It all started with the latest issue of Taste of Home...and ended with me eating a big plate of delicious leftover spaghetti for lunch Saturday. I love Taste of Home, and in their October/November issue they had the CUTEST Halloween party ideas. Almost impulsively I shot off an email to Meredith asking her to join me in hosting a fun costume party. An evite and job divying email later and I was scratching my head about costumes. I was very proud of our guests - everyone came as something!
For your viewing pleasure...
Caleb, the Hippie - Caleb is very anti-hat, so I knew I couldn't dress him in anything that involved headgear. Of course he's also too little to appreciate dressing up, so I spent days brainstorming what he could wear that would involve as little non-regular clothes as possible. I saw a baby dressed as a hippie in Babytalk magazine and knew I had found the perfect costume for a wiggly little guy like him!
Rob, Chief Justice John Roberts...great use for an old graduation gown! And Rob has LOTS of old graduation gowns.
Me, Miss Alaska...great use for an old bridesmaid dress! Like the crown? I made it myself from aluminum foil.
Meredith - my co-host - King Tut!
Ben, Meredith's husband as Nacho Libre - Ben and Meredith were the first to arrive, but right before they got there I heard a little knock at the door. I peeked out and there was a little boy in a boyscout uniform. Expecting people in costume and forgetting it was October 27, not Oct. 31, I thought he was a trick or treater... but he was a boyscout selling tickets to an event. Rob is a sucker for anything boyscout and I knew it didn't matter what the kid was selling, he would want to buy it. Rob was getting dressed for the party, so I made the transaction. In the meantime, I look up and here comes Ben in all his Nacho Libre glory! The little boy looks back and I start stammering, "It's a costume party! We're having a costume party!" Ben says, through the little mouth hole in his mask, "Hey, are you here for the party?" The kid starts dropping stuff and I notice his mother in the distance, I smile apologetically and the kid hurries off. Rob and I laughed and laughed about it.
Baby J. and Andrew as Jack and the Beanstalk and the Giant.
Jessica - Baby J's mom - as a Marine, she's not a Marine, Andrew is. She said Andrew won an award for his skill in face painting, not an award actually, more like a distinction :) Not to discount Jessica's artistic ability, she made Baby J's and Andrew's costume, and the beanstalk.
Chris and Baby M. - Ornithologist and Ladybug - ok the ornithologist is a stretch, but he did carry a net. M's mom Nina was a flower, but somehow I didn't get a picture of her.
Lane - Farmer, very convincing...
Norman and Cyndi and family - a rodeo clown, a circus clown, a Roman (not Greek) goddess, a bride, and a pumpkin.
Baby J. and Andrew both won the Crowd Favorite for costumes in their category, actually Andrew and Ben tied, but we only had one ribbon, so we shuffled the ballots and picked the winner at random. Personally, I voted for Nacho.
After the costume contest we bobbed for apples - this was Rob's idea and I really didn't anticipate how fun this was going to be. There definitely was some sort of competition going on among the men.
For dinner we had spaghetti - the recipe in Taste of Home called for portions to be served in hollowed out orange peppers with jack-o-lantern faced cut in them (titled "Worms for Brains"). Since orange peppers are a jaw-dropping $4 a pound, we had a few for garnish and just ate the spaghetti normally. I made popcorn balls and a reasonable facsimile for caramel apples. They were apples, they were on sticks, they had some brownish sticky sweet stuff on them, they did not taste right. I was determined to make the coating from scratch, and this is were pride gets you - humbled by awful not-exactly caramel apples.
It was a very good time. Next year, Rob says, we'll have a weenie roast. Hmmm, I bet the Home Owners Association will be all about that!
For your viewing pleasure...
Caleb, the Hippie - Caleb is very anti-hat, so I knew I couldn't dress him in anything that involved headgear. Of course he's also too little to appreciate dressing up, so I spent days brainstorming what he could wear that would involve as little non-regular clothes as possible. I saw a baby dressed as a hippie in Babytalk magazine and knew I had found the perfect costume for a wiggly little guy like him!
Rob, Chief Justice John Roberts...great use for an old graduation gown! And Rob has LOTS of old graduation gowns.
Me, Miss Alaska...great use for an old bridesmaid dress! Like the crown? I made it myself from aluminum foil.
Meredith - my co-host - King Tut!
Ben, Meredith's husband as Nacho Libre - Ben and Meredith were the first to arrive, but right before they got there I heard a little knock at the door. I peeked out and there was a little boy in a boyscout uniform. Expecting people in costume and forgetting it was October 27, not Oct. 31, I thought he was a trick or treater... but he was a boyscout selling tickets to an event. Rob is a sucker for anything boyscout and I knew it didn't matter what the kid was selling, he would want to buy it. Rob was getting dressed for the party, so I made the transaction. In the meantime, I look up and here comes Ben in all his Nacho Libre glory! The little boy looks back and I start stammering, "It's a costume party! We're having a costume party!" Ben says, through the little mouth hole in his mask, "Hey, are you here for the party?" The kid starts dropping stuff and I notice his mother in the distance, I smile apologetically and the kid hurries off. Rob and I laughed and laughed about it.
Baby J. and Andrew as Jack and the Beanstalk and the Giant.
Jessica - Baby J's mom - as a Marine, she's not a Marine, Andrew is. She said Andrew won an award for his skill in face painting, not an award actually, more like a distinction :) Not to discount Jessica's artistic ability, she made Baby J's and Andrew's costume, and the beanstalk.
Chris and Baby M. - Ornithologist and Ladybug - ok the ornithologist is a stretch, but he did carry a net. M's mom Nina was a flower, but somehow I didn't get a picture of her.
Lane - Farmer, very convincing...
Norman and Cyndi and family - a rodeo clown, a circus clown, a Roman (not Greek) goddess, a bride, and a pumpkin.
Baby J. and Andrew both won the Crowd Favorite for costumes in their category, actually Andrew and Ben tied, but we only had one ribbon, so we shuffled the ballots and picked the winner at random. Personally, I voted for Nacho.
After the costume contest we bobbed for apples - this was Rob's idea and I really didn't anticipate how fun this was going to be. There definitely was some sort of competition going on among the men.
For dinner we had spaghetti - the recipe in Taste of Home called for portions to be served in hollowed out orange peppers with jack-o-lantern faced cut in them (titled "Worms for Brains"). Since orange peppers are a jaw-dropping $4 a pound, we had a few for garnish and just ate the spaghetti normally. I made popcorn balls and a reasonable facsimile for caramel apples. They were apples, they were on sticks, they had some brownish sticky sweet stuff on them, they did not taste right. I was determined to make the coating from scratch, and this is were pride gets you - humbled by awful not-exactly caramel apples.
It was a very good time. Next year, Rob says, we'll have a weenie roast. Hmmm, I bet the Home Owners Association will be all about that!
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