Halloween: Ward Party

Friday night was our ward party, chili cookoff and trunk-or-treat.  The girls were really good about the whole night, but my little man was just not having it.  He wanted to be anywhere but there and was just all over the place.  The only time he was still was a) eating his chili and b) eating his cupcake.  Trendy.

The girls both spent a huge amount of time doing the cupcake walk.  Even after they had their cupcakes, they continued wandering around the circle.  I'm not sure if they didn't know there were other games or if they were hoping for a second treat.  Either way, it kept them occupied while I chased their brother around.

They did eventually find other things to do, like bowling and decorating jack-o-lanterns.  I just want to point out on Evie's costume: that's just a dress-up bin costume, with the added touch of a crown from her Aunt LaNita and 'gloves' cut last minute from out-grown tights.  Worked pretty well, I though.

After chili and cornbread, games and cupcakes, it was candy time!  We joined the throngs of costumed children heading for the cars and started from the wrong end, going backwards.  Oops.  Didn't matter in the end, since everyone had enough treats anyway.  It just made things a little more difficult, trying to keep momentum.  About 25 cars got all dressed up with members handing out candy.  About 7 cars from the end, Lizzie turned to me and said, "Mom, my bucket's full.  I'm done getting candy."  Who was I to argue? :)  It must be mentioned that Carson was not on board for this activity.  But I dragged him along anyway, struggling though he was.

All in all, a super fun night!  I took chili to be entered into the contest.  I didn't win anything, but I'm glad that at least people all got fed.  I also contributed to the cupcakes and the girls were so pleased that we had leftovers from that as well.

The biggest frustration and worry of the night was the fact that the van was dead.  (Yes, I left the lights on all night.)  Aaron's car couldn't jump it.  My nearest ward-neighbor couldn't jump it.  It wouldn't be charged with an electric battery-charger.  I was stumped.  I got a ride to the church and back (thank you, Michelle!!!) and we went back to wondering.  Aaron took just the battery to Auto Zone the next day, where they told us it was old and we ought to buy a new one soon - BUT it was still functional and we could put that off for a bit longer.  We're waiting until it dies for real.