Happy Halloween!!!!

Since when did Halloween become such a huge celebration???................there were parties and corn mazes  and spooky alleys everywhere.  It was crazy.

For example, Jena's party list:

Friday, October 27:

At Vista during the day, they had a Monster Mash and they were encouraged to dress in their costumes.  Jena chose to be a chimney sweep this year and I barely remembered to take this picture as she headed to the bus.

Then Friday afternoon, Jena headed to her theatre class for their Halloween Party at the Centerpoint Theatre (no pictures).  From there, Gary, Jena and Emily headed to Salt Lake and picked me up and we headed down to the Y Serve Halloween Party for young adults with disabilities.

They had pizza, played games, danced, and did karaoke (there is Jena on the stage with mic in hand).  She is so brave. 

So basically Jena partied from 8:45 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. on Friday but it didn't stop there.....

Saturday, October 28--We got up early and headed to "Boo at the Zoo" and met Zander, Liam, Jessica and Elessia there for a morning of trick-n-treating at the zoo.  Companies had tables set up throughout the zoo and the kids went from one table to another getting candy (except for IHOP who came tiny little pies which were delicious)--seeing the animals was definitely secondary for Liam.  Jena managed to get some candy as well so that was a win for her.

Jessica made this darling chicken costume from a pattern on Esty (Elessica's mother made the little hat.).  There were hundreds of kids at the zoo and three of them also had this same costume that their mothers had made although each of them had made the hat slightly different.  It was so cute.

Liam was a duck but he didn't want to wear the hat.  Once he figured out he got the candy with or without the hat at an earlier party, he was done with the hat.

 Jena and I's selfie in support of the preservation of the elephants in the wild.

I was pushing the stroller and Zander arched his back and smiled at me a couple of times.  I decided I wanted to try to get a picture, so I got my camera ready and called his name and he looked back and smiled this awesome smile!! Being a grandma is so great!

 Halloween decorations filled the park and I wondered if any of my clients who have nightmares were visiting the park today.  I hoped not.  Sometimes when my clients and their parents talk about scary decorations at parks and even Wal-Marts, I wonder what people are thinking!!  Do we really need to scary these little people around us????

Elessia and Jena checking out the giraffes

 And to prove that we were actually at the zoo, here is a picture of one of the giraffes enjoying some lunch.  Hopefully he and the animals weren't too distressed by all the costumed characters visiting the zoo that day.  (I have to say that I would be a very "lame" parent for little kids today---I can't believe the costumes that the kids and their parents were wearing around the zoo. It was nuts!)

But Jena was not done yet.  I dropped her off at the Legacy Fairgrounds where she helped Kalie and Bishop Watson pass out candy and coupons for the Rush at a community trunk or treat event.  She spent about 6 hours there before finally getting home around 7:00 p.m.

Monday and Tuesday:  And Halloween continued for her at her Provo ward's Halloween party on Monday night and then on Tuesday she headed to Hannah's family neighborhood and went trick n treating with Hannah's sister Kylie and Emily and Sara.  She got a lot of use out of her Halloween costume this year and she had an awesome time at everything she did.

Life as a young adult at Halloween time!