Happy Halloween!!

Halloween Party!

Today was Matt’s Preschool Halloween Party.  

I don’t know what I was thinking, but I scheduled the party for the morning after our big donut party.  I didn't plan or prepare as much as I would have liked to, but it was still fun!

We started out by doing a pumpkin walk, where we sang a little song they learned in preschool, and when the song was over, we’d choose a letter that they've learned so far, and whoever was standing on that letter would win.

Next we played a cute game that my sister gave me called “Don’t Eat Pete!”  The card has all these different characters on it and an m&m on top of each one.  Then, we send one child away, and the rest of the kids choose which one is “Pete.”  When the kid comes back he gets to eat one m&m at a time, until he picks the wrong one and everyone yells “DON’T EAT PETE!”  And they all laugh and then it is the next person’s turn.

The next game, was also from my sister (Thanks Heather!), we played spider toss!  And the kids loved that!

Next we let the kids eat donuts on a string, and for some reason, I just couldn’t stop laughing!  It was so funny to watch them try to get the donuts!

Last, we ended with lunch which consisted of sand “WITCHES”, skeleton fingers (ok, I was really pushing it there), pumpkins, green goblin goop, and witch hats.

And for some of the kids, having a picnic in the living room was the best part!

3rd Annual Gunnerson Donut Night

I LOVE doing donut night!  But, this has been a rough month and it has been really hard to find the energy and motivation to do the party.  Finally, on Sunday I realized I only had one more available day to do it, so if I was going to do it, I had to do it the next day.  Well, we somehow pulled it off, and even with the late notice, we had the biggest crowd yet. Our house was PACKED!  I was exhausted by the end of the night, but I was so glad that I did it!

(And by so glad I did it, I basically mean so glad DARIN did it, because he did ALL the frying!  Thanks love!)

We started out by delivering the invitations. We live on a “T” street, so we invite both streets, and Matt delivered every single one (about 50 houses)!

Then we prepped and made about 300 donuts!

We had a LARGE group!  I think we had about 100 people in the house at one point!

And my sweet man fried every donut.

And I got the easy job of dipping!  

This year we did both vanilla and maple donuts (Thanks for the idea Paula!)

Thanks to all of our awesome neighbors for coming!  We LOVE you guys!

Oh and some people have been asking for the recipe.  

If you'd like the recipe you can get it HERE.

Roommates.

Doesn't it seem like EVERYONE who has lived with roommates has had at least one of "those roommates?"  You know the one I'm talking about...the one that everyone tells horror stories about?

Well, I lucked out, and had AWESOME roommates all three years I lived in Provo!  I love every single one, and although I don't keep in contact with all of them as well as others, I still have great memories of each of them.

One of my favorite years at BYU was the year I lived at the Riveria, or the "Riv."  Part of it may have been because I took fewer and easier classes, or maybe it was because it was the year I didn't date just one guy, or maybe it was the free chocolates they gave away in the office.  But, I think the biggest part of it was because of the girls I lived with!

Within the last month I have been able to see THREE of my roommates from that year.  (Although it REALLY should be four because Becca and I only live like 10 minutes apart, I'm just a bad friend).

Lindsay came in town from North Carolina, and even though our visit wasn't long, I always LOVE getting to see her, and I got to meet her sweet new baby Jack!

Next, my roommate Sara came in town from New York.  It has been three years since I last saw Sara, and she is super awesome!  She just makes me happy--and my kids too!  She really won them over!  Every time Matt sees Rachael Ray on TV he says, "LOOK!  It's Sara!"  While she was in town we got to do a session at the Salt Lake Temple together.

 And this last week we took a little trip down to Provo to visit Bridget for her birthday.  Her daughter is only a few days apart from Lindsay, so it is fun to watch them play together too.  We went out for some lunch at Cafe Rio (always a win), and then visited at her cute house for a while.

I LOVE all of these girls, and it was so fun to be with each of you!

Up to the Uintas

We took a little trip up to the cabin this weekend. 

Darin got off work a little early so we could get an early start.

Our Corolla made it through the snow and we safely made it to the cabin without having to snowshoe in!  When we got there, I realized (yet again) that I have the best husband ever!  He let me stay in the warm car while he took in ALL of our supplies, the children , and got a fire started.  

IT WAS FREEZING!!

After we thawed out a little we had some chili for dinner and donuts and hot chocolate for dessert.  

Then we played a mean game of UNO, and after a HUGE comeback, I WON!

We listened to some good music, danced around, played more games, got the children ready for bed, and then had some friends join us for “scary movie night.”  Which turned out to be not so scary.

(but check out this scary picture from outside...perfect setting for scary movie night).

In the morning we had a yummy breakfast of fruit, cinnamon rolls, and breakfast casserole.  We watched more movies, visited, played out in the snow, cleaned up then headed home around 3.  

  

While we were cleaning up and going in and out, I found Lindsay eating the snow that fell off everyone shoes.  YUCK!

We saw a moose on our way out.  It was huge and only about 15 feet away!

We had a great time other than our friends got sick while up at the cabin and had to go home early.  We missed you guys!

Halloween Costume Party

Darin and I went to a little Halloween costume party.  

The costumes we are going to wear for Halloween don’t really make sense without our kids, so about 10 minutes before the party we pulled together our outfits from our closets. 

The party was so much fun, and as much as we love our children, 

it was nice to have a night away from them!  

The food was delicious (and creepy), 

the costumes of the other couples were hilarious, 

and we laughed all night! 

Side note, I happened to dress up as a “Brave” the night of the BHS vs WX game.  

I was a little obnoxious, and WX ended up winning for the first time in 23 years.  Boo.)

Isn't this the creepiest cheese ball you've ever seen?  

Thanks for such a fun night!

Hodgkinson Halloween Party

Last night we went to my parents' house for a little Halloween Party.

We had some yummy dinner (chili, breadsticks, salad, veggies, and rootbeer).

We played some fun games (bingo, ghost in the graveyard, and fish pond).

And we ended with delicious pumpkin bread trifle for dessert!

Thanks mom and dad for a fabulous night!

Red Riding Hood, The Wolf, Grandmother, and the Wood Cutter.

The McMurray girls came as crayons--and Greg and Heather came as true "U" fans.

Playing BINGO

Our cute Witch Hostess and Warlock Host (aka Grandma and Grandpa).

The yummy (and cute) dessert.

The Fishing Pond

All of the grandkids 

(Annie as Bo Peep, and Eliza as the cute bumble bee--Ben was Pooh, and Kristy was Hunny).