hal-LOW-een 2012

My parents' first full day here was Halloween. It was fun that they made it in time! First Halloween Fun was Zach's school party. Actually, no, the first "fun" was driving Zach to school in freezing rain. Seriously dangerous! And so slippery to walk on the pavement. We got that 2 days in a row. Ugh. But we made it safe and sound to Zach's party. We weren't invited, but we got to come and take pictures of them at the beginning. The teacher had a pretty scary witch mask on and no one recognized her! They asked the teachers assistant to take that witch away! It was funny.

Zach was Buzz. Leslie got a sweet garage sale deal, so we borrowed the costume. Thanks! And yes, those eyebrows and chin dimple are completely natural. He was born this way, hey.

 

Buzz himself. :) That pumpkin above his right shoulder is our family pumpkin we had to decorate. It was 6 eyes...one for each of us. And a lot of glitter!

When I got home from picking Zach up Kate had made her own monster face lunches! Mom said they were all Kate's ideas and she decided what food could be each part of the face. I was impressed! Pretty creative! We were going to do Mummy Dogs, but this was easier! I did nothing!

 

Dad trying to see if blondes really do have more fun. ;) Just trying Kate's locks.

My kiddos before trick-or-treating at the mall. We've got Belle, Buzz, Aurora, and a cute little Ladybug. It was a cold icy day so we went to the mall and then after Justin got back from work we took the older 3 out to a little neighborhood to trick-or-treat some more.

This girl gets a whole lotta lovin'.

My princesses. It was fun dressing them up and trying to do their hair and makeup. Well, maybe all parts weren't fun or easy, but some were! Mascara wasn't made for kids. That's all. It was fun to see it though. Not that I want them to grow up fast or wear make up young or anything, but they have way longer lashes than I do and I loved seeing them with mascara!

I think Kate's got the pose down. She's going to go work at Disneyland someday. :)

Sisters.

BUZZ!!!

And the little buggy checking out the leftover snow.

Trick-or-treating at the mall. This jewelry store was handing out diamonds! Not really, but wouldn't that be neat. I think my favorite was the store that handed out the little baggie with a toy and a 20% off your purchase coupon ... except there was no store information to know where the coupon was good for. Doh!!

Indiana Jones...I mean my dad and Addie girl. And my dad isn't really dressing up. He is just that hip and fashionable all the time!

Buzz-Zachula.

Addie smelling/tasting the chip bags with her antennae.

 

After a long cold night of trick-or-treating I found Zach at the table with gum on his cheek and a can of "spray" as the girls call it. We asked him if he knew what was on his cheek and he did. It was there on purpose. Making Grandma Low proud. ;)

 

The kids pumpkins (a few days later as they wilted...we never put them out on Halloween! Sad!) Kara's is the bat cat from a template, Zach is a Gronkle dragon from How to Train your Dragon (free hand might I add...not to toot my own horn or anything...because it probably doesn't look like it at all!! Ha! Zach wasn't impressed, "It kinda doesn't look like it mommy." but in MY mind I can see it. Easier requests next time please!), and Kate's was done last, a cute face. :)

 

The halLOWeenies.

A much better shot. :)
Christmas Card? Crop the pumpkins? Or at least put Santa hats on them.

  And I usually don't enjoy much attention, but this is one of my greater accomplishments. :) It reminds me of those computer web cam applications that can suck your face in the center...I don't even need them. ;) Looking at it now, it is more impressive in the zoomed out shot.

And this one had to go in too. Every kids' face (and finger) is priceless!

The next day...November 1st...the girls had their preschool party. First of all that should just be illegal! November is a pure month. A Thankful month. An "it's almost Christmastime!" month. Not a gorey, selfish, candy hoarding month! Don't taint it!It was fun and all but man I was SO DISGUSTED by the amount of treats kids got. We even had to bring treats and cupcakes to this party. I wanted to vomit! And at this party there were a bunch of games to play and then when you completed the game you got to pick a treat. Yuck!!! Between parties and the real trick or treating these kids were on some serious overload.  

Gotta love Zach's caterpillars eyebrows still plastered on and Kara's smeared mascara giving her a black eye! Kate's just on a sugar high/low and done with pics. I tried to get Zach's paint off his face! Super face paint. Papa and MerMer got to come. It is fun to have them included in some of the kids activities since they live so far away! Good timing. 

The fishing booth...where every time you went, you got A TREAT!! We learned this holiday that Kara is our sweet tooth girl. I mean they all love sugar, but man this girl kinda hoards it! At the lunch time the kids each dished up their plates. I was busy with Addie or something, but then I saw Kara bring back her plate and it had a chocolate cupcake, a cookie, a pudding cup, and some candy or something! Sick!! Kate had some veggies and fruit and meat along with all of that...but only the treats were eaten in the end. Just another reason this is my least favorite holiday. No point to it. Cute dress ups are fun, but everything else. Yuck. I know I am a Scrooge. :)

Note Kara in line...again... 

And I love this picture of Papa and MerMer with Addie. Her big cheeks are just bursting out of that hat. :)

Kara with her wonderful teacher, Mrs. Slomp. She kept asking her teachers if she could wear their hats.

It was fun, but good riddance Halloween! HELLO CHRISTMAS!!! Hosting the complete opposite feelings and spirit!
 

Pumpkin Carving and SURPRISE VISITORS!!!!

It was a very special day that the kids had no clue about. Well, I did end up telling them a visitor was coming so they needed to help me clean and keep it clean. They were so excited and asked me all day long to tell them who it was! No way. It was hard for me to wait...because it was MY PARENTS who drove all day one day, stopped in Utah, and then all day another day up to us! They kept coming!!! They end up in Utah a lot since half of our family is there and a lot of Church events are there and I get a bit disappointed that we live so far away that my kids don't get to see Papa and MerMer and their cousins as often as they like, but this time they came to us. I was so worried about them driving up here (to winter!) but everything melted and stayed away until a couple days after they left. The did get to experience a couple days of freezing rain though. Weee. Here is the arrival!


Pumpkin time! Little Miss Priss didn't want to touch the pumpkin guts because they felt gross. :)

The others dug in.

Digging out the pumpkin seeds.  

 

 

 

 

Good thing Papa got here when he did! I get itchy and rashy if I dig out pumpkin guts. Weird I know...but convenient!! Worked with weeding sometimes too!!

Addie was excited to see them too! Last they held her she was 6 weeks old. 

I love this picture! Everyone looking and smiling. Quite the feat!
It was such a fun surprise for my kids. They love Papa and MerMer and want to go to their house. Me too!! Come and visit again!!! And again...and again... :)

First Snow...

October 22 we woke up to this...whoa. October 22?!!? That's 2 months before the official 1st day of winter! Lucky for me Justin was home for his "research" week and he took Zach to school. Well, tried to. We were snowed into our garage. Ridiculous. It is days like these that I question my living in Canada...or any place that has snow. But I know this happens to me every winter. The reality of winter. It always comes back! This year I even found myself in May dreading winter coming. "Yeah, the weather is turning beautiful now and spring is amazing here, but spring is here, and then summer will be gone, and then winter is here...for a long time." I know I have a sickness! It envelops my brain. Too much. But THIS IS WHY!!! I really really dislike this! When I can just stay home and watch the snow fall it is quaint. But life these days isn't all indoors! And I have a kid in school now that has to be there every morning! Before any thaw. Almost makes me want to home school...but that's not going to happen. So I have to grow up and be brave. I just feel ill prepared for this ('this' being winter roads and driving). Out of my element. Uninformed. I didn't grow up with this! Put me in L.A. traffic and i am way more comfortable than with a middle of no where winter road! Is it wet? Icy? Dry? And freezing rain? I thought that frozen rain=snow but apparently not! Even rain has to be threatening here! Ativan might be beneficial on a winter drive for me, but then maybe I would relax too much and then things would go wrong!
Anyway, you can take the girl out of Southern California, but you can't take the Southern California out of the girl...some days I long for my southern California "winters." Wearing my sweater until 11 a.m...Still mowing the lawn every few weeks...Or maybe I could fabricate my ideal winter. Maybe 5 dumps of snow. On the weekends only. When I have no errands to run, lots of groceries in my house, and nothing to be outside my house for and we could have time to play. And I would be at my ideal weight so I don't feel guilty baking all day. :) And the roads and sidewalks will be completely clear by Monday morning. Snow can stay on the grass for 3 months of the year with melt in between. Winter will only be in Winter. Like it says on the Calendar...December 21? First snow right in time for a White Christmas. Lows are NO LOWER than -10. And March 21st the blossoms are out. That's what the calendar says!!
Anyway, enough of my rant. I will get used to it and not be a crazy lady by the end of winter. Then Spring will come and I will fear winter again. And then I will realize that this is my life, for the next 100 years I will have the reality of winter 6-7 months of the year. I will be that 80 year old woman late for my shift at the temple because it took forever to brush off my car and get through the foot of snow on the streets, catching myself before I almost slipped on the icy sidewalk and broke my hip. Both of them. And my arms. Both of those too. :) At least it melts here in Southern Alberta. I am really enjoying that part of this!!
And Zach did get there. He wouldn't have if I was the only one home. No way.

But look at my blessing. I can't complain about ANYTHING when I have this. This is such a sweet picture of Adaleigh. I LOVE IT! And this is true to life. This baby is like this 99.3% of the time.

Look at that little face.

Later on I took the kids outside to play. It was fun, for a few minutes...until Kate kept taking off her mittens and I had to put them on a million times and they wanted to build a snowman but the snow wasn't wet enough to pack into a ball...JUST PLAY!!! :)

This girl (Kate) bathes in snow just like she does in any water. She LOVES the water and LOVES the snow and LOVES to eat snow and ice or anything having to do with water. But with snow your face gets cold and freezes, and if you take your gloves off you get cold! 

Zach's getting ambitious enough to help shovel. AWESOME! Get that man a bigger shovel!

Trying to navigate through the deep snow!

Here are some pictures from a week later. Addie has been mastering sitting up...

...still a work in progress.
(although now she is a champ at it!! I am slowly catching up on these blog posts!)

And Kate's new favorite lunch. Monster faces! Justin's mom said she used to do this for the kids and they loved it. My kids did too! So much so that Kate did it all by herself a couple days later when she helped make lunch! And she did sooo good! Love her creativity!  

Trying to make the same face if you can't tell.