Halloween!!!

We love Halloween in the Hansen house. We celebrated many ways this year. We had a thrilling Pumpkin Party, I volunteered at Xander's school carnival, and for Xander's class Halloween Party. I was in charge of the Monster Claw. By far the most fun game!

Of course the most important part of Halloween was trick or treating. We started out by eating dinner at Bachan's like always. She made a wonderful dinner of soup, salad, and bread. Auntie Sam was there too! It is always fun to see her. Then all the kids got ready in their costumes. Josh was a dead person, cleaver through the head accident. That'll get you every time. Xander was Dr. X Death. Maybe he is responsible for the cleaver accident. Michael was the Joker. Pretty scary if you ask me! Jalon was a very realistic Batman. I almost forgot it was Jalon. Farrah was a Princess riding a magical unicorn. She even had beautiful princess makeup and glitter. And Mya was a princess ballerina. Complete with flowing curls and a tiara.

We got a late start at trick or treating, about 7:45 so we had to be quick and efficient this year. Jalon did great keeping up with the big boys. I got the impression that as long as there is candy involved he is willing to run for it. Farrah visited about 10 or 15 houses and just chose to relax after that. She said she had enough candy. Josh, Xander, and Michael agreed there was no such thing as too much candy. Taffy had fun trick or treating too. She got a lot of practice at being calm. She really wanted to chase the boys. People started to turn out their lights about 9:00 pm so we decided to call it a night. The kids got so much candy and then Bachan gave them a GIANT bag to split up between them. The night ended with all the kids playing trade the candy. Even Jalon and Farrah were trading. I am not sure they understood to trade things you don't like for things you do like because they were trading straight across, Doritos for Doritos. So cute.

We got home and packed up Brian for his trip to Chicago...

Pictures are not organized yet on Flickr but you can scroll through the photo stream to see them. And when they are organized they will be under "sets" then Halloween 2008.

Pumpkin Party

Since Halloween is Brian's favorite holiday I can pretty much plan anything related to it and be sure he is on board. Our family has a tradition of going to the pumpkin patch and spending a good 2 hours searching for the perfect pumpkin. We take 2 wheelbarrows and fill them with any pumpkin that might be the "one". This year we invited Julie, Aimee, and Lisa's family to come along. The kids loved wandering through the patch inspecting each one carefully. The kids also got to wander through the patch's corn maze and play on all the really cool antique tractors. Plus I got to test out my skills as a pumpkin spokes model

We all headed back to my house at which point I sent Lisa and Shay on a date. Pumpkin parties are just for kids. (Yes, Brian and I count as kids) We spread out a large disposable table cloth on the floor and let the kids have at their pumpkins. The older kids were so sweet and helped the little ones. In the end they all made very frightening Jack-o-Lanterns.

I made homemade mac and cheese for dinner per Brian's request. The kids all loved it and there wasn't a leftover to be found. After dinner the kids made haunted graham cracker castles. Pretty much like a gingerbread house, only Halloween themed. There was frosting and candy and messy goo all over. The kids were in sugar craft heaven.

While the houses were being constructed I whipped up a batch of chocolate cupcakes. Julie, Aimee, and I decorated them like jack-o-lanterns. I must say that I may have a new profession as a cupcake decorator. I at least rivaled a 3 or 4 year old with my artistic ability.

While all the bigger kids crafted away Mya and Taffy became even better friends. I cannot even put to words how cute they are together. Mya follows Taffy all around and wants Taffy to lick her fingers. She literally shoves her fingers in the dog's mouth. If Taffy is laying down, Mya will lay next to her. I am kind of worried my dog may want to follow her home one day...

See how the fun went down by clicking HERE!!!

We're Ethnic

Well... maybe not us exactly. But our taste in food is. One of our family's favorite foods in Vietnamese Spring Rolls. We have shared this meal with my Mom's family on many occasions. She is the one who introduced us to the joy of Vietnamese food.

We decided to share our love of this genre of food with some of our other family members. We invited Mark, Molly, and Vicki over for a wonderful meal. (Lisa's guys were in Disneyland and Richard was stuck in bed with back problems). And because my Mom had fed us this meal soooo many times she and her family came too. The spring rolls are made from thin rice paper dipped in warm/hot water. From there you add rice noodles, meat (we used beef and catfish that night), and various veggies (lettuce, sprouts, purple basil, mint, cucumbers, green onions) and then roll them up. We make a dipping sauce out of fish sauce (yup you guessed it sauce made out of fish) sugar, water, lime, ginger, and garlic.

I guess the meal was a great success because there was NOTHING left over.

Boys and Their Toys

Brian and his friend Trey took the day off of work and went ATV riding out at 5 mile pass. It is just west of Lehi. They left about 8 am and didn't come home until after 5. They took a long ride on the south side of the pass and almost ended up in Eureka. Very little talking, a lot of fast moving machinery, loud rumbling noise. Perfect atmosphere for male bonding.

T-Mobile

For about 2 years now, the boys have been asking for cell phones. And for the same amount of time Brian and I have been adamantly saying NO. Xander always sang a little song of "T-Mobile" anytime we passed the store. Where do they ever go that they don't have access to a phone? We know all their friends phone numbers. Cell phones in little boys hands would just get broken. You name it, we probably used that excuse. Then heck froze over.... well close enough.

We decided to disconnect our home line because it was never used except for by the kids. But doing that would leave the boys with no access to a phone. What to do? Well I had been contemplating a cell phone switch and researched the various companies and plans. We found T-Mobile actually had the best family plans. Who would've known Xander's little jingle would be so prophetic.

Well needless to say we were the best parents in the whole world for about an hour. Then came the cell phone rules. No taking it to school, no long conversations, no inappropriate joke texts, no taking it to family houses and or events just to name a few. (with the exception of a few snafus they have been doing pretty good with the rules)

Their reactions were priceless... so much so that I must have to pay to have access to them on video and picture. Because I can't find them anywhere. I am sure we will have them on Flickr at some point.