Can you believe it?

Not only did I forget to take pictures of my kids in their costumes before they headed off to school, but I also forgot to bring my camera to the Halloween parade! Although I did have my cell phone, but I asked Shawn to take a picture with his phone since his pictures usually turn out better...not so much this time!



My Mily girl as a butterfly princess (she got voted "Most Pretty") by her classmates! She was thrilled!Joshua has been telling us that he wanted to dress up as a nerd since before the school year ended last year! And he had a very specific idea of what he wanted to do for his nerd image. Very detailed, down to the LONG white sock tucked over one of his pant leg...it was great!Wesley's parade was a little later in the day, for the afternoon kids. (P.S. My camera phone!)I was going to spray Wesley's hair purple, because they don't let you wear masks, but I didn't have time in between parties. I did get a few seconds to slathered on some black face paint just before he was suppose to get into class. The kid that was standing behind Wes in line, kept telling me that he didn't want me to paint his face. I had to explain that I was Wesley's mommy and that I wasn't planning on painting anyone else's face...hahaha, he looked very relieved! Too funny! Can you believe it? I don't have a very good pictures of my kids in their costumes this year. Horrible mom...darn it!

After the first parade I ended up helping out in all three of my kids Halloween class parties. How did I manage that you ask? All their teachers called and asked me to be in charge...what are the chances? I said, yes to the first teacher who asked and no to the other two, but that I would try and help out, unfortunately the last one to ask, had the least amount of help...I felt really bad. The timing of the parties worked out relatively well, I was a little nervous for a while that I would completely miss the last one, but I made it over there.

The 1st grade party was scheduled right after the school parade ended. I was asked to be in charge of an activity/game so I called a friend in my ward who teaches 2nd grade and asked for a game. It was cute, easy and fun...winner! The party was a success, in part because one particular mom had planned and prepared for the "just in case!" She even had her mom come and help out. Thanks Shannon, you are awesome! As soon as that party was done, I headed straight over to Kindergarten. (...and slathered some paint on Wes' face.)

Kindergarten did their cute little parade and then we put on a cute little party for them. I was in charge of this one but all I did was coordinated what activities and had assigned the three other mom's, jobs to help with. Turned out great, thanks to a great bunch of ladies...whew! I ended up doing the same game as in Mily's class as well as a cut 'n tell story. As soon as we were done with kinder party, I ran over to 3rd grade and got there 25 minutes before school ended.

I was so happy that I was at least able to make it to Josh's class party, even if it was only to help out a few minutes before clean up. I got there in just enough time to hold the strung up donuts for the students to try and eat with no hands...totally entertaining!

Whew, what a crazy few hours that was. A big shout out to Uncle Cody who saved me by babysitting Rusty and Wes so I didn't have to drag them around with me. Uncle Cody fed them lunch and got Wes to the Kinder-bus on time. THANK YOU!

After school I promised the kids that we would head over to dad's new work for some trick-or-treating. Earlier that morning I sent Shawn to work with candy for the kids who would come by his work, and when he met up with me at the school for the parade, he told me that someone at work informed him that he didn't bring near enough candy? ...what? How many kids were they expecting? I just grabbed the extra candy that I had from the kids class parties and prayed it would be enough. We got to dad's work and there were already quite a few kids wearing costumes walking around with buckets of candy. The first thing they did when we got in the building was the receptionist took our family picture! Strange I thought, but whatever. Then we started off, desk after desk, cubical after cubical, office after office. Everyone had cady and at each desk there was a cute halloween candy bowl full of tons of candy to pass out. We get to Shawn's tiny desk and he had a few pieces of candy in a plastic bag...it was awesome! Now, I know for next year, I already bought him a cute bowl (after Halloween sale) and he will be more prepared next year! Anyway we ended up walking around his work for just over an hour, three floors of offices and all four of my kids had FULL buckets of candy...it was crazy. By the way, Shawn informed me that he had just enough candy...he only had a few tootsie rolls left over. Whew...that was close.

I'm so totally bummed I didn't get really good pictures of my kids before the school parade. I'm too lazy to get them all dressed up to that level again, besides they all stained, tore and slimmed their costumes anyway....darn it, darn it! Sigh...just chalk it up to another bad mom moment!