Happy Halloween

We had a great Halloween this year. I've felt like Halloween would never come, because I started making preparations for the Kindergarten Halloween party in September, since we were going to be out of town in the middle of October, so I'm kind of relieved that it's all over now. We had a great time. I did a couple batches of cookies this year with a recipe and some great instructions I got from my new favorite cooking blog - Our Best Bites (check it out - everything I've made from here has been amazing!)


And here's a shot from Harrison's Halloween party at school. I was in charge of decorations, and had some fun being a little crafty. I found instructions for the decorations at Martha Stewart, and was able to put them together with stuff I had around the house. I also made some bat clothespins, and Halloween garlands that I hung around the classroom. The kids seemed to enjoy it.

This is Harrison and me at his Kindergaten Party. It was fun to be able to see him interact with all his school buddies.



After Harrison party, we had the ward party/chili cookoff. I made a new recipe (another Our Best Bites) but it turned out to be pretty hot. Next time I'll lay off the chipotle sauce.


Harrison was a knight again this year -but that's what he wanted. A couple days before Halloween Sam mentioned being a detective, which he was pretty excited about, but we decided to save it for next year. So now we have a whole year to get that costume figured out.



Noah was a Ninja. It was another costume we had on hand, and he was happy to wear it. I think as long as candy is involved, he's not too picky.



Olivia was a little butterfly - I picked up this and the ninja costume last year at Old Navy a couple days before Halloween. I think more people have caught on to the cute costumes they have at Old Navy, because they didn't have any left by the time they went on sale this year.




Sam and I got in on the costume act this year. This was the first time in our married life that we dressed up. I figured I needed a costume for the kindergarten party, and so I made a red riding hood cape for myself. When the boys saw it, they immediately asked Sam, "Dad, where's your costume?" So last Saturday I came up with a wolf costume for him (thanks again, Martha!). I was thinking that we should have had the kids be the three little pigs, but I'm not sure Harrison and Noah would have been excited about wearing pink sweats.

We didn't' get around to doing the pumpkins until Halloween day, but it made for a fun activity while the kids watiting for trick or treating to start. The toothy jack-o-lantern was Harrisons (the only one I helped with) and Sam was the artist on the witch (Noah's choice) and the Cat (Olivia's pumpkin.) My photos didn't do them justice - I was trying to get the glow effect by turning the flash off, but they all turned out a little blurry. But they looked great. Sam did an amazing job.

We started a few new traditions this year. Sam was helping the scouts do a fund raiser (no, that's not one of our new traditions, at least I hope it's not...) and so I started "The Legend of Sleepy Hallow" for the boys while I made dinner. They seemed to really enjoy it, and it didn't frighten them at all. After dinner we turned on "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown." We don't have a TV (and haven't since the great move), but recently we acquired a movie projector, which turns our living room into a movie theater. I thought it was a great way to spend the evening.

Here's everyone (in the rain) on Halloween night. Luckily the rains stopped right about 7 when the boys went out.

Here's the boys on their way to go trick or treating. I stayed home with sleeping Olivia to open the door, but we only got 4 knocks all night long. The boys had a great time, and got a great haul. They spent this morning counting up the candy and comparing what they got.

Harrison, master scriptorian

So this week we were reading in Alma 32-33, when Alma tells the Zoramites that if they don't think they can worship they should re-read their scriptures, and then there is some quotes about praying everywhere. So as I tried to summarize and dramatize the section to the boys, Harrison noted that Alma should have quoted from Daniel, because that's a story about it being illegal to pray, but he still did.

Pretty keen understanding of the scriptures, and insight.

Review: where the wild things are

Just a quicky now, as we are traveling today. But I didn't want anyone to waste their money on this. Here's my review.

Horrible. Horrible.

After watching the movie, you may not enjoy the book any more. Yes, it was that bad.

oh, and definitely not a 'generational difference'. I would not feel comfortable with my kids in this movie.

Update
So here's the full review, because some of you may be saying "Oh Sam. It can't be a truly worthless film." You know that I am opinionated. Why would you ask that question? This is not a beautiful train wreck; this is not something that can be enjoyed for how bad it is. This was something that after watching, Mollie and I had to watch some TV before going to bed, because we could not let this be the last thing on our mind.

Let's review first the potential for failure
1. Beloved children's book allows Hollywood brass to claim that nostalgia will overpower any bad reviews, leading to a strong showing regardless of content. CHECK.
2. Expansion of a 300 word book to a 2 hour film. CHECK
3. Creepy Enya/Bjork soundtrack. CHECK
4. Confusion in the actual target audience - children or their nostalgic parents? CHECK
5. A kids movie not made by Pixar. CHECK
6. Awesome costume department totally hogs budget from script development. CHECK.

Each of these items confers like an 80% failure rate. The combination of these is sure to be putrid.

Criticism 1 (starting from the 'light' end) - BORING. We first checked our watches after 30 minutes. And checked them regularly after an hour. ("Dang, only 5 minutes have passed. This is worse than waiting at the DMV").

Criticism 2 - Bizarre. It does not really follow the plot of the book, in so much as a 20 page picture book has a plot. So they had to inject a whole lot of story line that was not simply 'strange'. It was bizarre.

Criticism 3 - Not safe for kids. When Mollie woke up, she noticed that one of the main characters had a stick for an arm. She asked, "Is that a stick for his arm?" I answered, "Yes, the other wild thing tore his arm off a few minutes ago in a fit of rage. . . Yes, on camera. . . No, no blood. It was sand. . . Yup, like sand from a beach; spouting out of the brachial artery. " A short 2 minutes later she asked, "Is Max inside her stomach?" I answered, "Yes. She ate him to protect him from the other wild thing who was trying to eat him."

Criticism 4 - Bad attempt at higher meaning. At the very end, I started to put together some of the less bizarre elements and notice that there was an attempt at a higher moral or ethic.

So there you have it. It was terrible. We seriously had to watch an episode of Monk to get over this movie. I have never come home from a movie and said, "so you want to watch something else? You know, to like rinse it off."

My Little Monkey

Olivia loves to climb into anything. Her latest favorite is her doll stroller. She climbs in, sits, stands, and eventually tips over and falls out as she hasn't figured out how to climb out of it yet. She has, however, figured out how to get Noah to push her around in it.

The Pumpkin Patch

Our mommy and me preschool did a little field trip out to a pumpkin patch on Friday. It was so much fun, we didn't want to leave to go pick up Harrison from school! It was a half day of school for him, and I considered taking him with us to the pumpkin patch, as that would have simplified my life that day. When I proposed this to him, he promptly asked if there was school that day. When I replied yes, he said he would much rather go to school, and began to sing his school song. I guess he likes kindergarten.

Noah didn't want me taking pictures of him, so I let him take some pictures of Olivia and me. Then he was happy to let me take some of him.

Here's Noah with some of his preschool buddies. The littlest guy is a sibling, but the other three are in his class.

Here's Noah on the hayride. You wouldn't know from this picture, but Noah was terrified of going on the hayride. When he heard the tractor start up, he ran from the loading area screaming, "I'm not going on that!" It took a lot of convincing, and me eventually picking him up screaming and crying to go on it. You had to take the hayride to the patch, so I couldn't let him skip this. He cried for at least the first half, and then made a 180. He decided it was pretty fun, and was actually excited to get back on for the return trip. That's when I shot this picture.

The farm also had a great hayloft barn, filled with soft loose hay. We spent a lot of time here, and Noah loved leaping off the bales into the soft straw. Olivia loved crawling, sitting, trying to walk, and throwing the straw.

Happy birthday Noah!

Our little Noah turned 4! He was so excited for his birthday this year. And about being 4.

The boys were very excited to open a present in the morning - Noah picked out the art box I made him - I filled a tackle box with some of his favorite art supplies, and it was a big hit.

Here's Noah with his art box.

And here he is with his first creation. He loves pom poms, glitter glue and googly eyes.

We plan on celebrating both of the boys birthdays at Grandmas house next week, but you can't not celebrate on your birthday. Noah took cupcakes to preschool with him, and we had cake and sang to him that night.

Here's singing happy birthday this year. Remember last year? He really wanted to make sure he blew out all the candles on his own this year, so he got an early start.

This was my attempt at some monster cupcakes - unfortunately the airheads I used for tounges melted, and the m&m's fell off of the marshmallows, and so they didn't turn out like I wanted, but the kids in Noah's preschool class didn't seem to mind.

The boys also created some spider cupcakes using licorice and black sugar. Olivia seemed to think that tasted good as well.

Noah is a very sweet boy, always wanting to give cuddles and hugs, and loves spending time with people. He's our little social butterfly, and makes a friend in an instant. He loves running and jumping, and doing arts and crafts. We can't wait to spend another year with this guy. We love you Noah!

Olivia's walking!

Remember how yesterday I was saying she's only taking a few steps and not quite walking yet? Well, today she decided she's ready to walk a whole lot more. She's also taken to cheering for herself as she does so. Listen for the little "Yay!" here and there. Can you tell we've been trying to encourage this new skill in our almost 14 month old?