Halloween Dance and Jack-O-Lanterns

I made a jack o Lantern cake in honor of Halloween and the pumpkin carving we were going to be doing. I was pretty proud of the face I made but need to find a "stem" for next year. 

I sent a note home with my dancers the week before to let the girls know they could come to dance dressed in their Halloween costumes. They looked so cute and we had a fun time dancing to Halloween music. I wanted to get a group picture and spent some time trying to get the girls to stand where I wanted them to. Presli, the butterfly, was super protective of her wings and absolutely would not sit or stand anywhere near the other girls. It was really making me laugh. I am really enjoying teaching this class this year, these girls are so cute and have been so fun. This is going to be a great year!

Back Row: Ella, Alana, Sofi, Elina and Brighton

Front Row: Kinley, Hadyn, Juliette, June and Presli

Monday night for Family Home Evening we carved our pumpkins. Kenedy was at cheer and Kefford was at the Barnyard so it was just me, Avynlea, Ryker and Rylee who carved our pumpkins after we ate dinner.

This year I did a Harry Potter themed pumpkin which was Avynlea's idea for me to do.

Ryker carved a spooky face

Avynlea did an Owl

And Rylee did a throwing up guts jack o lantern. 

I thought all of our pumpkins turned out really cute and i love how creative everyone was. Avynlea really wanted me to roast seeds so she spent some time cleaning a bunch out.

After Kenedy got home from cheer she picked out a pumpkin to carve. I had fun visiting with her while she got creative and carved Jack Skellington.

Our Jack-O-Lanterns all aglow on Halloween night.

Halloween

Kenedy gets 50% off pizzas at Papa Murphy's because she works there. She told me that they were doing jack-o-lantern pizzas on Halloween and so I had her go buy a couple with her discount. I love it when things can be cheaper for me!

Ryker was going to a Halloween party at a friends house in our old ward and originally decided to wear his Draco Malfoy costume. He changed his mind after he was dressed and decided to just wear a wig that Kefford has. Kenedy had friends over and she was one of McKoys sister wives. 

Kenedy wore Avynlea's kitty costume to cheer practice that afternoon and wasn't going to be back until after 7. We were planning on going trick or treating with some friends and were planning on going at about 6. Avynlea had her kitty makeup on but needed her costume. Since we were leaving before Kenedy was getting home I told Avy to wear Rylee's bunny costume from a few years ago so we could get started and then when Kenedy got home she could change. Avynlea tried the costume on but felt dumb wearing it so she decided to just wait for Kenedy to come home.

I think she looks pretty stinking adorable

My Mom flew in from California that day and it was so much fun to have her to walk around with us. It was a good thing she was with me too because while I thought we were going around the neighborhood with all of the Givens we were really just taking Rylee's friend Brynn and two of her friends while the Dad took the boys and the Mom stayed home with the baby. It wasn't too bad except Brynn and her friends were a little too slow to our liking. After a while we met up with Eliza and Addy Lewis and hit more houses for candy. After a bit longer the girls went to Brynns house to go with her Dad to the Spurwing neighborhood while we stayed and finished our neighborhood. I love those girls but we were not sad to say bye and go on our own. 

After we hit all the houses in our subdivision we went across 10 mile to go to some of the houses of friends in our ward. 

We stopped by the Rays and I had Carson bring me out one of their puppies to hold. He has been giving me a hard time in church about not coming to visit their puppies so I made them take a picture of me holding one. I tell him I am just not a dog person, or any animal person, and that just confuses him and makes him sad. Ha Ha Ha

When we got back home Kenedy was their with her friends and I took a picture of them all dressed up.

Lauryn, Ashlyn, McCoy, Kenedy, Anna and Kelsie

When McCoy first came over he was dressed as Donald Trump, but after our picture he took off the cap and wig to become the husband of the sister wives. Kefford couldn't resist trying on the blonde wig.

The girls decided to inspect and trade their candy on my bed while watching Phineas and Ferb. It was a fun night and they got a lot of candy!

4th Annual Peterson Halloween Party

I thought my invite to our 2017 Peterson Halloween Party was clever, simple and fun. I am pretty sure this will be a template for all future invites. Who wouldn't want to have a picture of lasts years party goers as the invite to hang on their fridge?

I asked everyone if they had a preference as to what they wanted to bring as far as food goes to the party and after getting responses from most everyone I made assignments and sent those out with the invites. 

Elizabeth:soup ( I made tortellini tomato basil and it was so good! I even got a compliment from Bob that it was surprisingly good. ha!)

Whitney:soup (she brought a delicious potato soup with toppings)

Alison:bread bowls

Brit:salad

Kylie:rolls

Michelle:treats (sugar cookies, chocolate dipped pretzels and mummy brownies)

Mikell:treats (swiss cake roll bats and spider doughnuts)

All the food was so good and it was fun to have so many options!

This year Rylee wanted to be Luna Lovegood from the Harry Potter series. I bought the glasses and patch off amazon and the wand is my wand that I bought at Harry Potter world a couple of years ago. I told Rylee she could use it if she was very careful with it. She held it for pictures but I noticed her putting it back in it's box on the shelf when she wasn't using it rather then leaving it laying around. That made me really happy. 

I procrastinated her costume a bit, not a lot but enough that it made her nervous and question as to whether I would have it done on time. Obviously I finished and she looked really cute. 

It took Avynlea a while to really commit to what she was going to be for Halloween. Finally she decided on a cat and we got some really cute cat ears from Claire's. The tutu and tail we had from previous years costumes and so hers was really easy to put together. I liked that! I did her hair and makeup with her adding a little bit more drama to the makeup when I was done. I think she turned out looking amazing and she loved it which is most important!

 As soon as everyone showed up we gathered the kids for a picture before letting them loose to the fun.

Back Row: Rylee (Luna Lovegood), Jason (Superman), Kelly (Owl), James (Dragon), Brooke (Fairy), Asher (Peter Pan), Qiana (Wendy), Amelia (Skunk), Brielle (Tiger Lilly), Hazel (Tinker Belle), Avynlea (Cat) and Kinsley (Lady Bug)

Bottom Row: Xander (Michael Darling), Sadie (50's Girl), Tayvia (Mermaid), Jenna (Witch), Madi (Butterfly), and Caleb (Dragon)

We have a family in our ward that owns a bouncy house business. Since it is a bit more off season they told Kefford we could rent one of their more basic Bounce houses for $40 if we picked up and set it up ourselves. Um, Yes Please! This Bouncey House was the best idea and it kept the kids occupied and having fun! They had fun making up games and showing off their fancy tricks!

 Since the kids were more or less occupied that led the adults time to hang out and visit. Jeremy and his family and Dustin and his family were the only ones that were not present. While Trista and Sara coming down from Idaho Falls was a last minute welcome surprise. 

The trampoline was also fun for the kids to play on and the kids loved having their Grandpa to play with. 

We had really beautiful weather that evening which made it nice for the kids to be able to play outside. 

Before everyone left I turned on some music so Madi could have her dance party. The older kids were not interested but these littles really showed us their moves! It was especially fun to watch the babies shake and bounce to the music. 

Another successful Peterson Halloween Parties and this one just makes me more excited for future Halloween Parties!

A Litle Bit of Color

Avynlea has been wanting me to let her add some color to her hair for a long time. The last time I had my hair done she begged and begged me to let her have some of the blue in her hair also and I told her no. A couple of weeks later my hairdresser sent me a text telling me she got some color as samples and she would put it on my girls hair if I wanted. I told her I would think about it and after much thinking I decided to let them do it. It is a temporary stain that is said to wash out in about ten washings so it should be fine on my girls hair. Plus since they have light hair we do not need to add any bleach which was a concern of mine and something I am completely against having done to their hair. 

Jessica came over and after she put color in my hair I called Rylee down and told her she could have some color put in her hair. She was super excited and had the choice between purple and pink and she chose purple. Jessica free handed the color onto the tips and I love that she didn't do a solid line all the way across. 

Avynlea was upstairs with some friends she had stay the night and after Rylee had the color put on her hair we told her to very carefully go upstairs and show Avynlea. I knew that as soon as Avy saw Rylees hair she would be running downstairs to ask about getting hers done. This was her idea after all. I timed her and as soon as Rylee walked upstairs it took Avy 10 seconds to come thundering down the stairs asking about her hair. She was even more excited then Rylee about getting her hair colored and was happy to have pink although she did ask for blue at first.

I love how the color turned out and I love how excited and happy it made my girls. They look so cute and because the color was put on the tips if for some reason it doesn't come out we can always cut it out. I don't anticipate that being a problem though. 

Kenedy Senior Pictures

Kenedy's Senior Pictures came and she looks so beautiful! I was really excited to look through the shots and really had a hard time choosing just one to display and hand out to family. Luckily I will have more opportunities to use them for her grad announcements and different things pertaining to graduation.

Ryker, Avynlea and Rylee's Yearly Pictures

We were so excited to get the flash drive of pictures back from Lana. As soon as we were done with taking pictures Avynlea asked me often when we were going to get the pictures back so she was especially excited to see them.

I love how they turned out and really had a hard time choosing the ones to display and hand out to family. My kids are so cute and are looking much too old for my taste!

RYKER:

RYLEE:

AVYNLEA:

AVY AND RYLEE: