Trunk or Treat

Last night we graced the ward Trunk or Treat activity with our presence. Lana was a butterfly, Christa was a witch, and I was an emir. It was pretty fun. One of the funnest things was not being recognized by other ward members. Success! Another fun thing was skirting around calling the guy that dressed up as Fat Bastard...Fat Bastard...in the cultural hall of the church. "Wow, did you see Joe? He's the uh...Fat Ba...er...uh...the fat Scottish guy that yells 'Get in ma belly!'..." in the distant background I hear a thundering "Get in ma belly". "Yeah, that guy." finishes I.

Chili, cornbread, dry ice cider, and dough nuts were on the menu. It's a stretch to open your mouth wide to eat when you've got a 'stache glued to your lip. A little more spirit gum did the trick. Lana wasn't interested in eating much so we decided to go run around the halls. The gym was like a freakin' sauna so it was nice to get out. While we were in the foyer folks started heading out to their cars to pass out tricks or treats. Some redneck lady straight from Jerry Springer's "My Husband Left Me for the Sheep" episode wearing a black Staker-Parsons construction sweatshirt managed to holler out that my costume was offensive as she ran out the double doors. Wow. I wanted to say about 53 things, but she disappeared so fast and I didn't want to ruin the fun. I don't value the opinions (or the existence) of those who contribute to society by wearing a heavy path between their couch and their refrigerator for 87% of their lives. Nope. My costume rocked!

After everything was said and done I'm most proud of Christa. She's not the Halloween type that gets excited to dress up as something different. Being five months pregnant doesn't help. But, she pulled it off. In the space of 24 hours she put together a pretty rockin' witch costume. The only snag was the tights. The Halloween store didn't exactly cater to the maternity crowd. A little Martha Stewart snip here and a McGyver trick there and she was sporting some sweet purple and black stockings that stayed where they were supposed to stay. I tried to get her to sport some hideous latex witch nose, but that idea was quickly cursed.

Lana is the cutest butterfly ever. See for yourself.

Punkins

Ok folks, I know it's been a while. I was in Maryland for the greater part of September. When I got back my mom got in an accident, my brother-in-law broke his neck, and my older sister now has pneumonia. Sheesh! Anyway...

One of my most favorite holidays is upon us: Halloween! Aside from planning my costume seven months in advance, there are some little things I like to do a little closer to October 31st. Like carve pumpkins. Or jack-o-lanterns? It's a pumpkin until the carve is complete, at which point it officially becomes a jack-o-lantern, right? It's the whole caterpillar-butterfly relationship, but only paganer...more pagan?...scarier. Yes. So, we took Lana to the pumpkin patch and she mostly ran around picking up pumpkins she could manage just to throw them back on the ground. I was so proud. We brought home three gourds and will lay knife to their tender skins this weekend. It's the best.