Trunk-or-Treat 2011 & the Making of M&Ms

I'm almost ashamed to admit it, but this was the first trunk-or-treat we have attended in Tucson since Trevy was a baby.  It has just worked out for me to get together with Amy and her family the past several years and we've had such a blast.  (Yes, just me.  James has been at the ranch every year I think.)  We were planning on getting together again this year but it didn't work out.  We even got together with Lisa in September to make matching costumes for all eight kids!  The first thought we brainstormed was having them all be farm animals but then I remembered a cute M&M bag costume I found online a while back.  (For the life of me, I cannot find it again.)  So then I suggested they could all go as candy bars and then Amy thought of having them all be M&Ms and someone thought of us being the bags and it snowballed from there.

I don't remember when we bought the fabric, but we started working on the costumes back in September.  I know a few people were surprised that we started working on them  so soon, but, considering that we had a wedding coming up and just the way the cookie crumbles, we figured we had better get an early start.

Amy laid the kids down on the felt folded in half and cut out 2 circles around them.  Then she would put pins in where the arm and neck holes were to be and pass it over to me.  She got pretty quick at it and my machine (okay, novice seamstress me) couldn't quite keep up.  Lisa and Makayla took care of kids and cut out the M&Ms that were to go on our bags.  Doesn't sound like a whole lot, but it took us the better part of an afternoon and we still barely managed just to get the circles cut out and sewn together.

Makayla and Callie were both green M&Ms.

Callie modeling the fun candy shell.

I found the perfect font for the M on our computer but it wouldn't let me enlarge the font without doing weird things around the margins.  So I told Amy and Lisa the name of the font and figured I would get around to enlarging the font later.

Later ended up being last Friday at 4pm (the ward party started at 6).  I think they turned out all right.

Posing with the Strattons, our ward and preschool friends.  Who knew Carrie would match the kids so well?  Bonus points if you can guess who Cairn is.  (I think she looks great, by the way!  You just have to be a PBS viewer.)  I think Cerise was with Grant but you can see her as the cutest lady bug ever on Carrie's blog.

I love Callie's expression in this picture.  Definitely "way sweeter than chocolate".

And this is the clearest one we have.  (Seriously not liking the point and shoot much these days.  Could be that I've monopolized the Rebel since James brought it home...)

The night started off with a two-ward chili cook off.  The Strattons won!  (Yes, we know fame folks!)  My only issue with the chili was that there were so many entries it slowed the lines way down with people trying to figure out which one they wanted.  I think they should have different categories next year so people can make a selection from type of chili.  Such as: spicy, mild, all bean, veggie bean, chicken chili, beef chili.  Maybe not that many, but I think it could help!  Just a thought.  =)

Our one trunk-or-treat photo stop.

The kids LOVE hanging out around the Evanses because they are the twins' nursery teachers.

(Okay, and because they have dogs.  ☺ )

There was also a cake walk (my cupcakes weren't much of a hit, I'm afraid.  Maybe if I had done the pumpkin graveyard...  Just ran out of time with the ostrich visit and gluing on Ms.  Maybe next year.) and a ghost hunt in which the kids could pick a tissue wrapped sucker and, if there was a dot on the bottom of the stick, they could pick a second ghost.  Both Timmy and Trevy picked ghosts with dots.  I didn't think Timmy needed even one so I dropped his in another bucket.  The Griffitts put together a jack-o-lantern bean bag toss, which Landon loved.  Nice when the kids can play games where everyone wins!

It was a fun night.  Perfect temperature too!  Timing was ideal for getting dinner, candy and kids to bed at a decent time.  I still missed getting together with Amy and Lisa.  They had their ward trunk-or-treats that night too.  Amy's neighborhood/ward usually throws a great block party on Halloween night and then the kids can trick or treat up and down the blocked off street doing the hosting or branch out to the surrounding neighborhoods.  I guess they just did a block party chili night Saturday and everyone did their own trick or treating on Monday so it wasn't really worth us driving up for.  Next year, Trevy will be in kindergarten so I think it may be a few years before we are able to get together again.  Hope Makayla is still up for it at least one more time!


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A few more fun pictures.  I meant to post these back in September but, like so many other posts, I just haven't found the time and the moment has passed.  But they're too cute to pass up, so I'll work them into posts like this whenever I can!

While we were waiting for Lisa and Amy to arrive to make the costumes, I gave the kids sliced hot dogs for lunch with a spot of ketchup to dip them in.  I think the older three may have just been tired of hot dogs at that point because none of them finished theirs.  Timmy, on the other hand, was going strong.  Which was kind of weird because he usually isn't a big hot dog fan and Trevy, Landon and Callie can't seem to get enough.

Anyway, I gave Timmy the hot dogs from Landon's plate and he ate all of them.  So I then gave him Trevy's plate, wondering if he would even sample the little bit of ketchup left.  Boy did he!

Lick.

 Lick.  Lick.

And stick! It's a hat!

Look!  No hands!

How the man with the skills entertained himself during the M&M making.

The three little cousins.  Who aren't so little anymore.  This was the week Anistyn passed Timmy in both weight and length.

After everyone left, Timmy brought out the Pooh train.  He loves it!  I love that it's heavy enough that he can pull up on it and climb on it without knocking it over (too often).