October Festivities and Halloween 2018

Ward trunk or treat at the Ballard church.  We gave out pixie stix and our scarecrow looked extra scary laying severed behind our van.

 Halloween festivities for us is spread out throughout the month and usually includes trunk or treating with our ward (soup dinner after), trick or treating around the neighborhood, going to the local grocery store's "Lunch with a Witch," taking a trip to North Crescent Street to see the "Halloween House," and a trip to a pumpkin patch/corn maze.

This year's "Lunch with a Witch" was at Stewart's Marketplace and they served chili or cheesy-broccoli soup with rolls and rootbeer.  There was trick or treating around the store at different stations where you could play little games or get your face painted.  They turned the meat department into a haunted hallway!  At the end, you get to take a picture with the witch, if you want.

Amara with the Witch 

Our scarecrow

At the beginning of the month, we decided to make a scarecrow out of old clothes and stuff him with weeds.  His head was stuffed with plastic garbage sacks and a wire hanger held the round shape, then we put burlap over the top and glued on some googly eyes and drew on a nose and mouth with marker.  He was our fall decoration and we eventually added a bunch of pumpkins from our garden to go all around him.

 This scarecrow scared us every time we walked around the corner.  He did his job perfectly.

More of Amara's decorations

Our Ward Trunk-Or-Treat

 This year our ward trunk or treat was on Halloween night, which was fun!  Steve shaved half his face for Halloween.  Lily (Minnie Mouse), Amara (Hermione Granger), Grandma(a weird witch) and I (kitty cat) went all out and dressed up.

Weird doll at the trunk or treat

I was so lucky to get to hold this little dude who kept me warm as I walked around

 Amara bought this mini skeleton and puts him in poses around the house and takes pictures of him.  Here's some I found on my phone camera roll.

The Halloween House

 We went to the Halloween house the night before Halloween (for family home evening).  The family that puts it together does it for free and they also go ALL OUT!

Amara looks both creepy and like Voldemort

Homeschool Field Trip: Lapoint Corn Maze

This cornmaze is new- this is their second year.  We went with a bunch of homeschoolers, many of which are from our ward.  It was fun and a nice day.  We packed a lunch and had fun doing all the little activities.  My favorite is the hayride to the pumpkin patch.  I'm so glad my mom got to join us for this trip!  She recently quit her job at clinic to pursue opening her own business and finishing her websites.

Lily has grown A TON this year! At the time this photo was taken, I was still the tallest by a teensy tiny bit.

Our Autumn Angel, Lily.

Our Cute Fall Fairy

 There was a petting zoo with super-cute calf named Batman, goats and cute pigs, bunnies, and ponies.  We came at a good time and the worker there let us help feed the animals.

Late June Early July Randomness

Our very own Mr. & Mrs. C's Lemon Creme Cake with Streusel Topping 

Kalbi steak, krab potato salad and green salad.

Food has such a way of bringing back good memories for me.  The Lemon Creme Cake is a recipe Stephen and I developed together after having a delicious dessert at the Olive Garden.  Ours turned out nothing like theirs, but ours is still wonderful.  Because it's time intensive, it's a cake saved for special occasions only, like the 4th of July in this case.  It was hot that day and the whip cream frosting was melting off the cake.  I just learned a tip from a friend Debbie Hamaker this past weekend.  She puts pudding mix into her whip cream for sweetener and it also firms it up more.

July 4th for me should always have something grilled and krab potato salad.  Kalbi reminds me of my dad and my childhood, and also my brother Joe because whenever he comes to visit me, I have him grill Kalbi for me.  There is nothing that smells better on the grill than that!

Me posing in the hot sun for the camera.  I was going for a distressed-in-the-heat look.

Lily posing in the sun.  She's going for a sun-don't-blind-me look.

Steve was testing out his polarizing lens, so he had Me and Lily get in the harsh sun and face it. That's why we have the weird pics.


Every now and again I walk to the top of our hill in the backyard and have a look around.  It's really pretty up there looking out across the farmer's field and watching a sunset.

Our house from the back of the property

The pretty sunset from the back of our property.  There was lots of smoke from wildfires this summer making for some pretty sunsets.

Amara has a goal to earn a bike by letting her nails grow out. 

We stayed with April's cute family...

Here's a few more random photos.

Steve talked about this fruit in Brazil.  It grows very high in trees, is heavy like a watermelon, and spiky.  It's deadly if it falls on you.

A sip and a trip to Chuck a Rama in Lehi.

There's a park in Orem with cool photo opportunities.

I wanted to remember what other wards do for their relief society activities since that's what I help plan in our ward.  This is April's ward's classes:

Getting ready for cow-appreciation-day (Chick-Fil-A)...

Wish I had more pics and better ones.

That's it for this post of the random things we did this summer.