Boo at the Zoo

Courtesy of Steffani

For Halloween I wanted to have a family theme, so I convinced Zak to dress as Zorro, while I went as a flamenco dancer and V as my little piñata. The combination came about when I searched for costumes I could incorporate while wearing V in her baby carrier. I didn't see anything except popcorn for that, so I looked at baby and toddler costumes, and found an adorable little kid dressed as a piñata made from fleece. Realizing I had tissue paper in several colors from the baby showers, I grabbed a cardboard box and started gluing strips of it on there. I made sure the cardboard folded to fit around her, and stapled the bottom with my tiny stapler. After that I just cut slits across each strip of paper and stapled on a ribbon to hold it around my neck. I thought about making a donkey hat for V, but I didn't think it would stay on her very long, and she'd be facing me, so no one would see it anyway. I made a make-shift donkey head with leftover cardboard and a section of an egg carton. I think it turned out fairly well for a costume made entirely from items I had at home already.

We toured Zak's work during family
Halloween day, impressed with the themed decorations in each department. Those are dedicated employees, staying hours after work to create a video game/arcade theme, haunted black light hallway with shots of air at your neck, silent picture/roaring 20s theme, and full room of mustaches. That's the first time I've been allowed to tour (almost) the entire building.

For our church congregation's neighborhood trunk-or-treat and youth-led carnival, Zak and the 16-18 year-old boys filled the soda bottles we'd been storing with water, and set up glow-in-the-dark ring toss using glow sticks in the water and as rings to toss. My girls spearheaded the face painting and fish pond. I love seeing everyone's clever costumes as the neighborhood gathers. Unfortunately, I left my camera's memory card at home; we did, however, still have fun with the glow sticks and camera at home.

Courtesy of Steffani

Some friends invited us to the local zoo to see animals and get candy for our little one (who is too young to eat candy...so candy for us, really). In order to let her actually see the animals, I decided to push her in the stroller, which meant she could wear the adorable butterfly costume Grandma Hooper found for her. I didn't use it in the baby carrier, because the wings and big fluffy belly wouldn't fit. It worked really well, keeping her ears, feet, and little body warm with some pajamas underneath. Some of the animals were hidden away for the winter, but we got to see camels' flopping humps, vibrant zebras, and large cats. V was tired, and kind of fussy until she did fall asleep, so I don't think she soaked up much of the animal atmosphere, but I'm glad we went. I miss Cache Valley's pumpkin walk, but the Boo at the Zoo was great fun.

Our women's Halloween craft