Halloween Costumes 2009

Megan the Jedi
with new and improved costume with cloak

Ian the Jedi
also with a cloak

Erin the Fairy
asserting her independence by saying "NO" to being a Jedi

Dallin the Youngling
the cutest ever youngling in training

Group Photo

Primary Halloween Carnival

One of most fun events of our Primary year is the annual Halloween Carnival. Kevin made it back to Logan at 3:30, just in time to help pick up the games. We thank Heidi again for letting us borrow all her cute homemade carnival games. She is a life saver!

We also thank Kevin for the lack of good photos...he was on photo duty because April was manning the "Dead Sea" game (aka fish pond).

Here is the world's cutest Jedi youngling and his Jedi instructor

posing by the aforementioned Dead Sea game.

Erin and her friend Afton playing the Cauldron Toss

Megan and Emily and their YW leaders helped with the Cake Walk.
We came home with a pumpkin cake that Erin won.

Here is our only photo of Ian at the YM's doughnut eating challenge.

And that's it--you'll have to imagine the rest of the party: Mummy Golf, Plinko, Candy Jar Guess, Prize Wheel, Pin the Wart on the Witch, with our cute little Primary children dressed in costumes. And the food table filled with soups and chilis, hot dogs, nachos, and the Crooks' famous homemade root beer. Other than our photo documentation, the event was a success overall, and the ward members had a great time.

North Logan Pumpkin Walk

One of our Halloween traditions is to attend the annual North Logan Pumpkin Walk. This year's theme was "Commercials." There were not as many entries as in past years, but it was still fun for April and the children to spend an hour walking around and viewing the displays.

Since we don't have TV, the children weren't familiar with most of the commercials.
Oh well...could be worse things they lack in their education.

Star Wars characters are always represented in one way or another.

Keebler Elves and the Trix Rabbit:

Our favorite fast food place--NOT!
Erin doesn't even know who Ronald McDonald is.

One of the most creative displays for this year was The Jolly Green Giant garden:

2009 Pumpkin Make-Overs

We carved our pumpkins for a FHE activity.
Dallin had a fun time squishing the "pumpkin guts."

Erin with her wolf pumpkin (she had a bit of help)

In addition to carving a cat face, Megan used her pumpkin
to advertise the new Warriors book, Omen of the Stars.
















Glowing pumpkins with light sabers

Megan's Cat, Erin's Wolf, and Ian's Tarantula

Cider Part 2

Due to the abundance of apples this year, the Crooks held a second cider party at their house.

More neighbors participated in this one, and we made over 100 gallons in one day!

The weather was rainy, but thanks to the Suhaka's pop-up shelter,
the apple cutters stayed dry.

Fresh from the press and filtering

Dallin took a nice 3-hour nap in the afternoon.

We now have a great cider supply,
some of it frozen and some bottled.

Erin's Family Party

Sadly, Erin woke up sick with a fever on Saturday for her family party. She threw up a couple of times and couldn't even eat her cat cake until 2 days later. She's on the mend, but has a really nasty cough that is lasting forever.

Erin also shared her illness with everyone except Dad.
Needless to say, it hasn't been very fun.
Erin is excited to be 5, however, and that means
she can now get her own library card!!!

Erin's Friend Party

Happy 5th Birthday to Erin!

Erin has been counting the days for several weeks and has been so excited for her birthday this year. She really wanted a friend party, she chose a cat theme, and she helped Mom and Megan prepare for it. We invited 5 friends but only 2 were able to make it (due to illnesses and baby births).

The party favor bags were fun!


Thanks to Aunt Andrea's suggestion, we painted cat faces on the little girls.
It was a pretty serious endeavor.



Once they had been turned into cats, they were more smiley.


We played some games too!
(Artwork courtesy of big sister Megan)

Pin the Bow on the Cat


"Feed the Cats" Bean Bag Toss
This was supposed to be a toss game, but it ended up being
more fun to play behind and look through.
(We made some bean bag mice, a fish,
and a can of cat food to throw through the mouths.)


Then it was present time!
Erin got some fun crafts and games,
glowsticks for Halloween,
and some Moon Sand.
Thanks so much, Melody and Afton!


Finally, it was time to decorate and eat cat cupcakes!



Thank you to everyone who helped make this a fun day for Erin!
We will have a family party with Dad over the weekend.

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Logan Canyon in Color

Mom and the children took a short trip up the canyon today
to enjoy the beautiful leaves before they are gone.

We pulled off on a side road, and as we were looking for a place to park, Erin said, "I saw a bird hanging from a tree. And it was DEAD!" None of us had noticed it, but we know that Erin is very observant. So Mom backed up the car to look for the bird. Sure enough, there was a dead duck hanging from a tree. We are guessing that someone found it and put it in the tree.

On our little hike, we saw a bird nest...

3 praying mantises...



the ever-abundant snail shells...


and, of course, lots of bones.


The children were patient as we tried to get some cute
fall photos for Dad to enjoy.