Happy Halloween!

We did it! We made it through a pandemic Halloween. This year, there was no trick-or-treating, but there was still candy and lots of family fun. We started our Halloween fun on Sunday, October 25th. It is becoming our little family tradition to enjoy a Halloween themed dinner and carve pumpkins the Sunday before Halloween. I'm sure in years to come there will be other costume fun and festival type games to enjoy with the next generation; however, this year we settled for some simple jack-o-lantern pizza, bat brownies, and pumpkin carving. I love how each of the kids (young and older) really engage in the pumpkin carving. They may not initially want to dig all the pumpkin guts out, but once the carving begins, everyone has fun with their artistic creations. After everyone left, Jonas, Jeff, Danny, and I decided to watch Coco to end our night.

On Halloween, the boys had their choices of activities. Our ward did do the annual trunk-or-treat but Jonas opted to go celebrate with his cousins while Danny chose to wreak havoc with his friends at various small parties, including at our house. (In answer to your question, yes, the pandemic is still raging. In fact, in the state of Utah, virus levels have increased to levels at or higher than they were when this all started. I think this is, in part due to the pademic "fatigue" everyone seems to be experiencing. We are simply tired of "staying home" and "staying safe". We are tired of face masks and social distancing. Right or wrong...that's where we're at. More and more people we know have contracted the virus. All of them have thankfully recovered, but I have heard that it wasn't a pleasant experience. We have yet to get sick. I hope it stays that way. We are still diligent with face masks, hand sanitizer, and hand washing. I have tried to decrease the amount of unnecessary inside activities, but that's not to say that Danny isn't still going out with friends to wherever or that Jeff isn't constantly going into homes for work. I can't say why we have yet to be infected, but I'm grateful we're not.) We started our festivities with a spooky breakfast with Jack-o-lantern juice, mummy and monster pancakes, and ghost bananas. 

The rest of the morning was spent working. We have been remodeling the kitchen and it has been a dusty job! While Danny and Jeff spent most of the day working on tearing up the tile, I spent a part of the morning wiping up dust before Jonas and I decided to get out! We decided to head to the Tanners early. On our way, we stopped to clean the dust off the Sequoia at the Haunted Wiggy Wash Car Wash. 

Finally, we made it to the Tanners! Jonas couldn't have been more excited to spend the day with his cousins. He woke up this morning and exclaimed, "I'm fully charged!"...and he was....ALL DAY! We showed up around midday. I helped Krystle finish cleaning her house while the boys impatiently played all while bugging us for when the Halloween festivities would start. Finally, it was time! Because of the virus, we opted to have our own Halloween celebrations at the house rather than go trick-or-treating. Thankfully, the boys didn't seem to mind. I don't think they missed the trick-or-treating with all the other fun games and of course, candy! We played mummy bowling, witch hat ring toss, Bingo, I-Spy, Pin the nose of the Jack-o-lantern, and so much more! We made dirt cup graveyards and elephant toothpaste. We ended the evening with a scavenger hunt, which was everyone's favorite! Once they were sugar filled, we tried to sit down to watch Casper. The boys spent about 5 minutes engaged in the movie before they decided to keep playing with some of the toys they received on the Scavenger hunt. It was a really fun evening! I'm grateful that Jonas had his cousins to celebrate with. (PS - Danny enjoyed party-hopping with his friends all night. He is really gaining a fun group of friends, but sorry...no pictures.) It was a successful pandemic Halloween!