Making Halloween

by Jan

I definitely did more for this Halloween than I have in years past. It's because I'm The Class Mom for Edward's kindergarten class. It's a mid-sized (not a big) deal.

Class Party

So for our party we had five stations:

1. Cookie decorating with some cookie kits from Aldi
2. Cutting and pasting faces on paper pumpkins
3. Spider Races (see below)
4. Bean bag toss into a cauldron
5. Interactive Halloween rhyme (see further below)

When we were done rotating through the stations, they ate their cookies while I read "Even Monsters Need Haircuts." End of party. Go home!

Spider Races

The spider race idea came from Mom. First you take a spider:

Then you tie it to a pencil. And then you race to see who can roll up the string the fastest. This is Edward practicing the day before the party. (I wanted to give him an edge!)

Halloween Door Rhyme

So for the nursery rhyme station, I found a poem online called "Who's knocking on my door?" and it was a good starting point, but it was horribly written and lame. So I fixed it and added more verses. Basically it goes like this:

Who's that knocking on my door?

I'm a little scared as I cross the floor.
I open the door and what do I see?
It's a big green monster who's growling at me!
GrrrRRRR

And then you do a different Halloween creature and sound effect each time. So I found and edited some monsters to fit my needs:

Then I printed off and assembled my door, complete with wallpaper and a knob (Ikea clearance 6/.50). Here's Frederick with the finished product:

Here's the backside: the poem at the top so I could remember the order, and the paper below held the monsters in place.

It was such a hit that I used it in Singing Time on Sunday. Frankenstein sang "I'm Trying to be like Jesus" and the Mummy sang "Nephi's Courage."

Costumes

We went to the ward Halloween party/Chili Cook-off last Saturday night. We invited our neighbors across the street and they came! And they brought her mother, their son and his wife, and their two grandkids! And a pot of chili! We all had a fantastic time.

Here's what we wore:

I was Samoan, Edward was a ghost, and Frederick was almost like Batman. (Evan was on call . . . that poor guy misses more Halloweens than any other holiday combined.)

Painted Pumpkins

But at home I just did my usual painted pumpkins. Here were the patterns I designed:

And here is the final result:

Big Halloween fun? Check.

Melinda's First Graders

So I'm teaching first grade this year.  My students are really cute.  This was our Samoan day, part of Spirit Week.  Isaac didn't wear Samoan clothes because lately he's been embarrassed about wearing his ie faitaga (men's skirt), although two of the other boys wore them.

And below is Career Day.

We have a teacher, a missionary, a nurse, a baseball player, a football player, a lawyer, a policeman, two rockstarts, a veterinarian, a marathon runner, and some plain old cute kids.

We call ourselves the "Firsties".  (We're so firsty! get it?  it's true...it's hot.)   This is my life.

Bruce

I love this photo of dad. Just wanted to share it. 

Love you dad.