Fall festival

The YW were in charge of another Fall festival for our neighborhood/ward.  It is a tradition we have started and it has grown so much in just the 2 short years we have done it.  We took plenty of notes the first time round of things that worked and things that didn't work. This year we estimated anywhere between 180-200 people came!  We were latterly bursting at the seams - and we loved it!   This year we didn't run out of food but we did run out of seats, so we brought in more tables and chairs until we were packed like sardines.

We started off the festival with a costume parade (and yes adults were encouraged to dress up too) through the neighborhood which ended at the church where enjoyed some delicious soups/chillies, bread and desserts. After eating the kiddos got to run around like crazy doing carnival type games, roasting marshmallows at a bonfire outside, and getting their groove on to a 'Thriller' dance off in the gym.  The festival is seriously one of the best attended/supported events we have in our ward and we L-O-V-E it.  Yes it takes a LOT of time, energy, and preparation to pull it off but I think it is worth every minute; even if I need a day of doing absolutely nothing the day after to recover.

The kiddos had so much fun picking out their costumes this year and it was rather painless too.  No one changed their minds, not even once, it was great!  Hannah wanted to be a mummy and we were lucky/blessed enough to get a costume for free.  One of Marc's long time clients learned what she was wanting to be for Halloween and gave us one that she made a while ago and no longer needed.  Benjamin wanted to be a zombie baseball player...for someone who was afraid of zombies not to long ago this was quite surprising but it was an easy costume (and cheap...$3 for makeup and fake teeth) and said "sounds great!" Rachel wanted to be a black cat.  Her Ninja costume from last year worked great, I made a tail from scrap material and metal hanger, some ears ($3), and little make up made her great looking cat.  Andrew has a fascination with the power rangers lately and his favorite color is green so he insisted on being the green Power Ranger. We had a green mask already so I bought a green t-shirt on sale for $3 which I sewed on some diamonds and belt so he could be the greens Dinothunder Power Ranger.   He already had black pants with a green stripe and plenty of weapons.  We decided that Marc would be Clark Kent (aka Superman) so we bought him the blue superman shirt for $12.  I was Lois Lane (of course) and didn't need to spend anything.  Which meant that Isaac of course was our super baby.  A white onsie, baby leggings, super hero stuff from the dress up box and some super hero shoes we got for a baby gift completed his ensemble.  Over all this was a pretty easy and fairly cheap Halloween - my favorite kind. :)