Ward Trunk or Treat

What to be for Halloween? After being tooth fairies (which were REALLY cool costumes), it was hard to come up with something that would be just as awesome. We were going to steal a totally cool idea from Tom's sister's family, but decided to wait until Declan would be old enough to enjoy it. Unfortunately, that left us without any ideas for this year. Because of time and budget, we went for something pretty simple, yet something that we still loved . . . we were Spurs Fans (or Total Spurs Fans as Taylor put it)!!!


Now we weren't just going to wear the clothes. I made bows for the girls. The girls got their faces painted (Payden's lasted until we got to church), and then all of the girls got their fingernails painted. Tom even went the extra mile and painted spurs on each of Taylor's and Shelby's fingernails.

Now we were going to put silver glitter in their hair, but decided that since the Trunk or Treat was on a school night, we'd just wait until Halloween to do it.

Because Tom's on the Activities Committee, we were at the church a little early. While we waited, he had the girls close their eyes and mouths to show off the spurs on their faces. It was funny to look at their faces.

Taylor kept calling hers a "4" instead of a spur. It was too cute.

Finally, it was time for the Trunk or Treat to start. We started off at the booth that Tom made . . . Fishing in the Black Lagoon.

We had invited 3 of Shelby's school friends and their families, but none had shown up yet, so we headed over to Pin the Nose on the Pumpkin. Right after Shelby had a turn 1 of her friends showed up, so I missed getting a picture of Payden. Taylor had disappeared, which would be a common thing all night long. I would look up, and she was gone. It was absolutely PACKED, and I could never see her, and then all of sudden she'd pop up again. I HATED it, but since Tom was manning the fishing booth, I was by myself with 4 kids, which made it a little impossible to keep her by me at all times.

We then headed over to Pumpkin Bowling with Shelby's friend Taylor and Taylor's family. Shelby had been dying to do this. Unfortunately, it was EXTREMELY difficult bowling with a pumpkin. I don't think any of them actually hit the bowling pin (except Payden who had a little help from me), but it was fun to do.

While we were bowling, Shelby's other friend Sandra showed up. I said hi, but with all the craziness going on I got distracted, and then when I turned around they were gone. I kept trying to find them all night long, but the one time I found them they were across the room and went out the door before I could do anything. I felt bad. Hopefully they had a good time. Anyways, next to the bowling was Pumpkin Races, so we headed over to that and were joined by Shelby's friend from church, Adrianna, and her brother Levi. This wasn't really a game for young kids. All the kids too young for school just couldn't understand what to do. It was especially hard for them to pay attention to the instructions. I did my best to help them along, but obviously, our line lost the race.

Then we headed over to Mummy Wrap. The girls were really excited to do this. First, Shelby wrapped her friend Taylor Shepherd. At this point, her friend Emily and Emily's family showed up, so it was Shelby and Taylor racing against Emily and Emily's sister Faith. Then Taylor wanted to wrap Shelby.

Poor girl. She tried so hard, but kept ripping the toilet paper. She kept going though and did have fun doing it.

Then Taylor S. wanted to wrap Shelby, so they did it one more time.


Now what was Payden doing all of this time while the girls did the mummy wrapping?

Picking up!!!! She is hilarious. You can tell who likes to help clean up. The guys running the booth didn't have to pick up a piece of toilet paper the entire time we were over there because Payden kept doing it.

Cute girl!!!

Before we could decide on another game, the carnival closed, and it was time for the costume contest. The judges had been walking around the entire time, but at this point they had the kids go up on the stage so everyone could see them. It was so hard to get a good picture of them. There were TONS of kids up there with TONS of parents trying to take pictures; it was pretty crazy. Behind my girls as the green-haired witch is Taylor Shepherd. Next to my Taylor as Shawn Johnson the gymnast is Emily Hines, and next to Emily as a mermaid is Emily's sister Faith. Taylor's brother Miah is missing from the picture because he'd been blocking Payden and when he finally movrd out of the way, he completely moved out of the picture.

This was the only one where all 3 of them are looking at me.

I loved this one because of the classic cheesey smile from Payden.

After the winners were announced, it was time to head out for the trunk or treating. Since I'd juggled the kids the whole time, I told Tom it was his turn to take them around. Looking back, I should have switched and left him with the sleeping Declan to hand out candy. It ended up being chaotic. At one point, I had about 20 trick-or-treaters crowding me to get their hands on the loads of candy in our trunk (Tom had left it all over the trunk and so the kids were just dying to get some). At the same time Declan, who had been sleeping in my arms, started having a hard time and needed me to bounce him, and then to top it off, Shelby and Taylor had lost Tom and were yelling at me to help them find him because they were desperate to get back to trick-or-treating. I didn't even know what to do. Finally a mother yelled at the big kids to back off and let the little ones get candy first, and I ended up going out in the middle of the parking lot and yelled Tom's name over and over again. When I finally found him, it didn't even look like he knew they were missing.

After that, things calmed down. Tom eventually came back with Taylor and Payden. Taylor immediately jumped into our trunk, picked up our candy bowl, and started handing out candy. It was too cute. Shelby had run off with her friend Taylor to do more trick-or-treating (I wasn't too happy about that . . . church or no church I still want her to have an adult around). We finally found her, said goodbye to our friends, and then headed home. It was a crazy, but fun evening with family and friends.