Christine's Halloween Birthday Bash

Christine's birthday was at the beginning of September but we were busy with other activities and didn't have time for her party. I saw that the weather last weekend was going to be nice so we quickly made some calls and threw it all together. It was a crazy busy day! I had Chris's aunt here in the morning with her kids, I had three up-dos to style for Homecomings that night, Chris and Aubrey were gone all day for a temple trip (Aubrey's first one) and then the birthday party. The party started at 6:30, I told Chris I needed him home by then to help with cooking the hot dogs, they walked in at 6:20! Perfect timing! We had stayed up late the night before getting things ready for the big day. My friend Jen helped with the cake. Chris helped with the luminaries and witch hats for a ring toss gaame. We got to bed at 2 am. I got up at 7 to carve the bonfire pumpkins, make the ghoolish food, and clean the house. I had to have the party ready to go by 11am because company was coming. It was one of those days where everything fell into place and even though it was busy it couldn't have gone smoother.... for me those days are rare so I just soaked it all up and enjoyed every second of it. And then I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

My little monkey opening her gifts....Because I didn't want lots of kids in the house we had the party outside under the lights. The luminaries have jack-o-lantern faces but I didn't get a good picture of them. They were cut out of cardstock and wrapped around canning jars. There were about thirty jars with candles throughout the yard, lighting pathways from the house to the bonfire then from the bonfire to the food area. It actually looked really cool. And there are ghosts hanging from the light canopy in the trees.....

So the ghost is a cake. I had to make it the night before and it really shrunk a couple of inches before the party (I didn't have time to freeze the cake ahead of time to give it strength). The graveyard is "mud" (pudding and oreos) and I didn't take a picture of it once it was all put together. Oh well, this gives the basic idea......

I really wanted a bonfire for extra light but didn't want to deal with the safety factor - kids and fire don't mix well - so I found this idea on the Better Homes and Garden website and I loved it. It looked awesome in the yard that night. We had blankets all around the fire pit where the girls could sit and giggle and dance and play.

Her party turned out great. We had kids in costumes, played carnival games, ate spooky food and had a blast. Half way through the party Chris asked, "how many kids did you invite Tanya?" "Seven." I replied. Then a quick head count to see how many were there....we had 18 kids total. Hmmm... not sure how that happened. But it sure was fun.

The Letter 'S'

At preschool on Monday I was teaching a lesson about the letter S. We went over the name and the sound of the letter, then I read a story with lots of 'S'-es, and finally discussed words beginning with S. I listed some: snail, snack, sand etc. I then asked the kids if they could think of any words that began with S. Talia thought for a second then in her sassy teenage voice said "S, so stupid." Then flipped her hair.

I replied with surprise, "Seriously?"

Talia very smugly responds, "What? It starts with S."

When did she get so..... smart?