Halloween part 4: Halloween Cat

"Halloween Cat, Halloween Cat,
Why do you meow and meow like that?
Neither I nor the moon,
like your tune,
so SCAT, Halloween cat."

Our kids love that chant...

But somehow, the 6 Clarks ended up with our own Halloween Cat.
What? Why?

Because little Quincess loves, loves, loves animals. And because her dad is a sucker. He couldn't tell her no when she looked at him with her big dark brown eyes and asked him for a kitty. We went to Grandma Judy's house where her cat (actually Aunt Jenny's) had kittens. She fell in love and wanted one really bad. Next thing I know, we are bringing it home. The kids have named him Casper.
Actually, we justify it by hoping that the cute little kitty will grow into a vole/mouse catching machine. It better!

We are not cat people. It will not be an inside cat (even though the kids keep bringing it in). I hope Suncrest is not too cold for the little guy. Too bad it had to be introduced to snow the 1st day! We've had it for 3 days and every time I go to leave, I have to pop the hood to my car because it crawls underneath and climbs up and lays on the engine. I'm guessing because it's warm? With as much running around as I do, the engine is always warm. I really hope I don't forget to check...

Here's Quin showing her Halloween Cat dress:

Halloween part 3: Party!

Grandpa and Grandma G are on a Mediterranean Cruise as we speak. Lucky! They left a week ago, and will be gone another week. Because Grandma likes to plan way ahead, and it takes her 2 weeks to pack,(exaggerating) she thought she better have her party the very first weekend of October so she would have some time. It worked out great because it was also General Conference weekend and we LOVE being at the cabin for that. We went up Saturday morning, watched/listened to conference, and did all of the usual cabin activities:







We also emptied out the crawl space under the old cabin. We found treasures! Among other random things, there was enough food storage to last a loooong time. Problem is, how old is it and how long does it last? My parents decided to get rid of all of it. Except, there was an old wheat grinder that belonged to my Grandma G and I was stoked to use it. I was even more excited that there were like 100 cans of whole wheat. I've been wanting to try grinding wheat and making homemade wheat bread. We tested out the grinder and the wheat, and it was perfectly fine :) I've got some baking to do.



Now on to the fun Halloween part...

Of course, it started with yummy food. Finger foods, dip, and drinks. I love these paper plates/napkins:


Then it was coloring and pinata:






In this pic, Millie is taking her last hit....this is seconds before it broke, you can see the candy through the crack. Good job Millie!



Grandma wanted it to be a costume party. It was a miracle that we had our costumes ready (mostly). Whew! I knew this month was going to be crazy so I tried to get it all done in September. So glad I did. Can you find Sambo? Check out Will in the 2nd pic.




She gave us these cool masks :)

Halloween part 2: Pumpkins

Picking out our pumpkins is always a fun family outing. This year we went to a pumpkin patch at a charming little cottage near Quincy's pre-school. Each of us picked one of our choice.

I like mine because it has a bunch of wart looking bumps all over it. Really ugly but cute. Of course, the the boys were big and round, Millie's was perfect shape and size with no defects, and Quincy's was little and cute. BS found one that was shaped like a mushroom, but went for tall and skinny.

Oh yeah, it was also "crazy sock day" at school. You can see Sambo's and Millie's, but Will (with his good fashion sense) opted to take his off before going anywhere in public :)

Next door they were cutting down some huge trees. We had fun counting rings and climbing on the trunks.

Halloween Part 1: Frightmares

Right now I am sitting by the pool in St. George for Fall break. It is 80 degrees. The kids are swimming, and I am so happy that I have some time to read, relax, and get caught up on some blog posts.

We love October. It's always a month long frenzy of activities. To kick-off Halloween, we went to Frightmares at Lagoon a few weeks ago. We went the last Friday of September, which was their opening night. It was great because the weather was perfect and it was not crowded at all. They do a great job at decorating the entire park complete with eerie ghosts, jack-0-lanterns, and every kind of monster roaming around. The best part was we went with Aunt Sarah and Brady and the cousins from Arizona. Millie's friend Skye came too. We had an awesome time!!!



This year, the older kids felt brave enough to go through 2 of the 4 haunted houses. As far as haunted houses go, they were really well done. Just the right amount of scare without being totally creepy and psycho. Of course, the "Spook-A-Boo" and the hay maze are always a hit because you get candy and toys.


Every time we go to Lagoon, Will begs and begs to play the games. You know, the ones that cost $5.00 for 1 try. We always tell him no. This time, he was smart and brought his own money. He was studying all of the games forever, scouting out which one to play, based on the coolest stuffed animal. Problem was, he only brought $2.00 and the park was closing. When it came down to it, he totally choked and wasted so much time deciding which one to play, that there was only 1 game stand that hadn't closed called "Lucky Ducks." He proudly gave his $2 to the worker. In this game, there are a bunch of rubber duckies floating around a little stream. You pick one, look on the bottom, and if there is a dot you win. Will picked one and handed it to the lady. She said, you won a little ducky stuffed animal! And handed it to him. It was really quite small and not that great, but you would have thought he won the lottery! He was so proud of his prize! Ever since, he has his little ducky perched on the deer antlers hanging above his bed (he sleeps on top of bunkbeds) where he can reach it when he goes to bed. He secretly sleeps with it and puts it back up in the morning. So cute and funny.