Halloween Party 2014

There are four of us in our neighborhood. Every year, one (or two of us some years) hosts a Halloween party. Sometimes kids are invited, sometimes it's a couples thing, but there needs to be at least one party in our neighborhood -- it's tradition. I was really not feeling up to it this year, one of us just had a baby, the other is going through some allergy stuff, so I somehow bamboozled Kelli into hosting in her backyard this year if I helped. Awesome is what it was. Because the yard is huge, we could invite as many people as we wanted to. Door to door fliers were... I wasn't willing to do that, so we decided to put it out on Facebook and specify that people tell their neighbors who weren't on there about the party. There were people who swear they knew nothing about it until they drove by, which was crummy. I told my carpool kids to tell they families, --at the last minute we almost sent out an email to the Relief Society group, but at that point it was only two days away. Anyway next time maybe I will recruit kids to do the fliers. I don't want ANYONE left out EVER! Anyway a big load of people came. 

 We supplied hot dogs and hot chocolate, and asked everyone who came, to bring a dish to share. We also specified that you had to come in costume or you'd have to sing karaoke. One of my more brilliant ideas. Not really. Great costumes showed up! Recognize the guy in red (you won't if you're younger than 40 apparently -I  thought it was great. I'm 42)?

We also did some games for the kids --pin the bow-tie on the skeleton, bean bag toss, some card games, mummify your friends with T.P.  There are probably some great pictures floating around about now of the Bishop mummified. The toilet paper started getting thrown all over the yard, so that game ended a little quickly...

 Audrey, the friend who just had the baby, overachieved as usual, and sewed costumes for almost her whole family of 8 (of course the older boys wanted to do their own thing). Adorable melty Olaf.

 Frozen was of course a huge deal this year. 

 I loved seeing this costume on this girl - if you know the story, it's the younger sister, the one without the showy talent -who actually ends up being the great hero of the story. You love both sisters, but you're glad the younger one gets her moment.

 Ari knew what she wanted to be -- every year she has a very strong opinion of her own. This year it was an elf princess. I made her a Lothlorien broach for her cloak (and the cloak actually).

 I loved that the older kids dressed up too.

 Another little Elsa.

 Kai was a ceiling fan. Notice Thor on the left? He's from a  "Whole family of Supers! Looks like I hit the Jackpot!" (name that movie) --you'll see his parents in a minute.

 This is Audrey --remember her from Frozen?

 Youngest in the Superhero family --he had a late nap and didn't want to wear his Clark glasses.

 Here's the fourth friend --half of the superhero parents. She loves Wonder Woman. This is a fabulous role model for girls actually --wait --I have an article. This is actually part of why I was Merida this year. I'm OK with her being a tomboy, know that's not all I have to be --it's not a choice between tomboy and princess! 

 Kelli has a great fire pit that came in handy when it cooled off later. We were sweating as we set up, but I was glad for the fire later.

 Tia was "The seven seas". But her "C's" got a little munched soon.

Anyway, we had a great time. Now I need to talk Kelli into hosting a hoedown. 

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Garden harvest, and Audrey's party.

I pulled in my garden's harvest yesterday, and I was so pleased. We really got a good stand of carrots, beets, and onions. I did the tomatoes, melons, cucumbers, and potatoes a couple of weeks ago, but I was putting off bringing these guys in. They say to wait until the onion tops fall over to bring them in, but they never did, and I was worried they would freeze. I'm hoping they will be OK. It's going to be hard waiting for them to dry out in our garage though. Peeeuw. Maybe I can move them outside on warm days, and back in at night? Anyone done this before?

Lots of beets. I'm excited. I did a variety pack of seeds, so there are golden beets, and the candy striped ones, they should be really pretty roasted. I love beets. Remember the beet cake I made for my harvest dinner a couple of years ago? Beats (ha! no pun intended) carrot cake all hollow.

Bonus --beet greens! should make nice "Cullen Juice" --you know, with the red stems it will make my morning smoothies all bloody looking.... muuhaaahaha!
Look at all of these carrots! It really seemed like we weren't getting carrots this year because they took so long to come up, but when they came they brought all of their friends! It was really nice to have the raised beds this year. For the first time, I had carrots that weren't all twisty and mangled looking.

After I brought everything in, i had to finish my costume for Audrey's party. "Party of the year". Every year someone in our neighborhood hosts a party, and Audrey and Kris did themselves proud. They even had crafts and a pinata for the kids. ...and EVERYONE dressed up! People really get into their costumes around here and I love it.


Here's Audrey and baby Leia, and Lisa. Audrey's whole family dressed up together as Star Wars. I wanted Jeff to dress to match me, but.... you'll see why he didn't.



All the girls were in the dining room talking, while the guys played rock band, and the kids did their thing in the other room.

Here's my costume: I'm "The girl who was on fire" did you read the book? I told Jeff he could be Peeta --(I teased him he could be the Flaming boy :) ) but he went to the BYU game. He'd been planning on it for months, and I didn't realize it was the same night. Communication. Our marriage's biggest strength. Sigh.
Here's the kids. Ari has wanted to be a Goth since last year, we revamped Tia's witch costume for 2009, and Kai was the Alien he's dreamed of being all of his life: "Do not destroy my planet!" he kept saying.
I also was going to tell you I made the granola again with only half a cup instead of a full cup of agave, but it didn't clump together right, so don't try that. Maybe three fourths a cup? Or maybe some pumpkin puree for half of it? Hmmm. I'll let you know. But I made the Oat milk again with only half the oats, and strained it, and it worked great. I know almond milk might be really tasty too, but frankly, oats are cheaper (both money and calories).

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