Thursday, November 03, 2011

Our Oz-ly Halloween

Was it just me, or did Halloween last, like, forever this year? When we showed up for the "Fall Festival" at our local nature center on the 25th, kids were already in costume! The celebrations continued on Thursday with our school carnival, followed by a party at our neighbor's on Friday, multiple events on Saturday, not to mention the Monday school parades and trick-or-treating madness. When Brooklyn's Girl Scout troop added one more spooky party on November 1st, I dressed as a haggard, worn-out Mom. Au naturel.

Fortunately, it was a delightful weekend to have the celebrations linger since NomiAnn was visiting from Nebraska. The weather was perfect, and we certainly made the most of our time together. Paring down the mound of pictures to was too difficult, so here are a few collages for you to enjoy. If the pictures are too small, you should be able to double click on them to zoom in.

These first pictures were taken at the Family Festival at Vernon Worthen Park on Saturday. A climbing wall, free pulled pork sandwiches, face painting, cupcake walks--what's not to love?

Later that evening we hit the local Rec Center for some crafts, games, and trick-or-treating. The Cowardly Lion was cute as could be, and both Glinda and Elfaba were on their best behavior. The Scarecrow seemed to have a thing for Dorothy, even though she wasn't the only one in the land of Oz.

Halloween morning was spent biking and hiking in Snow Canyon. Eli had so much fun exploring the Upper Galoot, and NomiAnn relished the snuggles.

Lunch was a costume party at Jason's work (sorry, no pics), followed by Halloween parades for both Brooklyn and Talia at Dixie Sun. Here's our pink princess Talia with her afternoon preschool class.

And here's our adorable witch Brooklyn with her teacher Mr. Garcia and some of her classmates.

By this time, our Cowardly Lion was super sleepy, so we headed home for some much needed down time.

Before the light disappeared, we threw on our costumes yet again and headed to Pioneer Park to take some family photos in the fantastic costumes that NomiAnn made. Thank you, Danke, Gracias, Obrigada, Merci!

At long last, it was time to go Trick-or-Treating! We rationed the candy this year by making giant countdown chains from Halloween to Christmas--one piece per person per day. We pooled the candy, and amazingly, it divided perfectly so that everyone ended up with their favorites: lollipops and tootsie rolls for Eli, Airheads and gobstoppers for Talia, Skittles and Twix for Brooklyn, with most of the Snickers and peanut M&Ms left over for Mom and Dad. The only candies left unclaimed were the 3 Musketeers. Any takers?

Mom, thank you so much for coming to see us! It's fun to think that before the candy's all gone, we will get to see much of our family again.

So a Happy Halloween to all from the Merry Old Land of Oz!

7 comments:

Callie said...

Thank you so much for posting! I've been checking the blog every day since we arrived on location hoping to glimpse the family from Oz. Sounds like it was a great time. Too bad we couldn't convince mom to dress up in tinfoil as the tinman :)
Love to you all!

Crys said...

These Halloween pictures are so cute! You guys could definitely win a prize for the cutest family ever! We miss you guys!

Julie L said...

I love those costumes! You make a perfect Dorothy and that nephew of mine is a perfect scarecrow. The witches were adorable and that little lion! what a show stopper! I love that you took advantage of a gorgeous evening to get some great photos. You will always cherish those. The candy chain idea was super good! I read somewhere that people should limit sugar intake to 6 grams a day. most children are getting 5 to 10 times that much just in their soda pop and candy consumption. You are a very wise mother.

Anonymous said...

Hey, These are terrific photos of a beautiful family. I happen to know that Cathy Ann (Nomi Ann)had many hours of loving work/fun creating the costumes. However, hmmmm, I'm writing this missive from the REAL land of Oz ... a hotel room in Lawrence, Kansas (no tornados in sight -- but there are lots of JayHawks around). St. George is in the land of AHHS!

Ben said...

"with most of the Snickers and peanut M&Ms left over for Mom and Dad."

Really? the kids weren't, like, "we are the 99%! Give us snickers!"

Susie said...

Wonderful pictures. Thanks so much for sharing your Halloween festivities with us since we couldn't be there in person.

Chou said...

My heart melts.