Costume Parade 2012

Happy Halloween!  Before Sean and Tashena went trick-or-treating they stopped by Grandma and Grandpa's house to show us their costumes.

I think they looked amazing this year!

Sean was a skeleton.  He was so excited about his costume that he was counting down the days until it would be delivered and was ecstatic when it appeared a couple of days early.

The best part about this costume, according to Sean, is that he can now wear it as a jacket with some awesome matching gloves!

Just like last year, Tashena designed her own costume.

She was the character Yuki from her very favorite book, She Smells the Dead by E.J. Stevens.  I thinks she did an amazing job.  She is so original and creative!

Here is a look back at previous costume parades.

Cinderella 2006

Witch 2007

Snow White 2008

Princess Jasmine & Shrek 2009

The Bride of Frankenstein & The Karate Kid 2010

Medusa & Ninja 2011

Note:  Tashena is totally rockin' her awesome trick-or-treat bag!

Haunted Symphony

Abravanel Hall was haunted tonight!  Associate conductor Vladimir "Vlad the Impaler" Kulenovic led the Utah Symphony in a scary repertoire that delighted rather than frightened the assembled crowd.  This evening was so much fun that it might have to become a Halloween tradition.  Not only was the conductor dressed as Dracula, but the entire orchestra was in costume!  My favorites were a violinist dressed as Chewbacca and the harp player dressed as Lady Gaga (wearing the infamous meat dress).  Most members of the audience were also in costume because there was a contest at intermission.  Alas, my witch costume failed to impress (the winners were dressed as pac-man characters and they were pretty amazing).  The program began with Bach's Toccata in D Minor which, to me, is the ultimate piece of scary music because it is included in the soundtrack of so many horror movies.  I wonder if Bach intended it thus?  The program continued with the Prelude from Carmen by Georges Bizet, "Sacrificial Dance" from The Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky, and "In the Hall of the Mountain King" from Peer Gynt by Edvard Grieg.  All very atmospheric.  After the intermission the orchestra played Finlandia by Jean Sibelius, one of my favorite composers.  Then they played two selections from Symphonie Fantastique by Hector Berlioz: "Dream of the Witches' Sabbath" and "March to the Guillotine."  This symphony always gives me goose bumps because it is almost like listening to a funeral knell (I'm a sucker for chimes).  The concert ended with a dramatic rendition of The Firebird by Igor Stravinsky.  It was definitely a "spooktacular" evening of music!

Birthday Camping Trip

What an amazing weekend filled with family, fun, Halloween traditions, birthday celebrations and the great outdoors!

On Sunday Tashena turned twelve!  How can that be possible?  For her birthday she wanted to go on a camping trip so we went to the KOA in Fillmore.  Kristine and Trent took their camper but my Mom, Marilyn and I stayed in a KOA Kabin (we had a little visitor with us quite a bit of the time).  Despite the intentional misspelling of the word "cabin," I really love staying in them.

These cabins have electricity, a heater (and air conditioning in the summer), a mini refrigerator, and comfortable beds.

Sean told us it was his dream to sleep in a cabin and successfully convinced his parents to let him!  This required many nocturnal trips to the bathroom!

Saturday evening we had our traditional pumpkin carving party.

Cleaning out the "guts."

Marilyn downloaded a lot of different stencils and we used our carving tools to create our pumpkins!

What a character!

Relaxing by the fire.

Our masterpieces!

Sunday evening we celebrated Tashena's birthday!

We all went in together to get her a Kindle Fire, Sean gave her a volleyball (which he mentioned continuously all weekend), and her friend gave her the new Taylor Swift CD (which is soooo good).

Just like with her ipod last year, Tashena now has a better e-reader than everyone in the family!

This was such a relaxing trip (and it was much needed).  Even though it was pretty cold, we all had a really great time!  I loved the amazing breakfast that Trent and Kristine made for us Sunday morning.  I loved being able to sit on the porch of the cabin and read my book.  I loved going into Fillmore (thriving metropolis that it is) for dinner Saturday night.  I loved watching the kids ride their bikes all through the campsite.  I loved playing shanghai rummy!  But most of all, I loved spending time with my family!

Monday Motivator

"Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant."

- Robert Louis Stevenson

Trick-Or-Treat Bags

I made these trick-or-treat bags for Sean and Tashena.

I used some easy to follow instructions for making a tote bag which I found here.  All of the sewing is really simple.  Basically, if you can sew a straight line you can make this bag.  Both bags took me less than an hour to cut out and sew, including winding a bobbin which I hate (when I was young I used to make my Mom wind the bobbin for me).

I used 3/4 yard of material for each bag.  There are some really adorable Halloween fabrics out there and it was so much fun picking them out!

I really like how these bags turned out.  They are really big and sturdy so they can hold a lot of candy (which is very important to candy pillaging aunts).  I also really like how long the handles are so the kiddos can put them over their shoulders.

Give this bag a try!  I'm thinking of making one for myself.