-treat at the cars. We invited our friends the Trappuzzanos to come and so NIkki and I helped pass out candy by our car while Tom and Andy took the kids around.  Ainsley was such a big girl that she wanted to go by herself to all the cars with her friends and didn't want to wait for the little kids.  They had a lot of fun and got a lot of candy.  

On the Monday before Halloween, we carved pumpkins for FHE.  Ainsley picked out a "Cat Bat" from our pumpkin carving kit stencils and Tom helped her carve it.  I attempted to make my first ever batch of the famous Reese family popcorn balls.  Tom's mom sends us a box of these popcorn balls every year.  After four years of living away from Utah, I thought I should try to finally make them myself.  But unfortunately they didn't turn out as well as I had hoped, I let them boil a little too long and so they were a little harder than normal.  But we ate them anyway and just hoped we didn't break any teeth while we ate them:)

On Halloween day, Ainsley's preschool had a Halloween party.  All the parents were invited and Tom was even able to come during his lunch break.  They had treats, games, trick-or-treating.  The kids sang some Halloween songs and then had a dance party.  It was fun to see Ainsley with all her little friends.  

That evening,, we went to Whitmore Lake to have dinner with Tom's cousin Scott and Tricia Winder.   After dinner, we all went trick-or-treating in their neighborhood.  Ainsley was so excited to go with her cousins, she loves hanging out with them.   Sydney was dressed as a witch and Owen was a transformer.  Their neighborhood was packed with kids and they got a  ton of candy.  Sammy didn't really understand the concept of trick-or-treating and wouldn't even hold his bag so Tom and I just took turns carrying him.  But Ainsley had a blast.  She and her cousins would run from house to house and didn't want to stop.  When it got too cold and late, Tricia and I had to finally convince them to head home.  When we got back to the Winder's house, the kids dumped out all their candy and started eating it.  It was a great Halloween, we are so lucky to have some family nearby to share it with. 

\