Dick Clark's Rockin' All Hallow's Eve

Halloween is not my favorite holiday. I think this is largely due to the fact that they make such a huge deal of it at ThomasArts. EVERYONE dresses up - I don't think they'd let in the door if you didn't, and there are prizes for the best costume. I've learned this last year working in advertising that designers are way more creative and talented than me in every contest we've ever had at work (dancing, sports, costumes, etc), so I stopped competing with them long ago. However, as I already said, I absolutely had to dress up. Since I had to have a costume, I decided that Landon did, as well. So this year...

We decided to make my brother proud --- and I happened to have a white robe from my high school graduation. We went as Leia and Han Solo from Star Wars. It was quite a success. No, I didn't win anything at work (nor did I expect to), but everyone complimented me, a big change from last year, when I was unsure if I should even really dress up, so I ended up changing into a prom dress at work and feeling pretty dumb. We got Landon's costume at D.I.

Since we were already dressed up (oh, and because Abby and Nick abandoned us), we decided this year to have a little party! Real cousins Molly and Chelsea came, adopted cousin Kyle came, and dear high school friends Jenna and Jesse drove up from Provo. Everyone wore costumes, because we think we're awesome.

And I gotta say, the costumes were pretty amazing! "The cousins" were all Harry Potter characters, and Molly really got into it. As she says "I might be a better Snape than Snape!" Chel came complete with a real live time-turner, and Kyle went all-out and bleached his hair for the occasion. Jenna was Elphaba (from Wicked), and Jesse was an unidentified founding father. By the end of the night, we settled on Alexander Hamilton, although I think that was mostly because Molly really liked calling him "Hammy."

The evening kicked off with some old-style games (complete with pupkin straws and Halloween pencils for prizes). First, we ate doughnuts on a string:

Molly kicked my butt, but Landon won!

After the doughnut escapades, we played "pin the tail on the wolf-man." I don't have any pictures of this, but if you look at the first picture of Landon and I in our costumes, you can see the amazing poster Landon made for this game. I love having such a talented husband! We had everyone draw their own tails, which turned out to be pretty fun. Surprisingly, everyone got really close to the mark. We then moved on to the cookie-decorating contest (thanks for the cookies Chel)! Here is the winning cookie, and all of the rest of them: Not bad eh? They tasted delicious, also. Can you tell which one is Molly's? We rounded off the night by watching "The Village." For those of you who know me, you will know that this was quite the feat for me. I hate all scary movies, and I especially hate M. Night Shyamalan - nothing personal against him, I just can't handle his movies. I let everyone talk me into it after many promises that there were no dead people and it wasn't really scary. Well, there were TWO dead people (count 'em, Kyle, I'm not buying the dog story), and plenty of freakiness to go around. Landon was seriously regretting talking me into it at about 4:30 a.m. Saturday. Luckily, we got our hour of sleep back the next night! No more scary movies for me, I mean it this time! It's just not worth it.

All in all, our party was a success, and I think everyone had a good time. It was much better than just sitting home handing out candy to the three or four kids that came to our door. In other news, I have lost both memory cards for my camera! I have Chelsea to thank for these pictures. If anyone has seen them, please let me know, I am getting desperate and running out of places to look!