Rylee started off our Halloween week by carving a really cute Jack-o-lantern on Sunday. She did a great job and I love her use of materials to make braces for her Pumpkin.
On Monday Avynlea cleaned out a pumpkin to carve it but got bored/tired of doing it and stopped after it was clean with the intention of possibly getting back to it. She never did and it sat in our Laundry room sink growing mold until I finally threw it out. Basically a big fail on carving pumpkins this year except for Rylee she wins the gold star.
My friend Kate Williams has basically a wood shop in her garage and on Tuesday I went across the street to her house so she could help me make some wooden reindeer for my front porch for Christmas. Avynlea was in her last days of Quarantine and came over to help cut some of the wood out. I was nervous watching Kate demonstrate how to use her scroll saw but once I started cutting I discovered it wasn't as intimidating as I thought and I enjoyed cutting out the wood.
We were able to make two reindeer with the wood Kate found for me and after a break at lunch we went over to the Home Depot to get some wood to attach Rylee's foot board to her bed. I bought the head board and foot board off Facebook Marketplace but was only able to attach the Head board because we had the wrong frame which was frustrating. I had the foot board in my garage for the past year trying to figure out how to make it work when one day Kate asked me about it. I told her my dilemma and she explained to me how we could make it work. We cut the boards I bought using her table saw, added some screw pockets using her screw pocket jig and then finished them up with a light stain. We attached the boards to the Head Board and then added the Foot board and we were done.I love how the bed looks in Rylee's room and am so glad that Kate was able to help me out with it, she is a great friend and neighbor!
This week being Halloween week I encouraged my classes to come dressed up for dance. I dressed up as Minnie Mouse using a skirt I bought off of Amazon and after putting my hair in buns and adding my black turtleneck, leggings, white gloves and yellow shoes I think I pulled off a very cute Minnie Mouse. I didn't have as many dancers this week but for those who came we had a lot of fun dancing to Halloween music in our costumes.
I was driving home with Avynlea after picking her up from Cheer practice when we noticed that someone had put a bouquet of balloons on Rykers Pickup. There wasn't a note or anything else and we didn't know who did it until Sunday at church when Echo and Ryann confessed to putting them there. They said they had them for a Senior photo shoot and then didn't have a need for them anymore so they got put on Ryker's pickup.
The day I have been waiting for has finally come, our Meridian Costco opened Friday and I was there bright and early Friday morning. I normally wouldn't have cared to have gone opening day but I needed some stuff for our Halloween party and I was waiting for our Costco to open so I wouldn't have to have driven to the Nampa or Boise ones. I loved everything about it but they only get a 4 star rating for me. The missing star is because this Costco does not have a photo center and that really bums me out. I didn't even know it was a thing to not have a photo center inside a Costco. I needed to print off out 2020 family pictures and since I couldn't use Costco I sent them to the Walgreens. It was twice the amount of money to print there then it would have been at Costco but I had a 50% off coupon so it worked out ok in the end.
Emily and I have been hatching a plan for weeks and Friday at ten we were able to pull it off. Emily is doing an arts infusion program in her classroom and I offered to teach her kids some fun Halloween dances. I was really excited about doing this but also really nervous and I am so happy that it turned out great. She had me projected on their big screen and my sound coming out of her loudspeakers so everyone could see and hear me. Because I was hooked up to her speakers I couldn't hear them which turned out to be really a good thing. I was able to just talk and teach without having kids interrupt or ask questions, it was great. We did a warmup and then fun Halloween movement dances and then I taught them a couple of counts of a dance to a Halloween song, it was so much fun! I loved being able to see her kids in their costumes and teach them some fun dances!
Friday Night Avynlea and some of her cheer friends threw a Halloween party at Hannah's grandma's house. The 4 girls throwing the party decided to dress in theme and Hannah was a Spaceman while Avynlea, Dreya and Hailey were Aliens. I didn't want to spend a lot of money on Avynlea's costume and we were having a hard time finding cute, modest and inexpensive items of silver clothing. We finally went to The Hobby Lobby where we donut silver material and we bought it for $6 and I made her a dress out of it. A $6 Halloween costume I can handle and Avynlea loved the dress and looked really cute all while saving me money and having a great time with her friends!
Halloween fell on a Saturday this year and I was really excited about that! Because of covid I assumed most wards wouldn't be doing trunk-or-treats or Halloween party and I was able to have our annual Peterson Halloween Party on Halloween! It was so much fun and I loved that we could actually do it on Halloween!
First I had to take some pictures of my girls in their costumes
Avynlea as a space alien
and Rylee as Princess Peach
back row: Qiana(Alvin), Brielle(Jeanette), Rylee(Princess Peach), Avynlea(Alien)
second row: Sadie(Queen Elsa), James(Construction Worker), Tayvia(Brittney), Jenna(Farmer), Luke(Cow), Asher(Simon), Brooke(Little Red Riding Hood), Madison(Dragon)
front row: Hazel(Eleanor), Xander(Theodore), Garrett(Tiger), Caleb(Tiger), Jason(Dragon), Kelly(Witch), Laney(Bee), Kinsley(Medusa) and Amelia(Witch)
We did a nacho bar for dinner, I provided the cheese sauce, chips and meat and everyone helped by bringing toppings with Trista providing drinks and Alison bringing Doughnuts for dessert. I also had every family bring a bag of candy, if they could, to use for games.
I got some white crepe paper at the Dollar Store and the kids played the game "wrap the mummy". Avynlea, Rylee, Brielle and Qiana were team captains and picked their teams. It was fun watching them wrap their mummys.
Thie kids also played the game "Ghosts in the Graveyard". Avynlea and I filled up a bunch of white balloons and drew ghost faces them. We took them out into the backyard and had the kids stomp on them to poop them. It happened so fast I didn't get any pictures. Lastly I had the four oldest kids take all the candy and put it out in the backyard so that the rest of the kids could do a candy hunt, basically an Easter egg hunt but with Halloween candy and no eggs :).
Since it was Halloween we took the kids out around the block trick-or-treating and between that and the candy hunt they all had pretty full bags of candy to take home. It was such a fun night and I loved being able to spend it with family. After the party Avynlea went to a church friends party, Rylee went out with her friends and Ryker was working so it was just Kefford and I at home. We watched a spooky movie and then went to bed, it was such a good night!
Rylee and her friends did a dress up theme and dressed up as Mario characters.
Taylee is Yoshi, Ella is Luigi, Tayci is Mario and Rylee is Princess Peach
