Happy Halloween 2011

Its been quite a month! I have enjoyed getting out all my spooky and festive decorations and have had a desire to enjoy this Halloween "season" like never before. We have had such a bumpy year in terms of surprises and it has been so nice to plan out our month, week by week, and do pretty much all the activities we wanted!

*Just in review, it was October last year, we found out we were moving away from Santa Clara and up here to Sacramento! It was a crazy time, we had ward activities to complete, Jacksons birthday, saying Goodby to friends, and Our Move to Placerville to keep us incredibly busy and frazzled. This month has been just what I hope for. The first week, we watched LDS General Conference @ my parents! Always a great inspiration in terms of goal setting and figuring out where my weak areas are to improve.

In addition to playdates and buying costumes, the second week I decided to begin my State Registration packet to become a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapy Intern for CA. (It wound up taking 3 weeks to get all my paperwork completed!)

The second weekend, we had our family portraits taken! Sarah Danenhaur of Shingle Springs came down and did a fabulous job, in spite of my kids refusing to cooperate and hold still. Our full family shots were pretty tricky-- but I looove the results. Thank you Sarah!

On the 11th and 12th, we got to enjoy an awesome visit from our San Jose friends, Kaari J and Kristine G, and kiddos. The Gray twins have been Jackson's little buddies and we have managed to keep in touch. Blakely J and Brayden G were born in the months following Peyton and so the three babes were well suited to play. We enjoyed an afternoon playdate at our house Tuesday, delicious Costa Vida for dinner that night-- and on Wednesday we headed to Jackson's most requested hangout-- Fairytale town, followed by Funderland to ride the kiddie amusement rides. It was a memorable day! So awesome to share it with good friends and to catch up on their cute kiddos. See photos below and Kristine's cute post here!

That weekend Justin and I enjoyed a culinary date night experience, we had scored free tickets to attend the Taste of Sacramento - restaurant sampling expo. I don't know what I pictured-- but I think it was along the lines of sitting down while I ate buffet style from various restaurant counters. Instead, you walk in, they give each of us a wine glass and a plastic tray thingy to hold our plates, and we stand in line for various venues to get a Costco style sample of curry or mini cupcakes, salads, pulled pork, sorbet, gourmet cookies, sconesa, muffins... and of course, Lots and Lots of WINE. Which we were ineligible to enjoy-- shall we say, since we do not drink ;) The tickets were not cheap and the $$$ went to charity, the Oakland Raiders and local newscasters were there---- so it drew a lot of people. It was all enjoyable food, but a "Taste" is quite literally what it was.

I arrived hungry, expecting to stuff myself on food and I believe I went home and ate something after it was all over. Also, several counters, like the cake pops and specialty desserts RAN OUT of all their samples with in the first 2 hours-- it wasa 4+ hour event. That part was a bummer. I did enjoy going into down town on a beautiful night, mixing and mingling with people from the city, chatting with some of Justin's coworkers who attended, and being escorted by my handsome date. That is what made the night memorable, more than anything else.

Week 3 of October I had the Spooktacular Spectacular! It consumed my entired weekend prior and it kicked off Mon Oct 17th! Essentially a Halloween Entryway Decorate Off!

There were some fabulous displays, mine was more on the elaborate side-- but I truly enjoyed the tasteful simplicity of some of the smaller displays. I got something from everyone else's ideas I wish I had tried. So there were 9-10 contenders I think, in some ways, I don't even know if it was a real contest, to be honest. Justin to me-- "maybe you're the only one who thinks this is real-- everyone else seems to be joking around and having fun..." this had not occurred to me! I was in it to make a stand, to be a contender-- Kaari, The Mostess, and Ashley, the contest host via her blog-- had natural traffic to their blogs related to the event, I didn't expect much by way of votes and my friends and family surprised me by showing their support! With out sounding like a whiner-- I will say, I had several people say they voted (by commenting on ashleys blog) and I didn't see them anywhere. Several of my friends voted twice because their vote didn't post initially, and finally, there were those who tried to vote, but didnt have a google email and couldnt log into the blog site unless they took the time to register with Google, etc. So all in all, I got some good votes, I was even ahead of the pack for a bit, and got to be a contender! I finished 2nd place. That was a good feeling. In the end, The Mostess had more than double my votes, and possibly 10 times the votes of most other entries. She's means serious business,and as a fellow contender-- I respect that ;) * A side note-- as the contest was heading to a clear win-- some of the other entries handed off their votes to the Mostess as well. This, I did not understand-- I do not think the Mostess wanted that at all, she had her own votes. I was surprised they didn't form some superperson and combine their votes together. But I did think it was a little odd that they felt The Mostess needed to win by an even bigger margin that she had! :O) Oh well. Perhaps its all really a big joke on me and the contest was more symbolic than anything. It was certainly an exhilirating race, just the same. My housework and children suffered slight neglect over the whole debaucle! lol Moving on!


I decided to host a kids Halloween Party on Monday the 24th, partly because I wanted to get together with all our buddies, but also because I suspected that all these mommies want to get as much mileage out of their kids costumes that they can. We had an awesome turn out! Kids from the neighbordood as well as kids from 20+ miles away came and partied with us. A special shout out to my co-hostess, Jessica Spieth. She was a life saver in terms of getting the food going and hosting several games. She's also my visiting teaching companion and just told me she is expecting her first baby, so I am excited for her, and doubly excited to have had her help. We had a Musical Cookie Walk, Haunted Obstacle Course, Haunted House, Mummy Pumpkin Toss, and Haunted Fishing Game, and we decorated our Treat Bags. People brought great food. The big finish was my favorite-- we had a Trick Or Treat DASH-- the kids lined up in the backyard and we spread a huge bag of treats all over the lawn, and the kids rushed in a filled their treat bags. It was fun!
See pics

*Also, Justin's dad, Glenn Gilbert, visited us this weekend and helped me set up for and clean up from the party. He stayed the previous weekend with us. We hadn't seen Glenn in almost 5 years, he has been living and working in Thailand and doesn't travel to often to the US. He took a special journey out West to meet his grandkids and to see what Justin and I have been up to!

Thanks for coming out, Glenn!


Last Friday we had a thrilling evening at a Halloween party hosted by Amanda G and Lindsey H in our ward. The kids had a blast. There was awesome food, decorations (Amanda had her whole Halloween village set up) and the costumes were fun. Jackson got an honorable mention for his pirate costume and he couldn't have been prouder!

Saturday night was our Ward Trunk or Treat! The Gilberts bought FreshMex Express - burritos, ate them on the church lawn, along with our fellow members of 3rd ward. There was a haunted house, and I took both kids in alone-- they were very brave, and Jackson only cried afterwards, but didn't want to leave... he was pretty fascinated. During Trunk of Treat, Peyton and I passed out candy and Jackson and Justin made the rounds.

Truly a fun night!


Today is the BIG DAY, Halloween. We have taken to walking the neighborhood, checking out all the spooky decorations and I think the kids will do fine tonight. My family are coming down from Placerville to eat dinner and Trick or Treat with us. My mom offered to hand out candy while we make our rounds. I'm excited because our neighborhood is perfect for Trick or treating. Our cul-de-sac branches off of a big loop and it will be the perfect size for the kids to just go around the loop. I'm curious to see if they will last longer than that. Happy Safe Halloween to you all! Hope its a good one.