Where is Halloween?

Looks like the end of October skipped right by without my Halloween post. There were lots of festivities. Our Halloween week started with a Halloween Party at the ward hosted by the Primary. Boy was this ambitious of us! Luckily it turned out fun and every organization chipped in to make it a great party for the kids. Stephen helped me pick up a blowup toy for one station,(before he left on another med school interview) and then we had everything from a cupcake walk, to face paining, to a donut eating contes. I've really got a hang of this delegating thing!

(the cute invitation that I made, that I delegated out to the cub scouts to deliver! See the little tabs on the invitation? Those told some of the activities.)
We had a great turn out for the party but I mostly took individual shoots of ward members that wouldn't mean much to someone reading this post. But here are a few of my favorites....




On the right is one of my primary teachers who is 90 years old! What a sport!


My kids just ran free all night long! Macy loved the bouncy toy!


So after the Ward Party was a success, the next day came all the Halloween parades at the kid's schools. It was quite a new experience having all three kids in school at the same time. Life is getting easy!






Oh, it's not over yet.... we then drove up to Idaho for a Halloween bash hosted by my dad and Cindy at their house.


(Cindy the witch and Dad the Voodoo Witch Doctor!)


They had all the grand kids together for a very fun party!


I loved seeing my grandparents dressed up in their backwards clothes with the masks on the back of their heads. Very clever!


Cindy had everything covered from decorated cupcakes, to bobbing for apples

(which some were better at than others), a fishing game, and pinata.

It was such a fun night that we forgot all about going trick or treating. That's right. No bags and bags of candy at our house this year. It was actually kinda nice.

(Stephen wearing his $3 graduate costume I got at the D.I. I recycled my flapper dress made from sugar packets.)


You think we couldn't squeeze anymore fun in? Think again. After our Idaho trip we came home to the Lauder Family traditional Halloween Party. My mom has been hosting this family party every year since Stephen and I were married. I decided to branch out a bit from my flapper costume and quickly raided my closet for a new costume. Here's what I came up with in 10 minutes...

(poor Macy got the flu, so daddy stayed home with her.)

Look at all these couples costumes! We didn't even plan this!

I think the parties were in full force for us in case we aren't here for next year. It was a busy fun week!

A Med School Update: Stephen has had an overwhelming amount of interview invites. We have had to start canceling them because its not feasible to pay for all of the trips. But I'm happy to report he has been accepted into 4 schools.(Michigan, Iowa, Pennsylvania and Missouri) We put our deposit down for the school of our choice in a couple of weeks. Right now, we are leaning toward Iowa. Exciting things to come...oh, he also interviewed at the University of Utah but they don't tell you until the end of March, so we have a while to find out about them. I'm still a bit on the fence about whether or not we should stay in Utah if he gets in. I'm excited for the adventure of a new place, but in all reality it would be the smartest move to just stay put. I'll keep you posted!