Conkey Chronicles: November 2010

We've been so busy enjoying the fall. Here are a few more pictures of our adventures.

Sammy after running out from behind a tree in our peek-a-boo game. This was our first really chilly day (Oct. 27).

Sam found a pile of leaves which had blown around and gotten stuck between bikes in the bike rack. I can see that he is going to be a cyclist already. He is fascinated with bikes.

On Tuesday, November 2nd, Sammy and I went on a nice hike at Chataqua with our friends Becca and Fynn.

Sam and Fynn are the best of pals and always have fun throwing rocks and running around exploring together.

It also works out really well that I love Becca, too. She and I have gone on many a long run together and even attempted at one point to do an early morning swim class. Biking to the rec center at 6 am was short lived, but we still really love hanging out. We met in a prenatal yoga class at the hospital and actually live right next to each other in Family Housing (which we didn't realize 'til after we were through with the class)

I love this picture of Sam. He is a child of Boulder, that's for sure.

Me and Bx with the flatirons in the background. While it looks like Bx is a midget in this picture, she really isn't. I am just standing above her and my baby backpack is really high up...

Sam and Fynn throwing rocks and enjoying the sunshine (until Fynn face planted...which seems to be par for the course with these two boys every time we hang out).

A view over Boulder.

I love Halloween and I enjoyed it to the fullest this year. I was so busy with planning the Family Housing Halloween party for 250 people and helping out with the party for the youth at church, I barely had time to think straight. I did manage, however, to spend way too much of my time planning and making our costumes. Our house was definitely messy for weeks on end, but I think it was worth it.

Also, we found time to carve some pumpkins with friends, roast pumpkin seeds, go to pumpkin patches, and start the neighborhood "Boo" (where you give treats away with a note telling them to give treats to two or more neighbors 'til there are "Boo" signs on doors everywhere! So fun!). Those things were definitely priorities on my October to do list.

Here are pictures of our pumpkin carving adventure:

We decided that the each of us would carve half and then our husbands would carve the other half. So, Don and Em are starting to carve their halves.

Em definitely carved the most complicated eye...

After we each finished our half, we covered it up with a wet paper towel and the other person carved their half.

Another classic Em face. You can see that Don's half is covered on our pumpkin. The half you see is mine.

This was by far the best couples pumpkin carving idea ever (props to Em and Rick for coming up with it). Our pumpkins turned out pretty awesome. Rick and Em's was a little fruity looking...

and ours was just creepy...

All lit up

About our costumes: Don was the fruit of the loom fruit with a bunch of his buddies when he was in college. I thought it was a hilarious costume, so I decided that was what we were going to be this year. We bought huge underwear, spent an evening making stem headbands, and then I bought a bunch of purple and green fabric and made me and Sam aprons to attach our balloons (grapes) to. I had intended to sew the aprons, but something is wrong with my sewing machine so I ended up using a hot glue gun for everything. I am a hot glue gun pro now.

I blew up the balloons, which Sam was obsessed with - he just kept running around kicking them yelling "ball! ball! ball!!, and then attached them with safety pins to the aprons. That way, I was able to quickly pull on both my and Sam's grapes and remove them quickly too, which was key.

Friday night, we had a party for the youth. I wore my grapes and realized how truly uncomfortable the costume really was. We had the party in an enormous garage and played a couple movies, had lots of games, and ate chili and brats. I made a pumpkin bowling pin set (2 liter bottles covered with orange paper with jack-o-lantern faces) and brought a pumpkin to bowl with. Unfortunately, it was super windy, so the pins kept blowing away, even though I'd put sand in them. The cauldron bean bag toss game I brought was a hit, though. The kids also took a bunch of apples and some baseball bats and played "apple smash" where they'd pitch an apple up in the air and then smash it into a pulp which would fly into the field across the street. It was really fun. I definitely got into it.

The "Garage Mahal". It is absolutely enormous and it was amazing how it was transformed as we decorated.

Rachel, Me (yes, I can hardly see over my grapes), Dani, and Heather

Heather and Dani doing the donuts on a string game.

The whip cream/bubble gum game. You have to fish your piece of bubble gum out of the pile of whip cream and be the first to blow a bubble. It was pretty hilarious to watch.

Outside by the field playing apple smash. It was so windy and cold but well worth it for the joy of really exploding some apples.

Saturday morning was my Family Housing Halloween party. It went really well and people seemed to enjoy themselves. We had enough food, which is always something I always stress about, and the "friendly witch" who did songs did a great job. The kids really seemed into it. The costume parade and contest was also fun, if not a little chaotic. One more event down. Now I've just got the Thanksgiving dinner for 300 and the Holiday Party for 200 to worry about. The holidays are crazy!!

The food committee after we'd finished prepping all the food. I was so glad there were enough donuts (just barely) and other food.

Ah haha ahaha (evil witch laugh)! I love donuts!

Me and Sam participating in the costume contest.

Amy, the friendly witch, singing songs with the kids

Saturday night was our ward party. This is what I was really excited about because all of us would wear our costumes - with the huge fruit of the loom underwear. When I wore the grapes by myself I didn't wear the underwear and when Sam and I just wore the grapes to the FH party, we didn't wear the underwear. It didn't make sense until all the fruit of the loom fruit were present.

I didn't really think through how non-functional the costumes would be. When Don made his apple with a red plastic tablecloth and some hangers before the party on Saturday, we realized that neither of us could pick up Sam, who quickly turned to sour grapes as soon as we tried to get him to wear his stem headband.

We went to our ward party on Saturday night and because of the lack of functionality, we didn't put our costumes on 'til the costume contest started. We hid out on stage until it was our turn to parade down the stairs and red carpet and by that time, Sam had had it. He was mad. Don had to carry him at arms length (the only way he could hold him) and the grapes engulfed Sam's head so you couldn't even see him. You knew he was there, though, since he was screaming. We definitely got a big laugh and Sam won the costume contest for best boy under 12. I was proud.

On Halloween, we walked around the complex in our costumes and got a couple pictures.

Trying to get Sammy dressed was tough since I couldn't see over my grapes. Also, besides not have peripheral vision, it was like I was in surround sound in my head because every time I'd talk, I'd hear myself from all directions because of the sound bouncing off the balloons.

Sam liked to lick his balloons. I couldn't stop laughing about how ridiculous the huge underwear looked on him. All the underwear we wore was the same size, from the same package but people kept thinking Sams were way bigger than ours because they looked so enormous on him.

Trying to get Sam from point A to point B on Halloween night in our complex. It was slow and difficult and really funny to watch. Sam looked hilarious waddling around in those grapes.

Sam with Nina and Fynn, his two good buddies (or mates, as Becca, their mom, would say. She's British). Becca and I were in a prenatal yoga class together at the hospital and were about 8 weeks apart in our pregnancies. Neither of us knew the other lived in Family Housing so when I saw her one day at the playground, we both asked what the other was doing there. Since Sam was early, Fynn and Sam are 6 weeks apart in age and have such a great time playing together. It is fun to have such great neighbors.