Halloween Party!

We had our Halloween Party last night--I was a little overwhelmed with that many kids and that much noise, but it was fun and L & O were so happy to have their friends over. The thing that bothered me about a year ago, was when Lucas asked me, "mama, why don't we have any friends?" and I felt so bad! I told him--we've moved around so much his whole life, and they are home-schooled, and it's my fault that we didn't take advantage of opportunities to make friends (i'm guilty of this in my own life too). So we tried out tee-ball last fall and it was so disorganized and didn't make Lucas feel included. Olivia's dance class was so short not to mention expensive. So this year we enrolled in home-school gymnastics and soccer. It has been great to see them enjoying a sport, but also making friends and interacting. Plus it's rewarding to see John enjoying his role as coach of Olivia's 3-4 yr old team. :)

   So you can imagine how exciting it was (especially for Lucas) to hear that his friends were coming to his house for his party. It was cute about a week ago during practice, one of the other moms cheered for him after making a goal and he grinned so big and looked at her and waved like, "hey! are you my friend?!" He's my sweet sweet boy :)

  Anyway, we've been working hard to put together our first party ever, and although it didn't go as smoothly as I planned (I dropped a few games as there were just too many kids of varying ages to keep their attention for too long), I still think it was very fun and don't regret it! I'll have to get pictures of Lucas Olivia and Frankie together on Halloween, because things were too hectic for posed pictures. :P

 I wasn't sure what I was doing with Lucas' makeup but he looks like a pretty scary flying monkey huh?! He was pretty cute during the party and the costume is fitting...his personality is that of a flying monkey. :P

 Thank God for all the help I had! Firstly, my mom came over on her day off to help take care of Frankie in all the madness, and feed him too! He just woke up from his nap when people started showing up around 7.

 He did well in his scarecrow costume.

 First, most of Olivia's team showed up ready for the first game, which was the clothespin game (stolen from baby showers) where the secret word you couldn't say was "candy". There was many an exchange of clothespins, but Hannah (pink dress) ended up winning with a total of 9 at the end of the night :) I have a feeling her little brother Chase found some treasure that night too. :P

 This was half the party...Most of Lucas' team arrived shortly after!

 Cute lil babies Bristol & Frankie :)

 Who ya gonna call? Cutie Dylan looks sharp with his proton pack!

 West and lil sister Charlie are ready for some games! Buzzlight year had a great costume.

 Stealthy ninja Hayden is the fastest runner i've ever seen!

 Princess Elsa (Lily) was so polite and pleasant. I hope the quieter kids got enough fun & food--it's hard competing with the many louder demanding ones! It was challenging for me to hold all the kid's attention for the games--should have bought a bullhorn!

 This was our dance contest---lasted a while! It was fun to see everyone getting down to my playlist lol. I have to say, although she didn't win, Lily (our neighbor Little Red) was an awesome dancer!

 Here we are getting ready for our eyeball balancing relay--girls against boys, although we had 2 volunteers from the boys to even out the teams. Balancing was a more difficult task than I thought haha.

 Our first players--Olivia & Gage (aka Fire Marshall Bill!) so cute together!

 I love how if you are scanning the picture from left to right, you are like "aw look at these cute kids in their hallo---ah!" then you see Lucas' big ol Mila Kunis looking peepers staring right at ya! haha. I love him. He's like "gimme some canday!"

 The boys team ended up winning--and they got to pet Bubbles the snake first...creepy.

 After eating some fruit, cheese, dip, pizza, and sandwiches, we played this pumpkin pop-out game--I worked hard on it! There was a prize or candy in each cup, but one of them had a $25 gift card :) Baby Bristol got it!

 Then we did our bean bag toss--they stayed in line and all took turns until someone was able to score all 3 bean bags for the prize.

 This is John's bosses son Andrew :)

 Lucas fared better before the party lol He's got good aim though.

 Dylan gave it a good try.

 As did Gage

 Alec got a couple

 London got one

 And so did little Sailor, Andrew's sister:)

 Ethan aka Thor takes a good stance and shows his strength on the soccer field too!

 Tyler--so cute how hopeful he was to get those darn things in the pumpkin mouth!

 Pretty Auntie Susan with her red hair--she took most of the pictures throughout the night-thanks!
Then we ate some cake and ice cream :) sorry no pics of all this food...it was all delicious. Also, John's coworker Lee and his wife Angie brought turkey bacon wrapped jalapeno poppers with cream cheese and sausage! soooo good!

 I'm sorry I didn't get any pictures of the secret room, but at the end of the night I let them in the room I wallpapered spooky, and posed a funny skeleton, and strobe light, while John had filled the room with 144 orange and black balloons---most of the kids loved going in there to pop them all! Some were scared of the darkness and the loud popping..sorry!

 And then there's cousin Teresa and Tim...they graciously drove out to help with the preparation, cleaning and Frankie-holding, and Tim grilled up burgers and hot dogs and sausage--so much food! Thanks for all your help guys! They are awesome Godparents :)

  Here's a last shot of those that endured the whole-night of craziness. I am grateful my kids have made some great memories, and i'm also grateful that there weren't any big messes or staining in the house!

Thanks to all the parents who brought their kids out and helped keep things clean! hope you all enjoyed it :) See you on the field!