'Twas the Night Before Halloween

We had a busy, busy day yesterday. We started out at My Gym for their Halloween Costume Party.

It was a little overwhelming.

Spencer started out in his costume. He didn't last the entire time, since this costume raises his core body temperature by about 27 degrees.Mr. David was Superman and Mr. D was Batman. Batman's cape was a garbage bag. Times are tough, even in Gotham.Spencer's favorite part was the snacks. Michael was afraid Spencer's butt was going to get stuck. He was able to wiggle his way through.

Don't confuse the Mickey Mouse sitting there for my kid. My kid is the one on the left, in all black who took his costume off right before the big group shot.

After My Gym we headed to Amy and Joshua's house for their annual Halloween party, co-hosted by Joseph and Shireen.

We went, obviously, as Daisy Duck, Mickey Mouse and Goofy.

Joshua dressed up as Alan, from The Hangover. Baby Jacob pitched in as Baby Carlos.

Joshua has been growing the beard for 3 months. He went as far as finding the exact same shirt as the one in the movie. He's dedicated.

Here's a side by side comparison. Pretty spot on if you ask me.
I made pumpkin whoopie pies.

And oreo mud cups. They contained 0% real dirt.

Shireen made this awesome cake.

Carlos was upset. Probably because his mother left him with a bunch of men he doesn't know. (If you haven't seen the movie that won't make any sense).

Lauren brought a puking pumpkin.

Do you remember these costumes from 2009? Juno and Bleeker.

1 year later they were a family of owls. I didn't get a picture of the 3 of them together, but I do have a picture of Mama Owl Shireen later.

Owlet Desmond

Lauren was a witch.

There's mama owl Shireen. And the arrival of John, the decapitated pig head.

This is why Carlos was so cranky. He just needed a nap.

Maryellen was Ugly Betty and John was a creepy pig. There will be another blog post soon about this pig mask.

Maryellen, Lauren and me

Maryellen and me

The kids played pin the nose on the pumpkin.

Spencer did pretty good. Amy might have helped him a little (a lot).

Lauren tried on the Ugly Betty wig.

Blaine came as a guy with a fork stuck in his head. Joni was his doctor. Patrick was Indiana Jones.

John tried on the Ugly Betty wig. We told him he should only say very smart and philosophical things while in the wig.

It was a great party. Amy says she's too old and sore to throw another one. We say she's wrong. There's already talk about costumes for next year.

School Party/Halloween Sneak Peak

Spencer's pre-school had a Halloween party this morning. He doesn't usually go to school on Friday but we thought 3 year olds in costumes sounded like a good time, so off we went.

Could the glare from the contruction worker's vest be causing more corneal damage? This picture is hard to look at. My apologies.

We decided a long time ago that Spencer would be Mickey Mouse for Halloween. I was going to make his costume (i.e. glue some white buttons on some red shorts, buy him a black t-shirt and wear some mouse ears), then Megan told us about these costumes at the Disney Store. By the time we went it was 50% off. We bought it for $15. Score! They did trunk or treating. Spencer walked around with the little girl dressed like Minnie. A match made in heaven.

The teacher let each kid pick one treat from their loot. Spencer actually picked pretzels. What? No way that's my son.
The school rented a bounce house for the day. It was Spencer's 1st time in one of those. He loved it.

And then he overheated. And we had to take the stuffed, blanket-like costume off. Only in Phoenix can you not even wear your costume 2 days before Halloween without suffering hyperthermia.I think every one of these kids could have used a cold IV because once they came inside they all ditched their costumes and enjoyed a nice, cold juice box. I kind of wanted to ask for one too. Then Spencer was given a cupcake.
Then he was given a plate that contained cheetos, a jelly filled donut, a cookie, fruit snacks and a box of raisins. All the components of a healthy treat. I hope this is not a "typical" morning snack in his class. Shockingly, Spencer did sleep for 2 hours this afternoon.This is Mr. Todd. He owns the school. He's pretty much the only reason Spencer likes going to school. Mr. Todd and his wife were on a fabulous European trip for their anniversary last week. Spencer pretty much sulked until he came back to work.I looked at this picture after I cropped/zoomed it and mentioned to Michael that I think I need to start using some sort of eye cream. I'm looking a little saggy and wrinkly. Any suggestions? Saturday will find us at an open house at My Gym and then Joshua and Amy's annual Halloween party. I'm taking pumpkin whoopie pies and chocolate mud cups.

Sunday is, of course, Halloween.

Monday I'll take anything ghost, witch or black cat related down and put all my turkeys up.

There's so much to look forward to!

You Spin Me Right Round Baby Right Round

We'll get to the 80's flashback song in a minute. First, a little background.

Spring 1999

My uncle (a professor at the University of Arizona) gave me a bunch of information about the National Student Exchange. I decided I wanted to do it, but I didn't want it to delay my graduation, so I applied only at schools that had my major and minor. I also wanted to go somewhere really, really different from Southern Arizona. My top 2 choices were The University of Hawaii at Manoa (duh) and the Univeristy of New Hampshire. I got matched with UNH. I attended school there the fall semester of 1999. My roommate was a girl from Mass named Megan.

Megan and I became fast friends that semester. We had only known each other for 2 weeks when she took me to her parents house and Cape Cod for my 20th birthday weekend. I think my birthday was actually on Labor Day that year. Her parents had a birthday dinner for me complete with a cake with 20 candles. They also gave me a little stuffed animal that I still have (although it's technically Spencer's now).

Here we are in front of our dorm room. #321. Mint things happened in this room.Fast forward to 2005. I visited all of my New England friends over my fall break. Remember Cathy who was here in AZ over the summer? Yep, that's her standing with Megan. While I was on this trip Megan and I went to the Christmas Tree Shop. That place has a very inappropriate name, because they have way more than Christmas stuff. It's like a Big Lots or Hobby Lobby type place. Anyway, Megan bought this singing crow. We were pretty obsessed with it as is evidenced by this photo.
Megan proclaims herself to be my #1 reader (although she is not my #1 commenter, ahem ahem) and she had a special request that the bird be featured in a special edition Halloween blog. I'm more than happy to oblige. So here, for your viewing pleasure, is the bird (circa 2010) on Megan's mantle.And a video, so you can see why we were so obsessed with this awesome crow.