Early Christmas

Yes, I know we are crazy. Yes, I know it is not even Thanksgiving yet. But, nonetheless, we had an early Christmas this morning. Reason being, we leave for Hawaii in a week and we'll be there for almost 2 months! We gave the kids all their presents from us today and they were so excited.

We started the morning with Christmas Dutch Babies

Then upstairs for the presents!

Crew was SO excited for his Elmo Live!

But the best presents were outside. They all got some sort of motorized vehicle with personalized decals.

Merry Early Christmas!

Gingerbread Festival

This year, the gingerbread festival wasn't as cool as years past, but it was still fun! There weren't nearly as many large creations - here are the best:

Grand Victorian

World Monuments

Under the Sea

Hawaiian Christmas (we had to get a photo of this one!)

Some of the kids with Mrs. Candy Cane

The favorite part: making gingerbread houses

Chase

Caden and Dub (Dub's first gingerbread house ever - he was very excited)Caden's

Hayes, Olivia, and CrewHayes, Olivia's, and Crew's after about 3 minutes!

The best part about making gingerbread houses - Eating them!

(for those of us NOT on a low-carb diet!)They also had a Jr High playing big band music, which was fun for the kids to boogie to after they were sufficiently high from sugar! The festival is at Thanksgiving Point and all proceeds go to the Boy Scouts and Utah PTA - for anyone who is interested!

Madagascar Party

Last night a bunch of kids from the boys school went to go see the opening of Madagascar 2. This is just part of the group of kids. It was a really cute movie and such a blast. I love to hear little kids really laugh and enjoy themselves.

The boys really wanted to have everyone over for a party after the movie. I was a bit hesitant, but I thought we'd give it a try. It went really well. They all played nice and I just told them all they had to stay upstairs.

Crew was of course in a partying mood.

The leaders of the Nerf fight.

Video Games

Wii Games

Basketball

Rope Swing

Crazyness

Movie Theater - Journey to the Center of the Earth

I am so thankful that the boys have such a good, fun group of friends. The house was totally clean, kids all home, and my boys in bed by 10:00! Chase is already asking this morning when we can have another party night!

We had such a great Halloween! It was absolutely gorgeous weather and a perfect day to have fun together with our kids and friends. This year, our boys dressed up as the batman team.

Crew as Robin

Caden as Batman

Chase as Joker

Then it was time for class parties!

Customary Witches Brew
(ALL the kids ask me if I am going to do this about a month before Halloween!)

Caden's class is SO good! They just watched intently as I was making my brew.

We made these darling balloon crafts in Caden's class. We went through several popped balloons though!

Chase's class is quite a bit more crazy - but they are a fun group of kids!

Room MomsThe Winning Team of Shannon's Balloon Sharade Game

Then onto the Ward Trunk-or-Treat

These two were hilarious as Richard Simmons Sweatin to the Oldies

You can't tell from this picture, but KJ was a totally awesome transformer that actually transformed from a truck into a transformer. I have it on video. SO cool!

Caden's Buddies

My favorite part of the evening, Jane's party. I so look forward to warm soup in a pumpkin bowl as we get ready to take our huge group of children out trick-or-treating!

Our group of kids keeps getting bigger and bigger each year!

And last, our Halloween bath before bedtime! I put dry ice in a spice ball (so it doesn't stick to the kids) and the bath bubbles and fogs away!