Halloween 2011

I'm kind of a dork about my kids' costumes matching for Halloween.  I don't know why but I just am.  This year for Halloween Taryn wanted to be Rapunzel...so, of course, Brett had to be Flynn Ryder!  Brett doesn't have a lot of preferences right now and he is extremely easy going, so it was a unspoken green light from him.  John didn't seem to mind either.  Two green lights and my idea was a "go"!!!  We thought Taryn made a beautiful Rapunzel.  She loved having "looooong yellow" hair. 

Here is our handsome Flynn Ryder!  Frying pan and all!  hahaha.  As we sent cell phone pictures to family and friends, almost everyone commented on how much Brett looked like John.  We drew on dark eyebrows and a goatee and you've got a recipe for a mini John.  hahaha.  I made the little vest he is wearing without a pattern.  I found some Goodwill goodies and just went off of Taryn's Flynn Ryder doll.  Not too shabby, right?!

We just started Brett's gluten, dairy, yeast, and sugar free diet in August.  It has made Halloween pretty tricky.  We decided not to go to our wards Trunk or Treat this year. But I'm desperate and will do anything in my power to allow this boy the same childhood experiences of his sister and other children.  With a lot of praying the thought came to me to get small boxes of raisins, mini organic juice boxes, snack size Lay's potato chips bags, and organic fruit leather.  I marked all of Brett's "treats" with a little note that said, "please drop this in Flynn Ryder's bag".  And I ran ahead of John, Taryn, and Brett and told our neighborhood about Brett's food allergies and asked if they could drop my goodie into Brett's bag instead of something from their bowl.  Everyone was soooo kind.  My eyes welled up with tears almost after every house as I heard Brett's excitement with what was being put into his bucket.  He didn't even notice Taryn had different treats in her bucket than he did.  It was a tender moment for one very worried mother.  

I was really worried that Brett would notice that Taryn was getting different things than he was but he was oblivious!  I feared meltdowns and disastrous evening....but it was a dream!  Couldn't have gone better!

Taryn and Brett had the BEST Halloween.... and so did their mama!  (ps, happy birthday dad)

October is the best!!!

Can we just all agree that October is the best month ever?!  I LOVE October!!!  A great thing that rolls around in October is grapefruit season.  And my kiddos LOVE grapefruit!!!  

Here they are slurppin up every lost drop of the delicious juice!  A technique they picked up from their dad. Effective but noisy :)

Taryn's kindergarten class got to dress up for their Halloween party.  She wants to be Rapunzel for Halloween and we, in fact, already have the dress, but I didn't want to send her to school in her dress, going to recess and whatever else they had on the school schedule that day.

So, I whipped up a quick Bee costume for her.  All you need is a black shirt, yellow electrical tape, pipe cleaners, and pom pom's.  Cute, durable, and easy to play in.... and not expensive if she came home a wreck!  It was perfect AND pretty dang cute!

I hate posting pictures of myself, but for posterity's sake, I will do it...  A girl at church organized this "witching" night!  A bunch of us gals got together for dinner and a movie all dressed as witches!!!!  We were all quite the sight to see.  It was hilarious AND a ton of fun!!!  I can't wait until next year!