Natalie's birthday was the 19th. I can't believe my baby girl is already 6!! (I know, that last comment was unbelievably trite. Get over it.) Natalie is Miss Popularity in her kindergarten class. Every time I drop her off, there's huge grins on the faces of the kids waiting for her to get out of the car. She runs towards them with arms outstretched as they all shout her name and join in a big group hug. No joke. Kindergarten is awesome. So she insisted that she needed to invite a lot of girls to her party. And I, for some inexplicable reason, agreed that she could invite who she wanted. I think we had 13 girls at her party that afternoon (if you include Brooklin...and I do because she's a force to be reckoned with). We made cute pictures of fairies, decorated a poster of Natalie as a fairy, decorated and ate cupcakes, played on Natalie's new bed, and opened a whole bunch of presents. Natalie is loved; that is for sure.
AJ had a recital on the 22nd. It was a costume recital, so he dressed as a clone trooper from Star Wars and played the Star Wars theme. The first song is "Pumpkin Party". So cute.
The next day we attended the Gimmeson's annual power-tools-only pumpkin carving contest. Joe and my pumpkins turned out great, but the contest was rigged. They ended up giving the trophy to a kid (who did not use power tools, by the way). We got ripped off.
Luckily, we didn't have to boycott Halloween this year just because it landed on a Sunday. The town opted to move its celebrations to Saturday, so we were able to fully participate. Every fall, I forget that I'm busy and decide that I want to make my kids' costumes. So they finalize their orders by the first part of September, and we start planning. 
AJ decided to be a knight this year, which included a sword that is the best thing/toy he's ever seen and/or played with. He loves nothing more than using it to torture innocent victims (mostly, his sisters when his parents aren't looking.) We very smartly didn't give it to him until Saturday, and I think it's been in time out as often as it's been in his hands since then.
Natalie wanted to be Queen Clarion from Tinker Bell. Before you get all "Uh, Queen Clarion has a gold dress..." on me, let me explain that she wears a pink dress in one of Natalie's books. And since the pink fabric at Joann's was way cuter than the gold fabric, Natalie decided she'd better go with pink. 
Here's where I admit that I'm a horrible mother. I didn't finish Brooklin's costume, so Brooklin wearing a hand-me-down from Natalie (that she wore when she was 3). She was terribly adorable as Dorothy, and it was incredibly fitting that the one word that Brooklin says consistently is "doggy", and she got to drag Toto around. But I still feel bad.
It's a good thing she won't remember how her mother slighted her in favor of her siblings. And none of you better point her in the direction of this post. I'll deny everything. I fully intend to finish her costume in time for Christmas. Joe insisted that we dress up as well, so I wore an 1800s style dress and crown. Joe pulled out the mullet for an 80s flashback. Oddly enough, we didn't manage pictures of either of us. I wish I'd brought my camera to the Bruneel's costume party that night though. There were some really great costumes. The First Councilor in our Bishopric was the Hulk. One teen totally committed to Superman, spandex and all. Our former stake Young Women's President was Wonderwoman. Joe had a lot of fun scaring teenagers in their haunted house. Here's some fun Johnson Halloween traditions. First, one of us takes the kids trick-or-treating around the neighborhood. We stop and dump out the kids' bags every so often and sort the good candy from the bad candy. The good candy (Snickers, Milky Way, Reese's, etc.) gets put up and away, and the crappy candy (anything generic, Smarties, and the like) goes into our own basket to regift. Second, we insist the kids pay "Mom and Dad taxes" on their goods. Actually, what we usually do is put all the goods into one basket and everyone gets to eat out of it. Although, the full-size candy bars generally end up stashed elsewhere... Third, when we're tired of giving out candy, we pawn off the last of the basket to whoever comes next. Sometimes, this means multiple handfulls of our cast-offs, which unsuspecting children are thrilled by, even though it's mostly Tootsie Rolls. This year, we had another party to go to, so Joe traded the rest of the basket for a full-size Snickers. It was great! We love Halloween!!
2 comments:
You're amazing for making even one costume! It is beautiful and the kids look adorable!
Kallie made up her own costume. She bought butterfly wings, pink legging/capris, a gliettery ballerina tutu, a tiara and a seperate glitttery headband, and ballet shoes. So then Macie, who already had a cheerleading costume or a ladybug costume, decided she liked Kallie's. So she got her mismatched items and put them together with her tennis shoes. And me, well, I only took pictures of Ivy, who wore her costume for maybe 2 or 3 hours. So you are not a bad mom.
Oh, and we skipped the trunk or treat and trick or treating. But I had a ton of candy for the trunk or treat, so Seth turned on the lights on Halloween night and we handed out handfuls of crappy candy for an hour while Macie saw her friends come dressed up trick or treating. Now THAT is a bad parent.
PS However, I did buy loads of clearance Halloween candy that we are still thoroughly enjoying, and it is the good kind (ie chocolate name brand!).
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