Halloween festivities

I must explain why all of these recent posts are about a month late: We upload all of our pictures onto John's computer (cuz I'm afraid mine is about to crash any day and it's runnin VERY low on memory). Anyway, of course John takes his computer to school all day everyday and therefore I don't have any pictures to upload, post, or blog. So any chance I get to get my hands on his computer, I'm blogging :-) But then lately, John's computer has been having some issues with the video drive (or something like that) so it's been a little difficult as well. Non the less, today is Sunday, therefore we get to partake of yet another post focused primarily on our little Jack. Happy Halloween...We went to "Scott's Pumpkin Patch" all together for FHE. I've never seen pumpkins with warts before? Interesting...

Later that week for an enrichment activity, we went to "Farmer Mark's". This farmer does strawberry picking in the spring and tours of the farm in the fall. At the very beginning of our tour we were standing by a tractor full of hay and Jack was freaking out because he wanted a handful. He kept saying, "Hay, moo cow! Hay, horsey" I didn't even realize he knew the word "hay" let alone what its used for. Then I remembered, he has a book about the farm! So, I let him have a little handful to feed to the cow but he didn't even last past the chickens. I didn't have the heart to tell him that chickens don't eat hay! He didn't care. He was in heaven at the farm. John was very pleased to hear that he's got farm boy in the making! It makes his Idaho heart proud!

I love that Jack is old enough to finally understand that mommy and daddy do all these crazy traditions and holidays because it's actually FUN!! On Thursday night October 30th, we had our ward "Halloweenie Roast"/trunk or treat. Jack thought it was pretty cool to see all his friends dressed up so "silly" as he called it. His favorite was the cupcake walk. I'm pretty sure he ate his fair share of sugar that night!
This is our darling little pumpkin (or butt cheek depending on who you're talking to!!... see post on Oct 19, 2008)

This year we were the "Jack-O-Lantern" family, get it? We had our Jack, then I was the "O" and John was our "Lantern". We tried to be creative without actually going through all the effort of big costumes, hence our homemade, iron t-shirts! Maybe next year we'll go all out. I've always wanted to go all out but somehow always ran out of... time, money, creativity, and now I'm running out of excuses! I'll start planning NOW for next year!

Our darling little Pumpkins. Cameron Warner and Jack (o-lantern) Gochnour. hee hee

Jack and BFF dinosaur (aka Ethan Pelfrey).

October 31st, 2008

We had a very fun Chili party on Halloween night where pretty much anyone/everyone was invited and we managed to eat our way through 4 crockpots of chili. Pretty impressive crowd and I might add that Mom Gochnour's "Sweet Chili with shredded beef" was quite a huge hit. Mom, you were talked about all night long... they ate the whole thing and were asking for more!

Anyway, I wrote this (very embarrassing) poem for our chili party and I am will be the first to admit that it is very cheesy almost to the point of Velveeta! Here goes...

"Halloween is coming, it comes but once a year.
We've decided to have a party and we'd like to have you there.
Come for several hours or just a minute if you please.
Just wear your chosen costume and get ready to say "cheese".
We'll provide the chili if you could bring a chair.
We'll be outside sipping cider in this chilly autumn air.
If it gets too cold for pleasure grab your little girls and boys.
Our homes are always open with much warmer seats and toys.
If you'd like to help by bringing a topping or a treat,
just let us know by email, we'll assign you something neat.
Freaky fudge or mummy dogs or popcorn balls will do.
Or sour cream or cheese or chives it all depends on you.
Please respond by Wednesday night so we can have a count.
We want you all to come to this, no matter the amount.
The party is this Friday night 5:30 is when we'll start.
This party will be so much fun, you'll never want to part!!"

And, there you have it. Between the food and friends, we had a great night.

I went visiting teaching Tuesday night before Halloween and before I left I had mentioned to John all the things I wanted to do that week such as carve our pumpkin, make our shirts, start the chili (it's a several day process), clear out the junk in Jack's room so the kids can play... Anyway, I came home to this beautiful pumpkin sitting on our front porch! Daddy and Jack carved this together. Isn't he the best! The only sad thing? No footage... oh well! When I asked John if he had taken any pictures he said, "If I would have thought about it that would have been a great thing to do! Besides that, I had pumpkin guts all over my hands!" This pumpkin lasted forever! It was carved a few nights before our party and it still looks great on the night of Halloween. In AZ, you carve a pumpkin and it goes black and moldy within 24 hrs.

Thank you Loralee for the delicious "Mummy Dogs".

Yummy, beautiful apples provided by the Nelsons!
I bought dry ice to add to the Halloween experience, but then I realized we were having HOT cider at the party I decided against it (good thing it was only $0.99/lb). I didn't want our warm cider to go cold, so I put the dry ice on the counter and forgot about it until after the party. Well, after everyone left the real party began :-) Were cleaning up, saw it sitting there and it was right then and there I decided to have our own little "Witches Brew Party". It was so much fun. Jack got a huge kick out it as you can see in the videos. He's so darn cute. He first reaction was, "Oh no, HOT!" and "Oh no, where'd the juice go?" After he was over the initial shock if it all, he started blowing into the pot and would congratulate himself by saying, "Oh, NICE!"