Halloween Chaos

We didn't do birthday parties last year due to my impending deployment.  Instead we promised them for this year.  As September 16th drew nearer we realized we weren't all that excited about planning for a hoard of screaming kids right before leaving for Disney World either.  After going back and forth between trying to get ourselves psyched up for a party and reneging on the whole thing, we compromised and decided to put the whole thing off.

The thought occurred that we could do a single party for both Kylee and Brayden in between the two birthdays which conveniently landed near Halloween.  We rationalized that a Halloween party would kill two birds with one stone and greatly simplify the what promised to be at least a mildly painful experience.

We went ahead with the plans and as the date got closer the absolutely essential invitee list got longer and longer.  It would be OK, we reasoned, because many of the kids wouldn't even come right before Halloween.  In the end we ended up with 100% attendance plus a few with over 25 kids at the party.

We had quite a few planned activities for the kids, but it was hard to keep all those kids on schedule. We started out with them making candy necklaces.  Most of the boys weren't really interested.  Then we moved on to the games.  They played pumpkin bowling, candy corn toss into pumpkin pails, toilet paper mummies, and gummy worm bobbing.  There was also a box with creepy things to feel. We used grapes for eyeballs, spaghetti for brains, and spam cut into the shape of a heart.

To feed the kids we had pizza and juice boxes.  

We tried to keep the kids divided into groups of Kylee and Brayden's friends.  While one group was doing the pinata the other was inside decorating cookies.  Kylee had a pumpkin pinata and Brayden had a ghost.

The trampoline, which we attempted to limit, was standing room only for much of the evening.  Despite the many alternative spooky theme activities, it seemed to be the highlight for many.

We finished the party with singing Happy Birthday to Kylee and Brayden and eating cake.

While at the end of the evening everyone did survive, we decided this was one experience we would be OK not repeating.  It was too close to our maximum craziness level.  It was hard to take pictures of everything because there was too much going on.  Luckily my brother Carlos was there and we assigned him as the photographer.  Matt did great in keeping things going and fairly in control.  I guess the most important thing was that Kylee and Brayden enjoyed it.  Good thing, because it won't happen again.

Corn Maze

This year we decided to do the Hondo corn maze instead of the Pumpkin Patch in Medina.  The maze changes every year.  This year it was George Straight.  It was divided in 2 sections and each one took us 15 minutes to complete.  You could purchase a postcard with an areal photograph of the maze that served as an essential map.  We might still be in the maze were it not for that postcard.

We could have used a leash as the kids took off running into the first half of the maze, but by the second half they had lost some steam and took some prodding just to go in.   

We were happy Uncle Carlos was able to take a few hours off from the law books to go with us.

All in a line

Blake has taken an interest in lining things up.
Among his list are:

tostada pieces

tupperware

blueberries

cars

more cars

blocks

and shoes (I was not quick enough to get a picture)

He is so sweet and patient as he lines them up...  then at the end he messes them all up.