Halloween

Catch up time!

Halloween was crazy this year! This was the first year I actually took the time to make a family costume. Well, with all the craziness we were never all 3 dressed up at the same time, although we each dressed up more than once! Does that make sense?! It's stupid, that's what it is! So, no awesome "family halloween costume" picture for us, even though not only did we have coordinating costumes, but I MADE them! Whatever. 

I had a Halloween Recital.... was so fun. The last time I had one was 5 years ago!

This student is a girl! Awesome costume huh!

Since Collin and I were all decked out, we decided to go to Rockies, this 50's diner. Whew, ended up being SO awkward when we walked in. Everyone was staring at us. But, they gave us a free milkshake in exchange for us letting them take our picture to be put up on their facebook page!

Treats... I made them all. I had lots of help with decorations and servingware and other stuff. Good thing I have awesome friends!

We of course hit up the Pumpkin Patch too:

Ashlyn was in HEAVEN in their little petting farm! And really, they had some super-cute baby animals in there!

Then there's this: (her idea!)

Somewhere in there we ended up hosting a pumpkin carving party with some of our good friends. . . 

Collin was asked to be a clinician at a wrestling coaches' workshop in AZ the last weekend before Halloween . . . which meant Ashlyn and I were on our own for Boo at the Zoo and our ward Trunk or Treat.

This is the only picture I got at Boo at the Zoo. Ashlyn got TONS of compliments on her little costume. She really looked stinking cute. But I left thinking it was a darn good thing we got in free (zoo pass) because it was INSANE! SO many people and really, not that much fun stuff for a kid Ashlyn's age. Probably won't bother with it again for a few years at least!

Enjoying cornbread at the ward chili cook-off/trunk or treat

Yes we were both decked out in our poodle skirts but it was so busy I didn't get to ask anyone to take our picture.....again.

Oh wait, here is a picture of all 3 of us! ha ha ha. Collin made that cut out for real. Too bad I waited until Ashlyn was crashing from all the sugar she'd had and completely out of control to try to get a picture.

The actual day of Halloween was fun. I had an insane, insane last like 10 days before that. Sonatina Competition was taking up every spare moment of my time, and I was staying up past midnight every night and getting up early to get things done so I wouldn't have to just sit Ashlyn in front of the TV all morning while I worked. It was very stressful and maybe I will post more about that later...but just saying things had been so crazy. I vowed not to work on that stuff on Halloween, to have that be a family day!
So, we started off our morning going to Target, wahoo! (that always means it will be a good day!) Then met some friends at the park for Ashlyn to run around with. When we got home, Collin came home for a little while because our caseworker came over to renew our homestudy. Basically at this point it's just sit and chat for a little while. So, it was nice to officially get our homestudy renewed and be done with that process. Collin had to go back to school to get some work done, but Ashlyn and I watched Diego's Halloween and then we all had a Jack O Lantern pizza from Papa Murphy's for dinner! Yea!  We met up with some of our good friends, the Golds and the De La Cerdas, for Trick or Treating in a big neighborhood that is part of our ward. Ashlyn was just a little excited as you can see:

 She was absolutely thrilled. Between Boo at the Zoo and the ward trunk or treat she had gotten trick or treating all figured out! She knew she was getting CANDY! ha ha.

She lost steam pretty fast though. She refused to take a nap that day and well, what do you know, turns out she could have used one. For the first couple of streets she was almost running from one house to the next, but after that we were pretty much dragging her along. We only went around for about an hour and a half, which was plenty for her. Stopped off at the fabulous Cheryl's for donuts after that, and then headed home. It was a fun night! Ashlyn held up pretty well. And she was very happy to get lots of candy. (yeah, Collin and I ate almost all of it over the next few days. Don't pretend you all don't do that too. We did save the suckers and smarties for her though.)

Happy Halloween!