Ghostacular

Well I survived it! Barely. I took Friday off, which made everything a HECK of alot easier. Granted I spent the day running errands and barely had time to sit down.

Without further adieus, here are the ribbons for the costume contest. I will say this was a most excellent idea. HAD I NOT FORGOTTEN COMPLETELY ABOUT IT. Three of us put our heads together the next day and decide who should get what. Scariest - an evil witch. Coolest - Karate Master with a beautifully embroidered silk robe. Most Original - for dressing like a China man.

SNACKS. For all the fretting and work that went into preparing these goodies ... it all was for naught. Who knew that six teenagers would prefer walking to local convenient store OVER snacks sitting right in front of them on the kitchen table. More for me!

The invitation had alluded to pumpkin carving. But I knew, when it came right down to it, would you rather shriek and jump up and down, or focus using a teeny tiny saw. EXACTLY. So I went ahead and gutted these in ADVANCE, so when my two oldest came home from the school, it was the first thing they did. BTW - two did arrive with pumpkins and two left with those same pumpkins untouched.

Ahhhh. My living room. Before.

I couldn't help myself. I. Cleaned. Her Room. Seriously, I couldn't allow three girls to sleep on dirty clothes and food wrappers.

Here it is. The costume. Oiy.

I HAD to take pictures of her drawings. They are amazing and she draws them in what seems like only a few minutes.

No pictures in the chair. Sheesh.

So ... here she is. All. Legs.

The drummer from Kiss stopped by. Scared the buh-jeeze-us out of the baby. And me. It was kinda freaky.

Here is my living room. Full. With weird dancing.

I was so busy enjoying it all. That I burnt the pizzas. Another good think about teenagers, they don't care. Gone in twenty seconds. All of them. I did better the second time around.

Then it was time to go out. The cute little baby? Wore this ensemble. I especially like the dirty mittens that she sucked on for the first 15 houses. Good times.

The boy. I had a hard time keeping track of him and his friend as they made their way ahead of me the entire time. The mask lasted about halfway and then he ditched it completely.

The pumpkins carved. The top pumpkin had a unique anime drawing on it but due to my sucky photography you cannot see it. The middle one is my creation. The bottom one was done by my son. I have no idea where my children get their creativity from. Clearly it's not from me.

The baby's loot. No one even cared that she didn't have a costume on. She enjoyed opening every single piece of candy. Some she ate, most she just wanted to take out of the packaging and put it someplace else. I think it will be weeks before I find all the candy stuck in her toys.

So the NEXT day ... she wore her costume and she even SMILED for me. Would I do it all again? You bet.