This is Halloween

I'm not even a huge fan of that movie (nightmare before Christmas)  but I almost can't say "Halloween" without singing that one line from that movie.  (It's pretty much all I know)

So this is Halloween at our house this year.

Besides Halloween night itself, we had a ward party.  Which was super fun.  With cotton candy and a petting zoo, and bouncy houses and everything. It was awesome.

Christopher (as usual) took matters into his own hands and decorated for me.  He even made his own caution tape and decorated the garage door.  Sadly crepe paper doesn't last very long in the elements.

He wanted to be Superman this year.  I know it's totally not politically correct, but I love little girls who want to be princesses and little boys who want to be super heroes.  (And although Maddie was nearly every princess in the book when she was little, she's quite independent now, thank-you-very-much)

Zach wanted to be a scientist again.  He's not much for calling attention to himself.  He's dressed up enough, but not too much.  I tried to get him to wear nerdy scientist glasses, but that was too wild and crazy for him.

Maddie had a couple of outfits.  First she was a creepy doll.  She googled make-up techniques, then did her make-up herself.     She was a creepy doll because she was "working" at the Haunted Hallway at the HS.   It's this point I am wishing she would go back to her days of princesses when she started telling me the story of stepping on the screw at the Haunted Hallway.  She had taken off her shoes because apparently it was more fitting of her character.  So she's running around, barefoot, acting like a creepy doll, and selling tickets to the haunted house goers.  She steps on a screw, and it's in a little too deep to pull it out.  The ridges of the screw are embedded. She doesn't tell the teacher, because she doesn't want to get in trouble for running around barefoot, and as the "show must go on"  and she "needs to stay in character",  she gets an electric screwdriver, then waits for the next person to walk by, then proceeds to unscrew the screw from her foot, while laughing some creepy laugh.  She said she was crying at the same time cause it hurt.

"An electric screwdriver? Why not just twist it out?!?"
"Because it's faster.  Like ripping off a bandaid.  You don't want to do it slowly."
"What if the screwdriver went the wrong direction?  It could go farther into your foot!!"
"I'm not stupid.  I know how to use those."
"I'm seriously concerned you're a little psychotic."
"I had to stay in character!! Somebody else broke a rib once, and they stayed in character!"
"Have you thought about going into medicine?  An ER doctor or trauma nurse? You seem to have a level head during a crisis."
"Ew gross.  I hate blood.  And math."

Okay then.... Theatre it is...

Later on Halloween night she dressed up as Thing 1 and went to a party.

Her friend Paige was Thing 2.  They were adorable.  And not in the least bit psychotic.

Other highlights in October

Lots of little things happened in October. Fun or interesting enough to mention, but not necessarily big enough to stand on their own as a blog post.

Christopher and I saw baby goats.  These guys are were only hours old.

He got to hold this guy.  He was only a couple days old.

Maddie had her first choir concert.  I'm so happy she's loving choir.

Zach had a band concert.  And he occasionally likes to get into Nick's closet and steal his clothes.

People started sending me news articles of wildlife (especially bears) on the loose in Montana.   Because I need more things to worry about.  

Maddie celebrated "Back to the Future Day" in style.  She handed out "Save the Clock Tower!" flyers, and tried to collect money.  People either thought she was genius, or had totally crazy.  I hear it's a fine line. 

It's not as easy as it was before, but even with our oldest kids gone, we still try to get together with the Andersons occasionally. 

They even took my kids to the temple during Fall Break.

I taught a class on cream puffs in Relief Society.  The first few batches were technically failures because of the fact that they deflated, and could no longer be called puffs.  However, they still tasted fantastic with a little bit of Nutella.  Like two-bite crepes. 

Tom & Amy

Once upon a time I had two little brothers (Tom and BJ) that were going to bachelors forever.  The End.  Seriously, end-of-story.   Zach had dreams of following their examples and moving in with Christopher when they got older and spending his money on things like cars. And he designed his future home for he and Christopher complete with a movie room, an indoor swimming pool, and a pizza oven.

And then Tom met Amy.  Although, I wouldn't say that things happened super fast, it did take them a couple years to get married, including a year long engagement.  (Which according to Mormon standards is like an eternity, but apparently fairly normal for the rest of the world)

And somewhere along the way, BJ recognized how happy Tom was, and decided he wanted that for himself, and then miraculously Jess came along at the exact right moment and now they are engaged too. Which I think had to happen that way, because if he was still dead set against marriage, he might have let Jess get away.  And in both Tom's and BJ's cases, it was worth the wait.  Apparently they were both just waiting for the perfect girl to come along.  And for a girl with no sisters growing up, I've been blessed with 3 lovely and amazing sisters in law and another one just waiting to make it official.

All the wedding greeting cards in the store were "too cheesy" so Maddie made her own. 

Anyways, Tom and Amy got married.  In Arizona.  At the JW Marriott in Scottsdale.

Fortunately it was here, so we didn't have to go that far, but it was quite the event, so everyone came to it.  I hadn't seen all my cousins and their spouses together in probably forever. They planned for a whole year, and it was hands down the nicest wedding I'd ever been to.  Like you see in movies.  Except unlike movies, there weren't any major problems to be overcome.  Except the weather.  It was an outdoor wedding, and it was threatening to storm during the ceremony.  But it just sprinkled a bit before, and then the weather behaved itself, and showed off a spectacular rainbow that made for magical wedding photos. I kid you not.

Speaking of photos, I didn't take very many.  I was enjoying the day, plus my cousin Pete and his wife Britney of Chudleigh Photography are quite the power couple of wedding photography.  They were everywhere, photographing everything, and besides, they're both geniuses.  Despite the fact that they are the nicest and lovliest of people, I still feel sorely inadequate even holding a camera anywhere near them.  Clearly those are my issues that I need to get over.  I don't have access to any of their photos yet, but I can't wait to see them.  

I did take quite a bit of selfies though.  For two reasons.  One, for those not directly involved in a wedding, there's a lot of sitting around waiting for the main event. And sitting around breeds boredom, and boredom breeds selfies.

And secondly I got my face done up with the bridal party.  I wasn't in the bridal party, but I didn't get left out either.  (kind of win-win if you ask me).  But anyways, I wore fake eyelashes.  I'd never worn fake eyelashes before.  It was a little weird.  But, I didn't want to hide them behind my glasses, so I was fairly vain and left them off all day.  

Of course now I look back at the pictures, and I'm not sure what to think.  Maybe it's because I wasn't wearing my glasses, so I couldn't see very well, so I thought I looked better than I did, or the camera makes my face look paler than it really was, or I'm so used to seeing the various "flaws" in my skin, and I never wear foundation, and so my skin looks too perfect in the pictures, fake even, and also I think my glasses hide the fact that I have a big nose, but I look at those pictures and wonder who that girl is.

Not fishing for compliments, just thoughts.  It was fun, I felt pretty.  But it took like an hour and half (with hair) and my fake eyelashes were uncomfortable at times, so I'm happy with my current two minute make-up routine in the morning. (eye-liner, mascara, done!)

Also, as another side note, Maddie said she taught her cousins to take selfies.  She said they had never taken a selfie before.  I recognize that at some point we might look back at this period in our lives and wonder what the heck we were thinking and wondering why on earth we were so vain that we needed to take pictures of ourselves all the stinking time, but alas.  Like I said, boredom and a camera phone = selfies.

Anyways,  the wedding was amazing.

Every detail was thought of. The bride was beautiful (why, oh why don't I have ONE picture of her???) The groom was handsome.

The food was delicious.

The band was awesome.   (Funny story about that though - the very last song was a request from the bride and groom - Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'", and we're all rocking out to it on the dance floor, my parents included.  (Side note, apparently I get my stellar dance moves from my dad, and by "stellar" I mean that I was grateful that everyone else was drunk because there was an open bar, and all the other non-drinkers had gone home by then) - and so we're all dancing and singing along at the top of our lungs, and my dad leans over and says "I've never heard this song before." And so naturally I mock him, because come on, you'd have to live under a rock to have never heard that before, and then share I that revelation with my mom who says "I've never heard it before either."  No Lie.

The next morning the party still wasn't over though, because since most everyone was from out of town, we had brunch at the hotel in the garden.

And that was it.  It was a perfect weekend, and hopefully Tom's and Amy's marriage will be just as perfect and wonderful as their wedding.

More Drama

Once upon a time, there was a little girl who proclaimed that she was "Not like Nick!"  and that she "Hated Tech Theatre because it was boring."

Fast forward a couple of years, and that same little girl has "Found her Passion"  in the world of Tech Theatre.  It is true that she is still "Not like Nick", as he would geek out at lights and and that goes with them, and Maddie is more interested in everything else.

The drama teacher stopped me to tell me that Maddie is "a natural" at being a stage manager.  She stays calm and cool under pressure.  (The white T means she's in charge.)

During the last play she was the stage manager for the whole show and she sat up in the booth, with her little headset, calling all the shots.

She also likes the creativity it offers.  She's always talking about some project she is working on.   And although we sent her with tech clothes to work in, she still manages to ruin her school clothes on a semi-regular basis.

She even had me in tears on the first day of school because apparently at lunch it was really hot and gross, and the kids had to sit outside, so she went into the shop to work on her TARDIS (a side project she's been working on for awhile.)  Apparently she got paint on her face, and didn't know it, and went to several classes that afternoon, and nobody mentioned it.  Until, of course the last period of the day.  And of course, she talked to several friends who neglected to mention it.  Later, they admitted that they thought it was funny. At least now she knows her only real friends are the girl from drama and Mr Flora (Flo). Also, she said she made a total fool of herself in seminary on at least a couple other matters, without realizing of course that she also had paint on her face.   Personally, I would have crawled into a hole and died.  She has a lot more self confidence than I ever did, and could laugh at herself and then shrug it off.

In addition to building Tardises in her spare time, she would be given other projects like - "Here's a block of foam and a box cutter, make a giant staff with a big snake head on it."

Plus I have to add that I think it's wonderful she's learning to work with power tools and the like. I think a formal education (math, english, science, history) is so important, but I also seriously love that my kids have the opportunity to learn real skills.