Pre-Halloween Weekend

Is it just me or does everyone else remember only getting dressed up for the ACTUAL day of Halloween when they were younger? We have already celebrated Halloween twice in our family and it's still a week before the actual holiday. When did we decide to have so many Halloween celebrations? I'm not complaining, because I think it is a lot of fun...I'm just wondering how it all came about, maybe it's just because it IS so much fun playing dress-up and eating lots of candy!

Now to what happened this week/weekend...Thursday we went to Cornbelly's with our ward play group and had a blast! We stayed for more than 4 hours. The girls loved the cow train ride, watching the pig races, gathering corn during the corn maze, going on a hayride to pick their own pumpkins (Rylie must have found the tiniest pumpkin there...you can see it below), "milking" the cow, pumping water and jumping on the giant jumping pillows. Jumping on the pillows had to be my favorite part of it all...we all climbed up and jumped together! It really was a fun day!

Friday was our Ward Carnival that I was in charge of and from what I've been told it WAS a blast! I was so busy running around making sure all was going well that I didn't really participate much in all the action. My girls seemed to have a fun time and they got just the right amount of prizes and candy. We had a chili cook-off, Halloween photos taken by our ward photographer, a prize drawing for the older crowd, crafts, musical chairs, bowling, face painting, darts and lots of booths with toys and candy galore. It was a lot of planning and preparation-I spent the entire day taking things to the church, buying food and last minute items, and setting things up. It was a crazy, busy day...but if everyone had fun, then I feel like it was well worth all the time and effort (even if I came home completely exhausted).

Saturday, my friend, Heather, and I decided to go try out the Boo at the Zoo at Hogle Zoo. I had heard about it before and thought it might be fun, but we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. I should have known by looking at the cars parked (illegally, I might add) along both sides of the streets for miles and the packed parking lot that it was going to be a madhouse and that we should just change plans and do something else. I just couldn't bring myself to tell Jacie that she couldn't go see the elephants and that she couldn't try to scare the bears with her black cat costume (that was her idea). So, we decided to go ahead and try it out...I was amazed at how many people were there and how many people waited in the longest lines for one piece of candy. Are you kidding me? When Jacie said she wanted some candy I told her we'd buy some at the store! We did happen to find some candy stations that didn't have many people waiting and we got a little candy. Next, came the part about trying to see the animals, that was another joke...there were so many people that we were trying to see around them and trying to manuever through them and it was just crazy. So, we decided to get out quick and head to McDonald's for some real play time. It was a fun adventure and now I can say we've been to Boo at the Zoo, but I don't think we'll be going back anytime soon! It's a fun idea, just way too many people!

P.S. Some of the cars parked illegally did get to park closer and I was temptedd to park there because so many others were doing it, but when I was walking back I saw that they all had tickets on them! So, I'm glad I didn't park there and I was somewhat satisfied that they did get tickets...is that mean or what? Another testament to the fact that you should't do something just because everyone else is doing it!!!