'Twas Halloween, My Liege!!!

We had quite a wonderful Halloween this year! our kids were super fun ages for all the festivities and we enjoyed going to our ward Halloween party with all our neighbors with a yummy dinner and trunk or treating.... going to the Halloween party (well.... we kind of celebrated it all week) at the daycare/preschool I work at with MANY yummy Halloween goodies, fun Halloween cartoons & songs, and a costume parade through Gold's Gym.... and going to our traditional Halloween activity (drumroll please...) "BOO AT THE ZOO!" We LOVE Boo at the Zoo and this year it was the best we've ever been!!! SO fun! Here are some (HA! a TON) of pictures to commemorate how we spent the start of the holiday season! : )


Kadan's pumpkin. He did a good portion of his pumpkin himself this year, though I did help on the face, he just showed me what he wanted and where to finish making the lines. Below is what he showed me when I asked him "what kind of face does your pumpkin have?" What a goof! LOL!



Mr. Zack said, "AWESOME!" (his favorite word pretty much) when he opened his pumpkin. He needed help on the face of course so he just told me what he wanted "twiangle eyes.... eyebwows... some wittle tiny teeth." He was quite proud of his creation this year.

Of course we got baby Cameron a pumpkin!!!! We pretty much just opened it and let him feel the guts a bit, then I carved a simple face, and of course some dragon wings and a tail on the sides and back. (Nope.... I could not resist. Had to.) Sorry babe, that nickname is stickin'! : )
The funniest part, he didn't want to be done playing with the guts and seeds. After this I took him upstairs to change him for bed and when I was washing his hand I found 2 seeds inside his tightly closed fist. Baby liked his pumpkin! Wanted to bring a bit to bed with him!

The finished Jack-o-lantern family on our front porch. Blaine's is the big daddy one in the back. Mine is the girly one with lips, eyelashes, and curls on the sides, Kadan's is the medium sized one on the right, Zack's is the little on on the left, and baby's is the little one on the right.


Some of 'the gang' at the Learning Zone:

My Little Jester (and yes.... I did make his costume.... with no pattern. That's right. I'm bragging. He he he.... ) I loved how he jingled everywhere he walked.Check out the super cute Juggling Jester Gloves I made! (Well... I BOUGHT the gloves... I just attached the clear elastic and the pom poms so he could 'juggle'.) Turned out SO freakin' cute!!!! LOVED it!!!

Here's a little video of him juggling. I didn't tie the knots to hold on the pom poms very good at first and... well.... you'll see in the video. But I fixed them and he was juggling like crazy the rest of the day and all through trick or treating and they stayed on. Oh, yeah.... and he's making some goofy noise in this video... he's just kind of wacko like that. ; ) That would be why he got to be the Jester. ha ha! : )


Sir Kadan the Knight and his trusty side kick..... Iron Man!

Here is how we decked out the stroller so it was fit to house our baby dragon.

Here are the pictures of "Boo at the Zoo":
All sugar-ed up

For the Kingdom!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (p.s.... check out that sexy King I'm married to! Love you hon!) : )

The whole royal family:
Me= Princess from the distant land come to marry the handsome King
Blaine= Previously mentioned handsome King
Kadan= Sir Knight, bound to protect the castle, court, and his liege!
Zackery= Wildly talented juggling jester of the court
Cameron= ferocious atrocious (and dang cute) fire breathing dragon who guards the castle's treasury

Here's a video of the kiddos at the zoo playing on a lion statue. Kadan keeps trying to pull a "sword in the stone" moment and Zack shows off his awesome Jester Juggling skills.
They have TONS of jackolanterns and pumpkins and lights and big Halloween decorations all over the zoo. This year the decor was extra good too!
Throughout the zoo there are little games for kids to play and haybale mazes and 'haunted houses' to go through. (Everything is super super kid friendly, which is why we LOVE to go here for Halloween.)

This one was lit up with black lights so it looked all neat, but my flash effectly ruined the coolness of it. I love Kadan's face in it though! : )


The primate/reptile building was all decked out like a castle (which we loved, because it matched our costumes this year.... he he he). Each cage was decorated for a different piece of the castle.

Chimps: Witches
Big Monkeys I don't remember their name: The Court
Small Monkeys: Peasants
Tiny Monkeys: Leprachauns
Lemurs: Knights
Snakes: DUNGEON! dun dun dun!


Little Jester forgot his rank in the court I guess because the King pretty much pushed him around the whole time. LOL


Dragon gaurded castle, I actually had a couple people take a pic of him in it on the cell phones. Kinda cool. : )
He went back and forth between 'blowing' the fire' and playing with it. Good thing dragons have good strong flame resistant scales right?! ; )

I was also quite proud of the whole "attaching the 'fire' to the binky" idea... though this idea I can't fully claim as my own. Got the inspiration of the internet (the juggling gloves WAS my idea, though) : )


Sir Kadan.... knight of Chubbuckalot

The princess from a 'distant land' (who mostly fit into her high school homecoming dress... LOL) It was super fun to wear it again, though! I forgot how much I loved this one.

I LOVED how Cameron's wings turned out!!! I wanted them to be big and soft enough that he could lay on them and stuff but still be able to hold their 'wing' shape. Goal accomplished! And I found super awesome fabric for it too! I love that it had the swirly veiny print.

Dragon kept dropping his fire so princess had to hold it for the photo. ; )


Awww... cutey patootey baby dragon....


His majesty.... the powerful studly King.... : ) (we made his tunic, cape, wrist thing-ies)

Kadan also won FIRST place in the dance contest they had for the kids! He got up there on the little haybale stage and was totally working it. Ha ha! So super cute! I wish I would have got the beginning on camera because he was REALLY getting into it, but it took me a minute to stop laughing long enough to pull out the camera and he had calmed down a bit, but still cute, I think. : ) He was pretty surprised (and excited) to win first place! He got a little goodie bag with some coupons for free stuff at the zoo and at a restaurant.


And that concludes our Halloween awesome-ness. Such a fun year. TONS of candy... lots of fun... and I'm SO happy with how our costumes turned out this year (my favorite part of Halloween)!!!

And yes.... I've already started to ponder next years costumes.... because.... well... that's what I do. He he he! : )