Trick or Treat

Happy Halloween!

Grandpa and Dayton are discussing the Spiderman costume. I'm not sure which of them was having the better time.














Dad and I were a little late getting to the party. When we arrived he called Gaylynne's cell phone and Courtney came out to greet us followed by the rest of the family.

Dad and I had a wonderful time with the children at this annual Halloween Party given by the Four Square Church in Camas.

All of the girls were dressed up as princesses and looked so cute. Dayton was Spiderman and loved his costume.

The church building was huge and all of the classrooms were changed into game rooms. For playing the games the kids were given candy.

They all had an abundance of sweets that probably drove Don and Gaylynne nuts for the next several days.

Not only was there candy but there were also ice cream cones for everyone.

Dayton was really getting "into" his cone when I snapped this one. He loved his Spiderman costume but not the mask. Still he didn't mind having it on his head.

He played all of the games and got his candy just like the big kids.

Emma was checking out the balloons because they wouldn't pop when she threw the darts. She finally broke enough balloons to earn herself 3 candies.

Dayton threw some darts from the line and we all cheered for him.

When he finally got frustrated that the darts weren't popping the balloons he just walked up to the board and poked one. For that he got a handful of candy.

Way to go Dayton!

Melanie sat patiently while the artist painted a beautiful butterfly on her cheek.

Both Melanie and Emma got butterflies painted on their cheeks. After hugging Emma it was pointed out to me that I had green on my cheek too!


Dad and I stopped off at the fruit stand and purchased some more of those delicious honey crisp apples that we enjoy so much.

I had bought some at Fred Meyer's the day before for $1.98 per pound. Those we got in Camas were $.89 per pound. They were smaller so we don't have to share one apple. I had to wait until Dad got home from work because I didn't want to present his half of the apple all brown.

Sunday was almost a perfect day. I say almost perfect because we were unable to get in touch with Brian and because Matthew and Lori are so far away.

We gathered together to celebrate Stuart's 15th birthday. It was difficult to accept the reality of how quickly the last 15 years had gone by.

You can see how Gr. Grandma has recovered. She looked just beautiful. The kids all made a fuss over her and she loved it.

While the adults got caught up on each other's lives after dinner the kids got into the toy boxes and had fun playing together.

Melanie and Audrey are shown here with the cowgirl hats and Dayton kept himself busy eating the last bit of the Halloween candy that we had.

It was no wonder that he didn't eat his dinner very well because the kids started eating candy as soon as they walked through the door.

Stuart got lots of nice things for his birthday. We gave him a gift card to Target and he said that was a good idea because if we had given him cash he would be tempted to buy his friends lunch.

Grandma gave him a card with some money in it.



Melanie made him a flag which he made a fuss over and that pleased her very much.

Audrey made him a candy dispenser that she was quite proud of and she enjoyed all of the accolades given to her by the adults.

Since Stuart is not really fond of sweets (at times) for his birthday cake Dad and I purchased this beautiful cinnamon coffee cake.

It was delicious.

We all sang "Happy Birthday" to Stuart and the other kids acted silly and danced around. Then they intently watched him light his own candles and then blow them out.


Stuart cleared the table and then went to talk with a friend on the telephone. I got this cute photo of him stretched out on the couch.

It was pretty loud as is usual at one of these activities and I couldn't help but smile as the kids ran between the rooms.

The singing jump rope was mysteriously missing after about 5 minutes. Wonder where it went? Hmmmm.

Don and Gaylynne and family presented Stuart with this great hoodie. It was decided that they would return it for a larger size but he loved it.

Stuart is about 5 foot 7 inches, I think. Not surprising since his Grandpa Helton is about 6 feet 4 inches and his Grandpa Coates is 6 feet 1 inch.

Before Matthew and Lori left she gave me a box and said "This is for Stuart's Birthday".

I wrapped it up and put it with the other gifts on the table. I wish that I had gotten a better picture of it. I get so scatter- brained trying to get dinner on the table and forget to take pictures.

Anyway, this giant PEZ plays a song that made everyone laugh.


The afternoon ended much too soon. One minute the house was noisy and filled with laughter and the next minute it was quiet. Of course, as is our tradition, Dad and I stood at the back door, sighed, and marvelled at how our ears were ringing in the silence. Whoa!

It looked as if we had hosted World War III and I knew that by the time we got home from taking Grandma to Newberg there would be no energy left to tackle the cleanup until tomorrow.