Halloween 2008

It’s been a busy and fun week here. Monday we had our own pumpkin festival.
We had soup in pumpkin bread bowl for dinner, ate pumpkin bars for dessert, and carved our pumpkins.

On Thursday, we had our church halloween party, where the young women and young men host the party for the primary kids. Here I am with Kristy, young lady in my class. Don’t we look “bewitching?”

There were games and prizes for all the kids, and it was fun, fun, fun.

Of course, it was the same night as the Junior High band concert, so Ryan took Cole and Megan to that, and he got to stay and listen to all their spooky band songs. It’s my favorite concert, since they all dress up in costumes, and play fun songs.

On Friday, we all dressed up again for school parties.

After school, we piled into the car and went to Ryan’s work for the office trick or treat. It’s fun to take the family to Dad’s work, and they get LOTS of candy in a short amount of time. So if you’re in it for the candy, this is the way to do it.

When we came home, we got to go out trick or treating around the neighborhood, and I can’t remember a more pleasant Halloween. There was no snow, no wind, no bitter cold. In fact, the kids went out in just their costumes, not even a jacket. Of course, it did start to rain on us, but even that wasn’t too cold. It was just fun to be walking around in the near darkness and seeing all of our neighbors also out walking around. My friend DaNae made homemade donuts, so her house was a gathering place for people to stop in and chat, and in the other end of the neighborhood, they were serving hot chocolate. Cole, who really is too old to trick or treat, stayed home and gave out candy, while Ryan and I took turns taking the kids out. It was really a fun evening.

Not one to let the holiday pass so quickly, we even had Halloween plans on Saturday. Actually, I won tickets to a murder mystery dinner theater, and the only night we could go was on Nov 1st, so it just stretched the festivities out a little longer. When I called to make the reservations, I was told that “most” of the people dress up either in costume ball attire or in Halloween costumes, since it is “Dracula’s ball”. Well, if it’s a “ball”, we were going to, I couldn’t just wear my same old witch outfit, could I? And what would Ryan wear? Have no fear, I consulted with my friend Lisa, who is the queen of all things spooky, and has enough Halloween costumes to outfit the entire neighborhood (I should know, we were using three of her costumes this year). “Lisa,” I said, “Ryan needs some kind of a costume for Saturday. Do you still have that warewolf costume?”
“Oh, my warewolf is already loaned out, but I do have this Dr. Dread costume RIGHT here,” she said, and she seriously opened a box right there and pulled out a costume, complete with a mask and hat that would fit Ryan. She’s amazing, I tell you.
For my costume, I called my friend Janene, who is an amazing seamstress and sews all these incredible costumes to wear every year. I knew that she was about my size, although shorter, and wondered if I could borrow a fancy ball dress from her. She had TWO for me to choose from. One was a Scarlet type dress, complete with hoop skirt. The other was a victorian type dress, with a bustle in the back. I chose the bustle dress, because it was red and beautiful, and I’m glad I did. The whole hoop skirt would have been a problem.

Here I am getting ready, with a side view of the whole bustle thing. And no, my butt really isn’t THAT big, thank goodness.
Here’s the full view.

Can you believe she made that? Amazing!
We had a great time at the Hunt Mystery Theater for Dracula’s Grand Ball. We met some very interesting people.

There were fun people at our table, too, but I guess we forgot to get their picture. We enjoyed the night out, and it was fun to dress up a bit, too.

So, that wraps up our festivities. I hope your fall fun was just as wonderful.