This is Halloween

(this is a Ryan post - just keep that in mind)

Earlier this week we did a community sponsored trunk-or-treat. Olivia was a bunny or something white and fluffy. Jack was mostly Darth Vader (minus the helmet), and Kaitlynn was the White Witch of Narnia.

They really did have fun. Jack liked the candy. And Kaitlynn liked the attention her crazy crown and dress got her.

Bet you didn't know that Darth Vader picked his nose sometimes?

What could be cuter than this bunny thing?

This is about as cute as these 3 can be for a posed picture. Jack at least held his light saber so I didn't have to drag it around with me any more.

The spoils of war! Kaitlynn managed to not get her dress too sticky. We still needed it for Halloween.

I was pretty excited about the whole thing. I waited at least 2 seconds before checking my email on my phone when we got home.

This is the kids today for Halloween. The neighborhood decided as a group that we would all trick-or-treat on Saturday, so the kids sat on the porch for a while today and hoped someone would come. About 5 kids did.

Olivia got pretty tired of the whole Trick-or-Treat thing real quick. She ended up sitting on the porch with me rummaging through the candy dish looking for possible vanilla tootsie rolls that were missed by little hands. There was zero - dang you kids!

Jack was all about the houses where you didn't have to interact with a human being to get the candy. Halloween was super stressful for him. I couldn't convince him that Darth Vader wears black shoes, or that his mask was cool, or that his light saber might come in handy while battling ghosts and goblins for a "fun" size Snickers.

Kaitlynn on the other hand, was all about flashing a princess quality smile for a little extra chocolate. She told me that this was the funnest day ever. (She dressed up as the White witch of Narnia in case you didn't catch that - Rebekah made the costume and it was pretty awesome, including the icicle crown and fake dread-lock style hair)

Shot of us working our way through the townhouses.

This one just looked cool with all the blurry stuff behind us. You can't really tell from the picture, but there were about 150 to 200 kids out getting free stuff in our neighborhood. I think this really might be little Provo.

I dressed up as the 'wardrobe' so the 3 of us were the lion, the witch and the wardrobe. My handwriting was really awesome on this shirt. Yes, I am aware that I am awesome. Thank you for noticing.

Here is our happy family (and Jack). Note that we are wearing short sleeve shirts and flip flops. Missouri isn't all that bad after all. I guess one downside is that the pumpkins we just caved a few days ago are already rotting on the porch. Yeah for Halloween.

How did we do?

Carving pumpkins

For family night this week we carved pumpkins. Oh what fun. Ryan really gets into carving. This is a family tradition that will stick. Since we can't really let the kids play with knives we had them frosting sugar cookies. In end I threw out all the cookies and frosting. The kids are pretty sick with snotty noses and I saw a lot of double dipping. Even though we didn't get to enjoy the cookies later it was the best distraction/activity to make them feel involved with the night. Another perfect moment in the Bartholomew home.

Kaitlynn wanted a princess pumpkin.

Because she is such a beautiful princess!

Everyone working hard.

Yes I let her sample a cookie.

I quickly took the cookie out... after I snapped a picture of this chipmunk face!

He wasn't very good at spreading the frosting around. He was very good at sucking it off the cookie though.

Sampling the goods.

Our spooky pumpkins.

Our spooky kids. Olivia didn't get to see the finished products, seven thirty is just too late for her.

Cheese!

Gutting Pumpkins

Carving pumpkins with little kids is kind of tricky what with all the knives a such. Someday they will totally love this tradition, but for now they just have to watch. Which was more than fine with Jack. He was totally disgusted by the whole thing. He wouldn't even look inside once ryan cut off the top. Ryan had some meeting to get to so we broke it up into two night. Gutting one night and carving the next.

With that round face she should be a pumpkin for halloween. But she's not.

Eww Yuck!

This rag got pumpkin guts on it. He really didn't want it near him. He even tried to throw away the rag.

How many safety hazards can you see?

She was the only one who didn't seem to have a problem with the pumpkins.

Playing outside

Just some pictures of us playing outside this week.

Her hair is getting so long.

I would like Ray to look beyond the beautiful baby and notice that our flowers are still alive! Your efforts were not wasted!

This boy LOVES his light sabers.

Kind of creepy picture of me, but Jack was too cute to leave it out.

I missed the real moment. He was pretending to fight someone, and was killed. He was laying on the ground saying "oh no, you got me!".

Ward Carnival

Last weekend our ward had a harvest carnival, not to be confused with a halloween party. No ghost were allowed to attend this party. It was fun. Lots of little booths and fun prizes. The kids had fun and ran around a lot. Ryan unfortunately was stuck studying at the library and missed all the festivities. I don't have any good pictures between the running and holding a very large baby it just couldn't happen.

Love this face

And this one.

Kaitlynn and her best friend McKenzie.

Chocolate Jack about to bowl.

Hurry and sneak a cupcake while mom is not looking!

Thank you Grandma

Grandma Hylton sent us these really cool markers made for writing on glass. We now have a very decorated screen door. Kaitlynn wanted to spend all day coloring. I am waiting for a cold raining day to bring them out again since we have those cool mirror closets. Hours of fun. Well at least for Kaitlynn. I might get five minutes of fun out of Jack.

28

Ryan had his happy birthday last Friday. He is 28. So old. Yikes! We opened one present from my parents in the morning but made him wait all day for the party before we let him open anything else. He spent the morning studying for some classes. He also had to take a test. What a lousy birthday present. Of course he did very well on it. That afternoon I had to go to the dentist. Stupid tooth. To be honest I am not sure there is a tooth left. Two and a half root canals and now a crown. Oh well, at least now I can chew. This left Ryan to watch the kids all afternoon. We had friends come over for cake and ice cream and games. It was really a fun night.

This is a present wrapped by the kids.

The kids wrapped it and they unwrapped it too.

Cute kids

It's a sweater.

Olivia loved playing in the box.

Birthday wrestle

Finally after all day of waiting it was time for the party.

It's another sweater!

The kids helped open this present too, Iron Man and Oreos.

Just a small sampling of the kids we had over. At one point we had a few over that didn't belong to anyone at the party.

We had a mean game of Operation going. This is Ryan and Tara trying, they are in the same program. Neither of them could do it. Then other Ryan who is a med student tried. He failed too. In fact the only one who could do it was Adam the financial adviser! We all had a great time and laughed a lot. We also played Apples to Apples, there were some pretty funny moments.

I tried blowing up balloons after I got home from the dentist. My mouth was half numb and I couldn't do it.