The Oates of Oz...

Oates of Oz, as promised...

Halloween with the Hek-ums

Last night we had the Hekmans (or Hek-ums as our kids call them) over for dinner and trick-or-treating. It turned out to be a really fun night. I made some some cute Halloween treats and we ate chili on the back patio, before taking the kids up our street to trick-or treat!

Here's our graveyard dip
I saw these on-line and thought they were so cute...

Jess and I with our yummy jack-o-lantern drinksGrady in his 3rd costume of Halloween '09

Jamesy with his 2 pirates
Jess had her camera outside and took these of us...Thanks Hekman's for coming over to share our spooktacular night :)

We're not in Kansas anymore!

Halloween Happening at Trinity church in Redands has become an Oates family tradition. This year the Oates of Oz went and had a blast as usual! We played games, listened to music and the kids danced, ate yummy food and got way too much candy and that was all by 7pm.
In our hurry to get out the door on our way to Oz, as the Wizard, Dorothy, the tin man, the wicked witch of the west, Glenda the good witch, the scarecrow and the courdarly lion, we left our camera at home :( But, good for us, they had a booth set up to take pictures for $2, so we did manage to get 1 picture of the Oates of Oz. Not the greatest picture, but at least its a picture.
It was so much fun to all be dressed up together and everyone commented on our costumes! Too much fun...now I've got to think of something for next year...any themed ideas for 7? Bring 'em on!
Tomorrow we are having the Hekmans over and taking the kids up the street, it should be nice to be home with good friends! Our neighbors are having a party that the big kids will be hanging out at til 8pm, so it should be a fun night. I'll post pictures soon!

Hallo- Wii party

Our small group has become like family. Just like in families there are traditions...this has become our small group tradition, a Hall0-Wii party! We get to dress up like kids again and be silly :) This year, for our 3rd annual party, Leighann went all out and had the "soup plantation" for us to eat; It was so yummy. I brought the witch treats the girls and I baked to share and we had fun.

Here's Oates and I as the Wizard and Dorothy...(the rest of the fam are also characters from Oz, pics will follow)

Halloween isn't my favorite holiday by any means, but it is fun to get dressed up. My dearest friend Amy made my costume and I don't think it could have turned out any cuter!!

Thanks Amy you are truly talented and wonderful! Love you!

Fridy night the whole fam will be going to Halloween Happenin' at Trinity, which is our annual Halloween activity. Since it is not actually on Halloween we will get to dress-up again on Saturday! Lots of fun. I can't wait to see all the kids and be the Oates of OZ! ;)

Trick-or-Treat

The kids love getting all dressed up for Halloween. I have to admit, although I hate how much candy they get, it is sooo much fun to see them all dressed up in their cute costumes. (Wesley is cowboy,hehe!) We got all dressed up and headed to Trinity Church for their Halloween Happenin'. There was so much for the kids to do, booths to play games, food to eat, face painting, a cake walk, a treat trail, a magic show, live music and plenty of candy to be eaten. We met my parents there and they provided some reinforcement for the troops :) We saw lots of friends there too! After over an hour we decided to head home(it turns into a zoo).

Hope and Grady both got their faces painted and Hoper was excited because the painting lady was dressed as Minnie Mouse too!

Zach and Grace wanted to stay for the magic show and Hope wanted to trick-or-treat in our neighborhood, so the big kids stayed with Nana & Papa and the other 5 of us made our way down our street for Hope to trick-or treat.

Zach is Darth Vader. He was upset though, because he didn't have a light "saver" hehe!Gracie is Sharpey from High School Musical. Not very many adults knew who she was, but the kids did. Like the hand motion? Jamesy was encouraging her to pose :)Minnie Mouse...need I say more? She is sooo cute. I had to make her ears at the last minute because the Disney store was sold out (I made a trip to Inland Center after checking on online and seeing they still had them in stock. Only to find out that the online system doesn't accurately portray their stock. Arggh!), but they turned out pretty cute. Thank goodness for hot glue guns :)This puppy says, "woof, woof" or "CoCo" (our dog's name is CoCo) depending on when you ask him. He was a little taller than I had thought, but I guess I should know that...look how his shoes totally hang out the bottom. Oh well, he was cute anyway.

It was a fun night for us all and ended with WAY too much candy! I think we've mastered the candy divvying though. Once we are home, we dump every one's bag onto the floor and start to sort it. Each kid then gets to choose as many pieces as they are old, so Zach got to choose 8 pieces, Gracie 6, Hoper 4 and Grady 1! I'm sure at some point they'll beg for more, but for now it works:) Last year we then dumped the remainder of the candy into our bowl and handed it all out ! This year we didn't have our light on, so we now have a bowl full of candy that I'm sure James & I will eat too much of! :)

Hope you all had a fun night!

Happy Halloween

We decided to bake some Halloween treats!

I'm sure after tonight I'll have lots more pictures to share...

Our small group annual Hallo-Wii party

Last night was our small group Hallo-Wii party at the Odenbaugh's house. We all got dressed up and enjoyed hanging out, dinner and a little Wii, only this year we pretty much skipped the Wii. Just in case you were wondering what each of our costumes were...Megan was an 80's chick, Jeff was a 50's chick, Carmen was an Asian princess (Mulan?), The O's were Tarzan and Jane and JT was their monkey :), Matt & Jess were gangsters, I was a pirate chick and James was my prisoner. Oh...we brought CoCo and she was a queen. I'll have to take her picture with her costume on. Below is all us girls.

The boys...Tarzan with his prized monkey :) Here's Jeffy holding our little ghost Wesley :)

We always have a such a fun time getting to dress up, plus Leighann made yummy dinner and dessert with hot apple cider, oh and she gave us each little treats. (Thanks, Leighann)

Now onto the kid Halloween on Friday. I think we're headed to Trinity for Halloween Happening, but we'll see. I'll take lots of pictures I'm sure! Until then...Enjoy the festivities!