Happy Halloween!

We had a fun Halloween this year! What with the Peterson Party to kick it all off and then having Halloween on a Friday (the perfect night), plus because of our Party I was able to get pictures and send out my family Halloween Cards before Halloween. Oh, it was all so great!

Avynlea wanted to be a spy and when I asked her what a spy looked like to her she described a tight black shirt and black leggings. So easy! Then a couple of weeks ago she came home from school with a drawing of how she imagined her costume to look. This drawing had the black shirt and leggings as well as a black and purple tutu and a face covering. We had the black tutu from Rylee's kitty costume from last year so I pulled it out and had Avynlea attach purple ribbons to it. I also had some long pieces of scrap leftover from Ryker's costume and we used that to make the head covering she envisioned. When it was time to label what she was for our Halloween card she told me she was a "Ballerina Ninja spy"! Perfect! I loved it, I loved her creativity and I especially love that I could do what she wanted and pull off what was in her head.

Rylee decided last year that she wanted to be a monkey for this years Halloween. I bought a pattern when JoAnns had them for a dollar and the pattern had the monkey along with other variations of animals. Rylee did not like the look of the monkey and decided that instead she wanted to be the bunny. I love how the costume turned out and I even made her a carrot to carry around. I love how she is not just a kid in a white tutu and bunny ears. I wanted her to be a cute cuddly bunny and that is exactly what we got. She looked adorable!

Ryker had a little bit of a harder time coming up with what he wanted to be for Halloween. After thinking about different options he finally decided to be Draco Malfoy. With his blonde hair and handsome face he often gets told that he resembles this Harry Potter character and so we went with it.  I could not find a specific "Harry Potter" house robes pattern but I did find a wizard cloak pattern that I had used before to make him a Jedi cloak. Slytherin's colors are black and green and so I bought black and green knit with the intentions of making a black cloak with a green lining. It was a little trickier for me to figure it out while sewing but I did it and it looked awesome! I bought a Slytherin patch off ETSY to complete the look and, voila, he was Draco! He loves the cloak I made for him and wears it constantly, makes me happy!

Kenedy saw a little witch headband at the store and asked if I would get it for her so she could be a witch. The cute headband combined with her black shirt, my spider tights and my black tutu turned  her into a really cute witch. She was not inclined to put her costume on last Sunday so I could also get pictures of her so I cropped her picture from one of our outtakes  group picture. Teenagers are difficult. 

On Halloween I wore my skull shirt that I made last year and it still looked just as awesome! With my updo hair and red lipstick I thought I looked pretty cute. I wanted to take a picture of the back of me and so I got one in the bathroom mirror. I love that shirt!

Halloween night I made mummy english muffin pizzas which nobody ate. I had one, Kefford had one and Rylee ate half of one. Nobody else were interested or hungry. They looked really cute!

I told Kenedy a while ago that she could invite some friends over for Halloween and have a party if she didn't want to go trick or treating. I don't care if my teenagers go trick or treating, I know some people cut their kids off from the holiday when they turn 12 and  think that is silly. As long as the kids coming to my door are dressed up I don't care how old they are. Kenedy decided she did want to have a party and invited some friends to come over. She also decided that they should still go trick or treating so that's what they did. Kefford and I were both able to take Avynlea and Rylee around getting candy while Kenedy stayed at the house passing out candy and Ryker went around with his two friends. Things go a lot quicker when you just have two kids going from door to door. It was nice. When we got back Kenedy left with her friends to get candy and then Ryker got back with his friends. It was a really fun night and I like how this holiday is evolving for our little family. 

Katie Thibadeau, Ashlyn, Megan Warner, Kenedy Peterson, Lauren Warner, Michelle, McKay Atkinsen, and Trinity Berger

Tyler Pierce, Nathan Colton and Ryker Peterson

A couple things

On Sunday I asked Kefford if he would  get the pot roast ready for our meal. He was still in shirt and tie because he was going to take Ryker to the church at 2 for his interview with the Bishop. So he put on an apron. He put on the apron I made when I was in middle school and have kept  and used all these years. Kenedy thought that was pretty cute so she took a picture.

I took Avynlea and Rylee with me over to Mikells so we could give Jenna her crown she left at our house. While we were there I spent some time visiting with Mikell while Rylee played with her cousins. Avynlea stuck around me most of the time and later when I asked her why she said "Because adult conversation is so interesting". I immediately thought back to when my Mom would have her visiting teachers over and I would sit in the room with them and just listen because I also liked listening to adult conversations. 

James was playing in the entertainment cupboard and Avynlea thought that was really cute so she took a picture of him.

In Nursery we painted the kids hands to make ghosts and I thought they were so cute. My Nursery kids think it is fun to have their hands painted and so I like to do it often. I have the best Nursery!

Monday we got a Halloween package from my Mom and before FHE we opened it. It was filled with fun treats and we all loved it!

For Family Home Evening we went on a drive with Kenedy driving and Ryker teaching us about the sacrament and why we renew our convenants. We stopped at Sports Authority to get Rylee a basket ball, she has expressed an interest in playing BasketBall and so I told her I would sign her up for Y-Ball the next time they have signups. Kefford wanted to get her a ball so she could start learning and practicing the game. While Kefford was checking out, the rest of us headed out to the car. Ryker wanted to show me his trick and while he did that I took pictures.

Get it Clean!

I told Kenedy that she had to clean the bathroom better then she has ever cleaned it in preparation for our Peterson Party. She told me she knows how to clean good, she is just too lazy to do it right. I had to take some pictures of her cleaning the bathroom since she told me she can do it the right way.

A Peterson Halloween Party!

About a month ago I had the grand idea to throw a Peterson Halloween Party. I immediately sent out an email to the sisters with kids and after telling them my idea asked what they thought. They all wrote back that that sounded like a great plan and so with that, Peterson Halloween Party 2014 was on!

I designed the invitation after looking for inspiration on Pinterest. I love the little bat on top!

The day of the party I had Rylee and Avynlea help me clean the house while Kenedy was at cheer and Ryker on a scout campout. They were troopers and really did a great job being helpers. 

Adults were not required to dress up but I went festive anyway. The hair piece I saw at a craft fair and while I really wanted it I did not want to pay the steeper price. My really good friend Cristal was there with me and said she would buy it for me for my birthday. I happily agreed to this arrangement and have been looking forward to wearing it all month! I have to say I looked pretty cute ;).

I decided to keep it simple with the food and to just do soups and rolls and then some desserts. Everyone said they would help and so I handed out food and dessert assignments. Whitney, Mikell and I were doing soups, Gwen, Brit, Michelle and Kylie did dessert and Alison brought bread bowls and rolls.  

After we ate and before we played games we had all of the kids gather together for a group picture. They all looked so cute in their costumes and it was so fun to be able to see them.

back row: Brielle, Rylee, Qiana, Kenedy, Sadie, Ally, Avynlea and Xander

middle row: Tayvia, Brooke, Mikayla and James

front row: Asher, Bailey, Madison, Ryker and Jenna

I wanted to do some games and after looking on Pinterest and asking Emily for some ideas I came up with some cute ones to do. We did a witch's hat ring toss, bean bag toss and a pumpkin punch. The witch hats I made out of party hats and construction paper and the day of the party noticed I did not have any rings to toss. I asked Ryker, the king of tin foil sculptures, to make me three rings out of tin foil, which he did, and they were awesome. I had my kids make ghost suckers as the prize for that game. For the bean bag toss I made bean bags using halloween fabric from last years pillowcases I made and then bought three spooky boxes from the dollar store to toss the bags into. The prizes for this game were miniature candy bars. For the Pumpkin Punch I spray painted a foam board black and then I filled orange cups with a miniature candy bar and a spider ring. I then hot glued orange tissue paper over the cups and hot glued the cups to the board in a pumkinish shape. That one looked really cute and was my favorite! It was a little chaotic for the games but the kids had fun and I did not care too much. I had bought little pumpkin shaped treat boxes and wrote each kids name on them. Once they collected their prize they were to stick the candy in the box with their name on it and leave it there until after the party. I really did not want 17 sticky kids wandering around my house with chocolaty fingers and sticky suckers so that is what I decided to do to help prevent all that from happening. For the most part the kids were good about leaving them alone until it was time to leave.

This was such a fun night! I love any time we can all get together as a family and I am so happy with how this idea all came together and turned out. Everyone had a good time and enjoyed being together and a lot of fun memories were made.