Happy Halloween!

I have tried to walk along the Ogden River Parkway any chance I can get. I've had a couple of really successful photo shoots here this season as well. These photos pretty much speak for themselves.

This is our fourth year going to Witches Night Out at Gardner Village with this same group of friends. This year we went to the dinner theater show of Witchapalooza and LOVED it!! I highly recommend.

We had fun carving pumpkins for family night. Ryan's pumpkin is the one that is clearly better then the rest. I learned that not everyone's hands swell, burn and itch from digging out the pumpkin guts. I thought that happened to everyone. This year Ryan and I put it together and that's just one more thing I can add to my list of things that I am oddly allergic to.

Trick-or-treating was a highlight for me and the girls this year. I LOVED having a nice, safe neighborhood to go door to door. I let Emma pick any number she wanted, she chose ten, and was thrilled when I told her that meant we could go to ten houses. Lydia had fun but kept wanting to stop along the way and get out all of her candy. We stopped by our neighbors, the Litchfields, who I adore, and I made them pose for a photo. I talk about them enough to my family that I thought there should be a face to their names.

Last night we went to my parent's for their annual Halloween party. It was their best one yet. My parents outdid themselves as usual, but that's really saying something since every year they continue to one up themselves.

Every year me and two of my three sisters (I have one in Washington) have a pumpkin decorating contest. We have yet to win. It was close this year, but the ranking were pretty obvious. The Werewolf won first place by the Petersens, The snowman second place by the Caspersons, and the carameled apple came in third, by myself.

New this year was a scarecrow contest. We actually took first place, ours is the one "mooning" everyone. The Caspersons wanted theirs to be really scary, so they did Nancy Pelosi as theirs. You can't see her sign but she has an "Obama '12 for President." The Petes was a freaky little hunter guy and my dad's was an artistic scarecrow made of twigs.

The photo below of my dad and Lydia is not the best shot of either of them, but it displays very clearly just where Lydia got her blue eyes from.

Also new this year was a game where you sit in the pitch dark, tell a ghost story, and pass around the guts of the dead man from the story. There was a brain to feel, hair, the heart, and all sorts of things that were made from noodles, a sponge, etc. These photos look like the lights were on but really it was total darkness, my flash just brightened everything up. Also, I included a photo of my dad doing the dishes, that's his m.o. at parties.

Every year my mom has the kids go to all of the outside doors for trick or treating around the property. We all bring a few items to hand out and the kids make a couple laps around the house.

This year my dad delighted the old, and traumatized the young by doing a very theatrical display of Frankenstein in the barn. He has inspired Bundy to be "that guy" in the neighborhood who is truly frightening the kids and giving a real Halloween experience. This was probably the highlight of the evening.

This was my favorite month of October I've ever had. I am extremely looking forward to Christmas and the projects, parties, and decorations are going to be started next week. Early, I know, but I want to be all done so I can enjoy the season. Hope everyone had a Happy Halloween!