Halloween

For not liking Halloween, I did have a delightful evening last night.  Adam and I trailed behind Mark and company, Emma stayed home and handed out candy and Braeden hung out with a boy named Christopher that is visiting some friends and is from Denmark.

Two of the boys we were trick or treating with went home so we were left with Mark and Gavin.  They are two of the most entertaining people on the planet.  Even better, they don't really try to be that funny, they just are.  Their comments on candy and decorations cracked me up.

Mark expounded his theory on candy quality based on decorations and he would assess a house before walking up to the door. I think his theory is pretty accurate.  For example, we had a lame bowl of cheap candy that I don't like.  (I can't have things like Twix or Snickers.  They are my kryptonite.)  We also had a few lame decorations--Emma's dilapidated pumpkin she carved last week, the bat mobile Mark made at scouts.

Across the street, our neighbors have had a lot of elaborate decorations all month.  They had a cemetery on their front lawn, an automated bat that lunged at you when you walked up to the house and they sat on the porch in creepy costumes and handed out full sized candy bars.

When we got home, we chatted with Christopher about Denmark.  He and Braeden had been discussing politics and the need for a strong military (they disagreed) and I could tell by the animated look on Braeden's face and gleam in his eye that he was having fun.  That kid is going to love college.  He loves big ideas and talking about them.

Christopher taught us some Danish words.  He said I had better pronunciation than Adam.  I wouldn't mention it except he said I had better pronunciation than Adam.

I didn't take any pictures last night (except of my lovely candy arrangement of Mark's haul, which was unappreciated--he didn't even notice) but here are some pictures from the previous week's festivities.

Last Friday, Braeden was invited to a Halloween party and went dressed as a punk rocker, 80s style.

"Wow, that guy in the skinny jeans looks super manly," said no one, ever.

I would like you to appreciate the volume of hair on this kid.

I straightened his hair with a blow dryer (which is not in my skill set, by the way) then I wanted to make it spiky with gel.  When you add gel to extremely curly hair that has been straightened, it becomes extremely curly again.

Dang.

(See, not my skill set.)

So I just got some hair spray and went to town.

The next night we had a "fall social" at church.  The cranky primary president (a.k.a. yours truly) was put in charge of it so that's why it wasn't a Halloween party.

Braeden and Emma both wore black and were administered make-up by Emma's hand.

  They were cherubic toddlers. What happened?  We're all wondering.

(We had dinner at Alfy's before the party.  Sorry Pinkie Pie isn't so great in Alfy's lighting.)

I asked Emma and Braeden what they were trying to achieve with their costumes, "What are you supposed to be?"

They would answer, "I don't know what you're talking about."

Here's Mark:

His costume, Steve, which is not a costume at all but his regular clothes, makes me happy and is brought to you courtesy of a new Lego set that was worth every cent.

If those other two could only catch the vision...

The party was fun (even with a cranky primary president).

Braeden with some of his goofy friends.

See?  She hardly looks cranky at all.  And she's even sitting next to THAT.

I made awards for the pumpkin carving contest.  We had exactly no entries so Emma filled out one of the awards for me:

I hung it on the fridge because Most Improved is something.

Like Emma said, "Most improved means you're not as much of a loser as you used to be."