Want to See Something Scary?

Dave's birthday cake made by Moi:(and by 'scary'...I mean in more ways than one)

I found the recipe and a picture for this little baby online and thought, "Pssh. I can do better than that." HMM...turns out not so. Apparently, good cake decorating comes with practice. Who knew? Well, now that I've got one cake decorating experience under my belt, next year's cake will be amazing.

Dave still acted impressed. Thanks, Honey. HAPPY BIRTHDAY. I hope you had a wonderful day; I know I did.

Week In a Flash

On Monday we attempted to go to the Pumpkin Festival at LPHS. It was supposed to be like the Festival of Trees; hmm...right. After a quick drive by, we realized we'd prefer going out for icecream at Thanksgiving Point.

Here's Kate enjoying her "pink" icecream, sprinkled with gummy delights.

Tuesday and Wednesday...a bit of a blurr. Although, truthfully, I very much remember going to scouts (but may or may not be trying to supress the memory).

Thursday night, our nephew, Jake, competed for the coveted Mr. Caveman title. He played an expert woman, and an even better lip-syncer, but apparently, real talent takes the cake in that beauty pageant. For my friend, Sara V., your bro. was the clear-cut winner. His drumming was truly amazing.

On Friday we all dressed up for work. Dave took several wigs to work, and judging by his pics that he posted all over faceboook, I'm thinking he quite enjoyed himself. Kate came to my Halloween party at school. She was shy to begin with, but quickly found herself at home listening to stories, pumpkin bowling, and decorating cookies.

Later that night, we celebrated Dave's big 32nd at the Melting Pot. It was a fun restaurant for a change; somewhere we hadn't been since living in Pasadena. Kate thought it was the ultimate meal; bread & apples dipped in cheese; marshmallows, brownies, rice krispie treats, and bananas draped with melty chocolate.

After dinner we stopped in to see Jamie and Aaron's house; a true beauty. Super jealous, but mostly just happy for them. Such good friends; fun talking till the late hours of night.

Saturday, of course, was the day we've been waiting for. Kate was truly the cutest little witch there ever was.We managed to lure in 178 trick-or-treaters that night. How, you ask? We invested in a fog machine and spider webs. Super spooky, huh?

Witchy Woman

Earlier this year, Kate feasted her eyes upon the princess Aurora gown and wig at Disneyland. It was something she had to have (but probably more of something her parents had to have) once she put it on. We bought it, and couldn't wait for her to wear it on Halloween. Recently, however, Kate informed us that she was "NOT going to be Princess Aurora for Halloween." She then told us, "I'm gonna be a witch; a scary witch." News to us. Where she gets these ideas...we're not sure.

We tried for a few weeks to convince her that she wanted to be Sleeping Beauty and not a witch, but she's no fool. She knows what she wants. We got her the witch costume she'd been dreaming of. She's been in Halloween Heaven for a week now, wearing it and scaring everyone she knows.

Which do you prefer? the pumpkin mask or the wig?

Speaking of costumes. My dad brought Grandma Nelson over for her first visit at our house. After the touring and visiting, Kate got out her witch costume, and a few other wigs. Grandpa Lyle tried one on for size.

Quite the looker, right? Now you know the source of my good looks.

If anyone knows Lyle...you would know what a big kick he got out of this. He could hardly stand looking at himself in the mirror, but also didn't want to take it off.

In other news, we replaced our kitchen table. The Blackhurst's haven't been very good at entertaining since we moved into the new place. Hopefully having a big table will inspire us to have a few more dinner parties.
Dave also installed this new light in the kitchen. We quite like it.

Band Competition

On Saturday, my babe made these sweet delights with his own two hands. We later dipped them in chocolate, decorated them, and delivered them to some neighbors and our grandmas. Don't you wish you were our neighbor and/or grandma?

Later that night we went to Thriller for our 3rd time with my parents. This year they did a tribute to Michael Jackson, and tweaked a few dances a bit. The show really doesn't change much from year to year, but it's a fun tradition that quickly reminds me of my true LOVE and OBSESSION with Halloween. Seriously, if Halloween were a dude, we might have some issues at the Blackhurst home; luckily, it's only a day of the year.

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Right after the show, Dave got a phone call from his brother, Brian. He told Dave about the AFHS band bus, and how his high school friend had passed away in the accident. We were very sad to hear the news, and just hoped all of the kids were okay.

After watching the news over the next few days, we were so glad to know that no students were killed or even seriously injured. I really can't believe how lucky they were.

So last night, we went to support AFHS at the BYU Band Competition. Grandma Sandra came along too. It was rainy and a little chilly. But we bundled. Kate stayed awake through the whole thing, and was a very good girl. She had a great time snacking on her popcorn while watching the show.

The injured members stood in front (all wearing casts, and one had a wheelchair), while the rest of the band performed.

You can see them standing next to the flag

It was really sad, but heart-warming at the same time. They had a little tribute to Heather (the band advisor who was killed) with a banner that read, "Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." You can sort of see it in the pic below. Following the performance, they had a moment of silence. I don't think there was a dry eye in the audience.

It was nice too for Dave. So many of his friends made it to the show, so it was fun reconnecting with them.

The results? The band cleaned up, winning every possible award in every category, as well as capturing the coveted first place trophy. I was really happy for the band; it was the perfect ending after all they have experienced this week.

You know...I used to make a lot of jokes about the band. But really, do you think even once the drill team ever brought home a trophy? Nope. NEVER, or at least rarely. I've decided there was nothing cool about losing, and maybe marching band is where it's at.

Such a nice evening, though. We went to bed at midnight, making it difficult to wake up for school this morning, but so worth it.

Another Week Survived

Our babysitting gig ended Sunday night. We had a nerf gun war that topped the weekend and absolutely took me back to childhood. The oldest boy kept shooting me and the other kids. Finally, we decided we'd had enough and turned against him. We each loaded up a gun, took all of the ammo and hunted him down. He locked himself in his parents' room thinking it would be a safe haven. Oh, how very wrong he was! After many failed attempts at picking the lock, we finally made it in and ravaged the poor kid. I held him in a headlock, tickling him while the other kids took shot after shot at him. It probably would have gone on for a good long time, but one of the kids took pity and said, "Don't you think he's had enough?" I thought for a moment, and decided he probably had. Sigh. So fun being a kid again.

Monday was Professional Development. Yuck. Thursday night was Parent-Teacher Conferences. Yuck.

Yesterday was playgroup, arranged by my best bud, Lindsay. I must say, the whole idea of "playgroup" seemed a little too mommy-style for me to like, but it's been really fun so far. She's planned different venues and experiences for us so it's been a par-tay for both the kids and the moms.

For yesterday's agenda, me, Ricks, and Adrienne walked the Provo Canyon trail. There we were...three moms pushing our huge strollers, hogging up the whole trail.

Not us...but just to give you a visual...

We were quite the sight, I'm sure. And I'm positive that all those die-hard bikers and joggers are now conspiring against us, but whatev's. We walked up to the Canyon View Park where we let the kids play on the playground while we gabbed. It's actually been nice hanging out with other mommyfriends once a week (I nearly said girlfriends, but face it, we're past that).

Cornbelly's

Dave's brother & sister-in-law are in Hawaii this weekend, leaving us with 6 children to parent. After last time, we discovered it's really not much of a challenge. Their oldest is nearly 15 (so we have a lot of help), and the youngest is Kate's age (giving Kate a buddy).

Striving to be the favorite aunt and uncle, we try to live it up with them while their parents are away.

Last night we took the kids to Cornbelly's at Thanksgiving Point. Dave and I had never been, and it was awesome! I've come to realize that Thanksgiving Point does most things right. Sure, there's the crappy drive-thru Christmas lights, but all-in-all, I'm impressed by most of their stuff.

This is how they punish the unruly adults!

The little girls enjoyed the Pumpkin Princess Playland.

Kate and Cammie dressed up as princesses, jumped in the princess castle, and even took a ride in a motionless princess carriage. Hmmm...sounds riveting, right? Well, the girls certainly thought so.
They had pig races there too, and oh, my heck! Have you ever seen tiny pigs squealing and sprinting around a race track? So cute.

They called a few members of the audience up, assigned them a pig, and then let the pigs do one jaunt around the track. Whoever's pig won first place, won the coveted prize of a pig snout. Now guess who actually got called out of the audience, and who's pig actually won the race...

Yep, our little Kate got picked, and her pig, Paris Swillton won. We were so proud.

Here's Kate trying her prize on for size.

Next we tried out the corn maze: This was a first for Kate and me. They gave us a Halloween quiz, where if you could guess the right answers, it would direct you through the maze. Apparently, we don't know our Halloween trivia. No worries; the maze wasn't too difficult. The hardest part was trying to get Kate to keep up (as shown in the pic). There were just a few too many distractions with all the dirt, cornstalks, and of course, her little legs. Dave carried her most of the time so we weren't lost for hours in there.

There were so many other activities there too--hayrides, a cow train, duck racing, jumpers, slides, etc. It's totally a good value for your money, and something totally fun to do (with the family, or even for a date night). We will definitely go back every year.

After Cornbelly's we overindulged ourselves at Los Hermanos. It was the perfect ending to our night.

Pumpkin Decorating

Anyone who knows my mom, knows that she is the ultimate mom, and an even more ultimate grandma. Whenever she tends her grandkids she's always trying to think up new crafts, activities, and experiences for them (SHE obviously should have been the teacher).

The other day, when she was dropping the boys off, she also brought along three pumpkins for each of the kids to decorate. The kids were in a Halloween wonderland, and sadly, I couldn't take credit for planning it.

Preparing for fun with permanent markers:

Hard at work: