I have been looking at KSL classifieds a lot lately, because I am ready to get another dog. I wanted to get a little dog this time and hopefully a dog that can be good friends with Forest. I saw an ad for a puppy here in Tremonton. The picture was so cute! And the price was very good. I wanted to go check it out, but I changed my mind, because it wasn't going to be a small dog. It would grow to be around the same size as Forest. Alissa had seen the picture and she was excited for me to get a dog. She was pretty disappointed when she found out I had decided not to get it. She really wanted to get her own dog and after seeing the pictures, she really wanted to go get one of these puppies. Now that she has a job, she can do fun stuff like that. I arranged for her to go and see the puppies. They were all so cute! She ended up getting the runt of the group. We love him so much! But now, I have to wait to get my puppy. But that's okay. This puppy is so cute! And so fun!
Roger planned an amazing party for me for my 40th birthday. He did a really good job at keeping it a surprise. Apparently he has been planning this party since June or July. I really had no idea. Everybody thought for sure I had to know, but I really didn't have any idea. I'm pretty oblivious to a lot of stuff around me, so it's pretty easy to surprise me. Lol.
On Saturday, we left the kids at Linda's house to have her watch them, so we could celebrate my birthday. I really had no idea what to expect. Also, Linda asked me to make her some cupcakes for a wedding she was helping out with this weekend, so I dropped those off at her house.
Roger and I went to a hotel! Yea! I was so excited that we were having an overnight party for me. Woot woot! We chillaxed in the hotel room for a couple of hours. It was nice. We watched some funny Fail Army videos and enjoyed the yummy chocolates.
Roger told me that he wanted to walk around the neighborhood I grew up in with me. That is totally something I would have loved to do with him, so I was excited. He parked in the church parking lot, then said that he needed to go to the bathroom before we start our walk. He said, lets check to see if any doors are open. That's when I realized that there was probably a surprise party waiting inside for me. I was so excited! It was so fun to walk in and have everybody yell "Surprise!" and "Happy Birthday!" I've always dreamed of that happening.
There was lots of pizza and ice cream. The cupcakes Linda needed for a wedding, were actually for me. The only bummer with that, was that they wanted black sprinkles on them and the only black sprinkles I could find were the sugar sprinkles and I think those are yucky. As I was putting them on the cupcakes, I was thinking about the poor wedding party who would be eating these cupcakes that could have been so much better if they had only chose different sprinkles.
The party was totally me. It was next to my childhood home, in the church I went to while growing up. The church I had my wedding reception in. There was basketball, Karaoke, friends and family, and lots of ice cream.
October 21st. I'm 40! That's crazy! I used Snapchat so I could look super cute in my birthday pictures. Lol.
We went to Walmart. I bought some fun Halloween decorations and we had fun in the Halloween costume isle.
Alissa ordered herself some elf ears for Halloween. This is the first year that she has money, so she's having fun looking for a costume. An elf is just one of her ideas. She also ordered a choker that makes it look like her throat has been cut.
October 16th - This is the Harry Potter Sorting Hat. I just thought I should take pictures before I send it, in case something bad happens to it and I need to prove it was good before I sent it.
October 17th - Brinley's cool Tic Toc video and a Snapchat video that I did.
Somebody on Etsy requested for me to make a hat to look like the character in this book. I really like how it turned out. I almost forgot to make the hat, though. I finished and took it outside for pictures. When I was getting ready to package it, I realized my mistake. So, I quickly whipped up the hat. I only got a few pictures of the owl with the hat, before I packaged it and sent it out.
Brinley wanted brownies for her birthday, instead of cake. I wasn't smart and I put the candles in the hot brownies. The candles started melting into the brownies. That was a bummer.
Brinley is funny. Look how creepy she is in these two pictures. She did a good job looking really scary.
I did another vendor event today. I van't remember the name of it. It didn't go very well. I had been hesitant to do this event in the first place. The person running it, contacted me after I did Tremont Fest. I checked out the location that it was going to be held and decided that maybe I shouldn't do it, since it seems like a place that not many people will come to. It said that it was going to be held at an RV park in Perry, Utah. It seemed really out in the middle of nowhere. I decided not to do it, but the person asked me a second time. I debated for awhile, then the week before, I decided to just do it.
The way it was described was not how it ended up. She made it sound like she was a part of the RV park and this was for the RV park grand reopening. But, she wasn't a part of the RV park. She lived in a house across the street from the park. She had everybody set up their booths in her backyard. It was a horrible location. She had told us there would be bounce houses, a rock climbing wall, swimming, and all sorts of fun. There was fun, but it was all over at the RV park. Not anywhere near where we were set up. Very few people came. A few of the vendors, backed out at the last minute. One vendor, saw where it was, and left before they could set up. Then, when she called them, they told her that they had a family emergency. Another vendor set things up, then took it all down, shortly after it started and it was clear that nobody was going to be coming to this. They told her that they had a family emergency. The person in charge went somewhere for a half an hour or so. While she was gone 3 vendors cleaned up and got the heck out of there. Then, slowly, as the day went on, everybody cleaned up and left. The event was to go from 11:00am to 7:00pm. At 4:30pm, we were the only vendor left, besides the person who organized it. I felt bad leaving and the few people who had actually come to the event, were at my booth painting. I made $38.00. I wouldn't be surprised if I am the only vendor who made money. It was bad.
My cousin Terri was so nice and came to help me out. She brought a canopy. It was so helpful. Her kids were bored out of their minds, but I really appreciated having her there. It was so fun to talk with her. She is really good at business, so I was picking her brain for advice and ideas. Alissa was the only one of our family that came with me. She spent most of the day curled up in a chair and reading her book. It was really a long boring day, since there was hardly any business.
Roger and I went hiking. It was so much fun! I love hanging out with Roger and hiking felt really good. After the hike we went to a weird Italian place and got some really yummy custard and Italian ice. I can't remember what it was called, but it was yummy.
The first part of the hike was really hard. The trail we took was called the Crimson Trail. We heard that there are two different places to start the hike. One way is harder than the other. We choose the one, we thought would be the easiest. We could tell on our way down, that we had taken the easier trail, but it was still really hard. It was a mile of uphill. It was rough, but worth it.
It was a busy day for me. I woke up thinking that I was going to get the kids to school, go to the gym, clean the kitchen and vacuum, then relax and crochet for a little bit before all the Halloween fun started. But, I was wrong! I got a message from a friend asking me about the Halloween party for Brinley's class. I'm a room mom in her class and their party was today at 1:45pm. We had discussed decorating sugar cookies, but when we had that discussion, I thought we were talking about the fall carnival (which we already had). I did the photo booth for the fall carnival, so I just figured that she changed her mind about the sugar cookies. I don't know why I hadn't realized we were talking about the class Halloween party. So, I was surprised to realize that we were in charge of the party and we needed to get on it, since the party was coming fast.
I got the kids off to school and got right to work. The kitchen was a disaster, since I didn't clean it at all last night (because I thought I'd have lots of time in the morning to get it done). There were a ton of dishes to wash and get out of the way, so I'd have room to make my cookies. I got the kitchen clean and started on the cookies. My partner room mom, Shari, went to the store and picked up the things we'd need to decorate them and a few ingredients I needed to make the icing. I worked hard, but not quite fast enough. I was about 10 minutes late to the party. But that's okay. It all worked out. It was just super stressful trying to get everything done in time. The party was a success! The kids had fun! Here are a few pictures of Brinley's class and 2 pictures I made her take with me. She hid behind me in the first one I took. She is really funny and really good at making funny faces right as I snap the picture.
The top picture is Brinley with her whole class. She is, of course, making a funny face.
The kids got home from school and got dressed in their costumes. Parker decided to be a minion, Brinley decided to be a boy, and Alissa had an idea that didn't work out, so she can't decide what she is. She said burn victim at first, then decided zombie, then a neighbor said she looked like road kill. She just couldn't decide what to call herself.
We drove the kids to Kristy Spencer's(the color guard coach) house. She said she'd give lots of candy to anybody who came, since nobody trick-or-treats to her house. Then we stopped at Tonya's, because she also said nobody comes. After that, we dropped Alissa off at Erin's house so she could hang out with her friends on Halloween.
Parker and Brinley were excited to get home and go trick-or-treating with Khloe and her brother Korver.
Parker and Brinley went trick-or-treating to a few houses while they waited for their friends to get here, then they came back and chillaxed with Roger and I. I made some yummy Taco soup. I always forget to make dinner on Halloween. I get so caught up in all the trick-or-treating fun, and I just forget. I'm usually busy helping kids get ready, then I go out with them. I don't even think about dinner until we got home, but by then, I'm too tired and full of candy, so we just skip dinner. It's not a wonderful way to do things, but that's just how it always happens. So, this is the first year in a really long time that I remembered to make dinner. Go me!
Dinner was yummy! Parker and Brinley's friends came and they went out trick-or-treating. Roger and I had been planning to sit out by the fire in the front yard, but it was windy when all the trick-or-treating fun started. So, we decided to wait and see if the wind calmed down. Eventually, it did, so we got to have out fire! I love sitting out by the fire. This was a good night for it too. It was cold, but not too cold. The neighbor next door was dressed up like a creepy clown and he was walking the street, scaring people. It was fun to sit out and watch. 2 boys came to our house and as I was giving them candy, they were looking toward the clown. They told me they aren't scared of much, but clowns freak them out a lot. They were so nervous to get past the clown. They snuck across the street and hid behind a truck. The clown saw them and eventually went walking toward them to surprise them behind the truck. When the boys saw him, they panicked and the both took off running in opposite directions. One kids turned and yelled to the other as he ran, "You went the wrong way!" They were both terrified and kept on running. It was really funny to watch.
Roger and I listened to an episode of 'Lore' while we were out here. We had to keep stopping it when trick-or-treaters came or when Parker and Brinley came home and they would come out to talk to us. It took a long time to get through one episode.
They had a lot of fun trick-or-treating, and, as always, they got a ton of candy on Century Drive. That is the best street on Halloween. We love it. I took a video of the kiddos showing me all the yummy treats that they got.
After going through their candy, the kiddos came out to sit by the fire. But, they thought that was boring, so Brinley asked if we could put the spot light on the trampoline so they could jump. Brinley and Khloe got tired of that really quickly, so they went inside to play. The boys stayed out and kept jumping. Roger saw the clown walking by and he asked him to go in the backyard to scare the boys. It was funny. I tried to get the camera going to record it, but I didn't get the recording started in time. I was a little bummed about that.
