Say Boo ... logah!

 Another year of the best people watching in the tri-state area has come and gone. Boologah has been a tradition for our family for quite a few years, and it's the one thing we've kind of hung on to as the kids have gotten older. They all enjoy being there to get candy and see all the craziness, but they also enjoy helping hand out tracts and invitations for Bible studies. 

This year, we had a good crew there to help pass out materials. 

Chris, Bren, Ross, G-Jo, and Dicie

We find it's a good way to connect with the community and give out personal invitations to church services. 

Bren is my kid who has never cared for dressing up, so he passes on that part of it. However, he's a great help at our "booth"!

Last year, there were several of us who dressed up as crayons, so Bri decided to just go with that again. Her friend, Jax, joined in on the fun, too!

Sadie invited Brooke and Brecklyn to join her in dressing as the "Clueless" girls from the '90s movie Clueless. I'm not sure how Sadie even knew who they were? My girls did not have any idea, but that didn't stop them from joining Sadie in the fun. They were a BIG hit with the Boologah crowd and received tons of compliments!

Sometimes, we're all a little Clueless!

Caroline was also there dressed as a minion, along with her friend, L. These girls loved collecting allllllll the candy!

💜

At the very end of the evening, we got word that Ms. Darla had been taken to the hospital in Owasso. Instead of going home after the event, I took Mom and Brianna, and we went to the hospital to see about Darla. Chris and the other kids helped get things cleaned up before heading home. Although the end of the evening wasn't what we had planned, we still had a great time at the event!

Another Year at Boologah!

It was another lively year at Boologah, and this time we had an exciting twist - a group costume! I've always loved the idea of a group costume, but I've only actually pulled it off one time like ten years ago, haha. 

This group costume is not one I can take credit for, however, because it was all Brianna. She came up with the idea for us to go as crayons, asked people to join us in the endeavor, and organized the colors. She even helped me vinyl everyone's shirt and make adorable crayon-tip headbands.

Annnnd . . . it was just as cute as we hoped it would be! Everyone needs a little color in their life!

Tia, Renee, Chelle, Bri, Kyrie, and Britt

Chelle and Bri

Of course, we weren't the only ones there looking cute in our costumes. Caroline, Brooke (as Mal), Sadie, and Brecklyn (as Elsa) were adorable.

They decided to brave the "haunted house" this year. Afterwards, they said, "Yeah, we weren't even scared!" 😁

💜

I think Brecklyn's favorite part of the evening is eating allll the things . . . hot dogs, popcorn, snocones, and candy are all part of the experience for her!

G-Jo even joined us this year because the weather was really nice. 

G-Jo and Brooke

Chelle and G-Jo

Bri, Kyrie, and Britt being clowns. Oh, I mean crayons!

We moved our church's table of materials and candy to a different spot this year, and it was a much better place than last year. The Rowells even joined us for the evening to help pass out materials and make connections with the community. 

Doyle, Jody, Brooke, Kyle, Bren, and Chuck

We are thankful for this fun event each year!

Boologah, 2023!

It's been a tradition for our family to attend Boologah every year on Halloween. We used to have a lot of Halloween activities, but that has naturally changed as the kids have gotten older. However, Boologah is a tradition we've decided to keep! 

For several years, our congregation set up a table at Boologah to hand out candy, reading materials, and invitations for Bible studies. Then Covid hit and many things changed, including Boologah and us having a table there. This year, the men decided to get back to having a spot at Boologah to help us connect with the community and make a few contacts. 

Doyle and Chuck ready to hand out materials

Bren

As we often do, Chris and Bren went early to help set up the table, and I came later with the girls. After running later than I had intended, I struggled to find a place to park and was just a bit flustered by the time we arrived. Although none of that really matters, I FORGOT to get a family photo in our usual spot and am pretty disappointed about that. At least I remembered to get individual photos of the kids, though!

Brecklyn as Mulan

Bren as a ref (again!)

Brooke as Mal

Bri as a pineapple

The S family was also there, and the girls had a blast getting candy together.

They are quite the crew! Brooke was killing me with her purple hair, haha.

Bri also invited her friend, Kyrie, to join us for the fun! I'm glad Kyrie came as I know Bri was missing her cousin.

While Grampy was working hard to pass out materials, the kids kept him full with popcorn, hot dogs, and candy. Of course, they also had their fill of the goodies!

Chris, Ross, Chuck, Bren, and Bri passing out materials and connecting with the community.

This year definitely felt different for us as I had anticipated it would. There is a hole left by the Earls moving that we are still adapting to, and I really missed my sister this night. It's just going to take some time to adjust to our new normal. However, with that said, we still enjoyed the evening, and it was still the best people-watching of the year!

The Boo Crew!

Just a few years ago, Halloween was a week long event around here where each of the children had three, four, or even five occasions to wear their costumes. As life has changed and the kids have grown, we've cut down a little on some of the week long holiday celebrations, including Halloween. And I'm good with that! 

While we don't do lots of activities for Halloween anymore, we still had a few things this year. Halloween was on a Monday, so C-more schools decided all Halloween parties needed to take place on the Friday before Halloween. The schools have been very stingy about allowing visitors to come into the building since all the Cvid junk, but I was actually invited by BOTH of the twins' teachers to come help with the class party. YES!

Brecklyn and Brooke

Brecklyn had her heart set on being a tiger this year, so I ordered this cute costume from Amazon. Thankfully, it fit and looked adorable!

Brooke decided since Brecklyn was dressing up as an animal, then she needed to be an animal as well. The obvious choice was a deer, and she pulled it off perfectly!

I was so thankful and happy to volunteer in the girls' classrooms. And I know they were excited to have me there! It makes me sad that they're not used to me being at school. In Brecklyn's classroom, I helped make up goody bags and then ran the craft table for the kids.

Brecklyn and Mom

Brooke's classroom is less organized than Brecklyn's, so her teacher just had all the kids eating candy and "watching" a movie. I helped with crowd control in there!

By the end of the day, Brooke's makeup was kind of a mess, and she was pretty much done with the chaos of the class party, haha. 

On actual Halloween, we went to Boologah to enjoy the festivities. This is by far our favorite Halloween event, so it's the one we chose to keep.

Of course, we had to take some photos in our favorite Boologah photo spot :-).

Brecklyn the Tiger

Bren the Ref

Brooke the Deer

Brianna the Hunter

Brianna with her best "kill" :-)

The Boo Crew!

Thankful for this tradition!

Boologah is always the best people-watching of the year, and this year we also had the privilege of seeing some unique animals. Brecklyn was thrilled to spot this llama in a cute hat!

We met up with Chloe and Lisa to walk around and collect goodies. Chloe looked great!

The ONLY reason Bren will dress up is because there is candy involved, haha!

Lisa made a cute Where's Waldo, and the kids loved seeing her dressed up!

Candy collection crew!

Once we got home from Boologah, we had dinner and celebrated Daddy's birthday (number 42!). His birthday often feels like an afterthought in the wake of Halloween festivities, but he takes it in stride. We didn't really have a "special" dinner, but at least we made his favorite pumpkin cake. 

As always, I'm thankful to get to do these things that once upon a time I only dreamed about :-).