Trick or Treat!

Halloween has come and gone for the Bradley household. We had a pretty adventurous time this year. I was out of town on business right up until Friday, with little Eve in tow to visit her mother in Virginia. That left Natalie to head up the preparations for the festivities and she did a bang-up job, especially considering Eve's birthday is the 30th of October so we had to prep not only the annual Halloween extravaganza but also a birthday party for a six-year-old. First, let me introduce the cake: Mr. Giant Black Spider. With Gummi Worms. Never let anyone tell you that six-year-olds don't know how to pick a cake.

Here's Eve getting those candles handled after the ol' Happy Birthday to You.


Nat put together a stellar spread including leaf-shaped-pie-crust-ham-and-cheese sandwiches (thanks kids for working the assembly line on those), killer dip with home-made pumpkin shaped chips, and green chocolate popcorn. I made some pretty good witches' brew with a combination of a few different sodas and lemonade bubbled up with some dry ice.

The grown-ups seemed to like the food, but the little guys mostly like stripping off the bedsheets and jumping on the bed in James' room.

The Indian Princess (like from India) and the Snow Fairy had all sorts of fun.

And Buzz Lightyear put on his wings and starting blasting aliens with his arm laser.

We finally got all the kids to pile on the couch for a picture.

Anyway, after the morning party we took a little nap/reading time to get ready for the afternoon party over at Grandma's house. Over there we got to play with more cousins and have all sorts of gory party food like witch fingers (string cheese pieces with almonds for fingernails) and blood soup (it was a creamy tomato). We started out our trick-or-treating there, hitting up Grandma's neighbors and scoring some full-sized candy bars. Yes!

While we were out we left a bowl of candy and a sign that Eve made on the doorstep. Can you believe someone cleared it out with instructions like these?

Anyway, from Grandma's house we headed over to hit Grammy and Poppa's street, picking up plenty of loot there. As the rain picked up, we drove home and the kids decided they wanted to do the handing out for a while. We broke out the Clue board and taught the girls how to play. James was on my team in charge of rolling the dice. It went pretty well except for Eve's tendency to yell out "I have that card!" After the kids went to bed we watched a scary ghost flick that had a few good little jumpy moments and left Natalie unable to go to sleep, so we watched an episode of Psych to mellow out and she conked right out. All in all a great day.

Grim grinning ghosts come out to socialize

Fall is here and with it my favorite time of the year. I love that football is in full swing. I love where ever I go this month everything is pink or has a pink ribbon slapped on it. I love the changing leaves and the falling ones too. I love harvest time. I love picking out pumpkins. I LOVE fall baking. And I love the kick off to the holiday season.

I have always enjoyed Halloween. I love the fun projects you can do and the places you can go, though I hate haunted houses and spook alleys. So far this month the kids and I have decided to go out with our Halloween celebrations. We decorated the house, made Halloween candy, and visited a few Halloween festias.


Our first adventure was a Halloween craft night. During the Priesthood session of General Conference Amy brought over Boston and we had a craft night. I had gone to Michaels the day before and found some great deals on kid Halloween crafts and grabbed a bunch of different items. Then we let the kids have at it. They worked on wood decorations, door hangers, necklaces, pumpkins, and mugs. There were also Aunt Amy's fantastic sugar cookies to decorate.


Boston and James decided to forget the crafts after making pirate necklaces. It was much more fun to run around with a bucket on your head.


Also, why put the frosting on the cookie if you can just eat it right off the plate. Smart kids.

The girls seemed to have a better time at the crafts, completing one after another and begging for more.

Yes that is a butter knife in his mouth. I will be accepting my award for World's Best Mother later this month.

This little boy is the spitting image of his father and when moments after this picture he colored on my table I realized he was the reincarnation of his father.

Buckethead boy!!!


Here are half the finished cookies. The ones that look good Amy did. The kids each frosted one, had enough, and left the rest for Ames and I to finish.

Most of our finished projects waiting to be hung around the house.

Since this weekend was UEA we got to do even more fun Halloween activities. On Thursday myself and half the Salt Lake Valley went out to Gardner Village for the Witches Festival. The kids had a great time finding all the witches and wading through many people to pick a piece of candy.

Finding a moment of peace before stepping into the mob.

The kids were happy with this picture as I wasn't making them face the sun.

The kids with their favorite witch.

On Friday Christian took a half day and we met my sister and brother-in-law up at This is the Place State Park for a little spooks party. We got the kids in their costumes and headed up for some trick-or-treating and Halloween games.


On the train because by this point we were all tired of walking.

Birdie was too enthralled with her flower and James wouldn't come out of the shadow. Oh well, they are still cute kids.

I love this little girl. She swipped her sisters hat and decided that she would be the new witch. She is just a doll.

Our girls listening intently about Navajo homes.

Playing a fun Halloween game.

Playing in the children's play land. They loved the train.

Laine, taking the lead and driving the train for eveyone else.
Lu is there too, she is the one with the pointy hat in the back.