Halloween 2014

Try as I might, every year I fail miserably at trying to recreate Halloween ideas from Pinterest.  There was the baby-in-a-pumpkin photo shoot gone horribly wrong, and the time I nearly severed my thumb making homemade butterfingers.

This year, I was determined not to fail.  This year, I was going to show Pinterest what’s up.

David and I started planning early, and by mid-September had made quite a few decoration purchases.  We started asking around to see if people were interested in having a costume party, and found that our friends were thrilled for any excuse to dress up in ridiculous outfits and throw a house party!

Thank you, Allison, for giving us the clever invitation idea

I started pinning Halloween party ideas like crazy on Pinterest, and before I knew it, October 31st was here!  We decided to throw the party on Saturday, November 1st instead, so friends with kids could go trick-or-treating (and we’d have a bit more time to get the house ready, plus we couldn’t mess with our own tradition of passing out candy and watching Hocus Pocus).

These pumpkins greeted the kids as they came to our door.  David made the skeleton and I made the haunted house and scary tree.  One kid was so terrified of David's pumpkin, he refused to come to the door to get his candy!

The party was a huge success!  We had a ton of people show up, and everyone’s costumes were awesome!    

We started off by scaring our guests with this creepy doll we found at Halloween Express.

When they entered the house, they were greeted by this friendly piano man.

For those that didn't want to play a duet, they could play with the Ouji board in the living room.  

We found an original game board online and the instructions on the back could not have been funnier - Ask the board a question and wait 1-5 minutes for an answer.  Some examples of questions are, 'Will I ever be tall enough to slam dunk?  Does Timmy know I like him?  Who told him?!'

Jill was thrilled to help out with the party, and set up a photo booth in the dining room to get shots of everyone in their costumes.  

Mary Poppins was put to work at our house!

Katie and Dave were sweet enough to come in from Houston the day before and help out with the set-up and the fun finger-foods, while the Simons and Watsons each let us borrow about half their house!

Yoda helped too

Katie and I were in the kitchen most of the day while the guys decorated the yard and cleared out the garage to put up tables for beer pong.

We hollowed out a pumpkin and filled it with ice to create a festive cooler for non-alcoholic drinks

We mixed together wine, caramel syrup, and apple cider to create an apple pie sangria

We baked a couple dozen gooey monster eyeball cookies

… and some chewy scarecrow treats

David carved an upset-looking pumpkin for the guacamole / puke

… and Katie made a spicy cheeseball hungry mice couldn't resist!

We even had a costume contest complete with prizes.  The winner was (drum-roll…) 

Elvis!

Noah came in 2nd place!  My heart swelled with pride when Jill’s husband showed up as a woolly mammoth.  It was his first-ever Halloween costume, and he went all out for the party!

David freaked everyone out with his Beetlejuice costume. No matter what David is each year, he always finds a way to make it super-creepy...

His Big Bad Wolf mask was mounted on the wall

and his Jigsaw mask was peeking out at people from the media room window upstairs (that is the strangest window to have in a house – we call it the Romeo & Juliet window)

Jordan came to the party in total character as Richard Simmons (yep, that's our Financial Advisor!), and Allison fit in perfectly as the spunky 80's pop star 

Kim and Patrick cracked us all up as a couple of big birds

Jordan has so much energy and enthusiasm, 

that costume was perfect for him!

Jeff is taking after David with the creepiness, and wielded his ax all night as Patrick Bateman from American Psycho.  His girlfriend, Jacque, was a quiet kitten. Amy (Zombie) chased Ross (Shaun from Shaun of the Dead) around all night, while I tried to shoot people with my bow and arrow as a huntress

Elizabeth literally wrapped herself in cling wrap to play one of Dexter’s victims.  Do you know how long it takes to wrap someone in Saran wrap?  A long time… she showed true dedication to her couple’s costume.

Brad can never run for office now that this picture is on the internet

The Great Gatsby made an appearance,

as did Carmen Sandiego and a few people she picked up on her travels through Mexico and Germany

Sarah and Jason went all out and had their faces professionally painted to scare the s*** out of us 

We had a man from the CDC who hopefully didn't spread any diseases around, some Ghostbusters that LOVED their job, John Snow and Khaleesi hooked up, Obi-Wan and Darth Vader seemed to be getting along pretty well, and Jen and Chris had awesome steampunk costumes

I think it’s safe to say the days of Halloween Pinterest fails are behind us!