Happy Halloween!

How cute is that?! Pumpkin carving is one halloween tradition we can't do without. It's serious business when we get down to gutting, designing, and carving out these works of art.

That would be a jigsaw that Brent is using to carve out the pumpkin's face. I wasn't joking when I said it was serious business around here.

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Benson Gristmill Pumpkin Walk

The Benson Gristmill is a historical monument of pioneer heritage here in Tooele Valley. We often attend communtiy events hosted here. In the fall they have an annual pumpkin walk where different elementary school classes or other community groups are invited to display pumpkins that depict the theme. This year's theme was "Dreaming of the Future". Matthew's class was invited to create pumpkins that characterized what they wanted to be when they grow up. Matthew said he wanted to be an inventor. Here's his creation, "Mr. Inventor":

While we were there we happened upon something we hadn't seen before....These bikers had this candy cannon.

Here are Brent and the kids waiting to see what's going to happen.....

For a few of the shoots we were the only ones there. It didn't take long for the rest of the crowd to catch on. Check this out!

Andrew made friends with one of the biker's puppy....

They even shared candy. Eewwwww!

Megan who just popped a sour power candy in her mouth.

Happy times!

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Halloween Hassle
In twelve years of dressing kids up for Halloween, I've never had one be so contrary to dressing up as Andrew has been. I first pulled out the costume bin from the basement the first Sunday in September. (I wanted to get started early since I had five costumes to come up with.) All the kids enjoyed our visit with the ghost from Halloween past, EXCEPT for Andrew. He wanted NO part in trying on a costume.

(Remember Mom when you sent me to preschool in this dorky chicken costume and all my friends were dressed up so cool like Power Rangers and Transformers and Superman...)

Up until about a week ago, I'd been trying to get Andrew interested in a costume. Every time I would hold one up to test his interest, he would run away, or scream if I attempted to put it on him. I decided he would be the Halloween grinch this year and consider myself lucky if I could just get him to wear orange and black.
And then....I discovered my BFF, Heather, had a Buzz lightyear costume. Andrew loves Buzz. He flies Buzz around the house shouting "To bahdee-bahdee-bahdee and beyond!" I was sure he'd go for Buzz. When I held it up, he lowered his head, gave me a scowl, and ran off. Jeremy, however, took interest in the costume. I let him try it on. It fit perfectly, and he loved it. We had already bought Jeremy a cowboy costume, but at this point it wasn’t too late for him to change his mind. Heather suggested I let Andrew be the cowboy. She figured I could dress him up in "cowboy things" and he might not notice he was getting dressed up. Good idea.

We went into town looking for boots and a western shirt at DI for Andrew. Back at home, much later in the afternoon, Andrew discovered Buzz casually deposited on the couch. He looked at the costume with wonder, as if he'd never seen anything quite so awesome. He wanted to put the Buzz costume on.......Yay. Sort of. Once he had it on, he would not take it off. He fell asleep in it.

And then later, Jeremy stepped in. "No Andrew. I'm going to be Buzz for Christmas!" That was just trouble and funny mixed together. I convinced Jeremy to try on his cowboy costume. He wasn't all that impressed anymore, until we brought out the gun holster with real live cap guns. And then Andrew wanted the guns. He wouldn't take off the Buzz costume, but he wanted the guns. Brent suggested I find a laser gun for Andrew and then maybe that would solve the situation. I thought maybe they could both be cowboys.... maybe if I bought another gun and holster set Andrew would be good to be a cowboy after all. So off to Walmart I went, Andrew in tote. Not interested in anything. I went ahead and bought a $5 laser gun that made noises and lit up.
Back home, boys to bed, I hoped to resolve the issue in the morning. The next morning I heard Jeremy announcing to Andrew that he (Jeremy) was going to be Buzz and that Andrew was going to be Woody. The laser gun I bought only enticed Jeremy more to the Buzz costume and nobody wanted to be Woody. Oh boy!
Jeremy tried his hardest to convince Andrew why Woody was better than Buzz. When he finally realized he wasn’t getting anywhere, he reluctantly agreed to be Woody. As I thanked him for being such a good sport, he sadly confessed that Buzz was so much cooler than Woody because “Buzz can fly and Woody can’t”. And with that, all I could hear was Tom Hanks’ voice running through my head, “You can’t fly! You’re a TOY!”