Happy Halloween!

I’m so glad Halloween fell on a Friday this year - we felt justified in partying rather than succumbing to the siren call of homework. Last year our celebration subsisted of screwing in the “black” light bulb I bought on sale the year before at a seasonal Halloween store and dancing to Thriller before we got back to homework. Not much of a celebration if you ask me!
Earlier in the week I suggested to Holly & Stephen that we should have a party and we enjoyed planning the food and activities.

After a few frantic hours of decorating and preparation on Friday, we really had a fun night.

This was after the party and after some clean up, but I realized I didn’t take any pictures of the décor! This picture doesn't do it justice. And by this point all the ghost suckers had fallen down. We draped orange tissue paper loosely over the lights so the whole room had an orange cast. It was fun. Black construction paper bats hung from the ceiling and we listened to spooky scary sounds, Grim Grinning Ghosts, The Monster Mash and Bing Crosby reading/singing the tale of Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman.

Spooky luminaries lining the steps

Our goals were to have fun and spend very little money. We decided to have SPOOKghetti for dinner {what’s as cheap and as filling as spaghetti?} with witch’s warts {corn} and slices of a giant’s finger {toasted/buttered french bread}. We tried to come up with Halloween-y names that weren’t too gross…. The rest of our cheap munchies were Goblin Guts {guacamole-yum!} and Petrified Ghost Skins {white tortilla chips}; Centaur Spit {veggie dip} with Brain Stems {broccoli}, Troll Eyes {cucumber slices}, Witch Fingers {celery}, and Pumpkin Flesh {carrots}. A bubbling cauldron of dry ice added to the fun.

We played Pin the Tail on the Halloween Cat,

and for dessert, we made Halloween sugar cookies, whipped up some butter cream frosting and busted out the sprinkles. We were going to go "caroling" and deliver them, but it was pretty late by the time we got to this part, so we kept them to ourselves. :) Yum!

Tylan and I didn’t spend much time on our costumes—we were busy decorating, cooking and creating a Halloween-y atmosphere in our apartment. Ty was a typical tourist, but apparently I didn’t get any good pictures of him. He wore his Australian hat, a bright windbreaker, shorts and these atrocious long white soccer socks that had big RAINBOW TROUT printed on them. I had just discovered them that day in an old box. The things you find out after 2 years of marriage… I just used my old standby, a karate gi I got in my self defense class. I couldn’t find my white belt, so I was upgraded to Tylan’s brown belt. I thought about dressing up as the typical 50's hostess, but I didn't have the right dress and there was NOTHING at DI. Maybe next year.

Holly was a princess.

Stephen was Mr. Rogers (before he puts on his tennis shoes). :) Jenn was a modern, wearied traveler (she and her sister in law had just driven in from Cali moments before).

Mr. Rogers handing out candy to the few trick or treaters who didn't mind climbing a lot of stairs.

Playing Mario Kart on the Wii. Woo hoo!

Till next year....