Halloween Happiness

I know it was forever ago, but it was so much fun and I actually remembered to take pictures!!

This year I decided to throw a Halloween party because I had decided on a great costume, had yummy and fun snack ideas from Pinterest and we had made enough friends to pull it off. I was nervous because my only other attempt to throw a party was a couple years prior which was also a Halloween party and it turned out to be an epic fail(yes, I used epic, because it was). I feel like this year was a major improvement.

We started the season with pumpkins of course! Sad to say we never even carved them, but I love pumpkins and they were able to stay with us through Thanksgiving this way, so I'm not that heartbroken about not carving them. We went to a little pumpkin stand across the street. They had all colors, shapes and sizes. It was really fun.

Alas, Steven and I found our pumpkins and took them to their new home where they underwent a thorough Tiger inspection...they totally passed. Look how perfect they are!

Next, it was decorating time! Cobwebs go a long way!

We also had the Halloween wreath on the front door and the count down calendar, but you've seen those in previous blogs. To take pictures and blog about them again would just be tooting my own horn, haha!

Next it was time to invite the peeps. I made some invites that I thought were pretty stinkin' cute(so much for not tooting my own horn...). I used a free printable cupcake topper as the main embellishment.

Before the party people started arriving I tried to make all of the yummy treats I had found on Pinterest. I think I tried to rush it too much because almost none of them turned out very well. I tried to make Oreo "eyeballs" and they just kept falling apart and I couldn't get the chocolate to work right so no pictures. Also no pictures of the witches broomsticks. The Reese's peanut butter cups kept splitting down the middle. Here's a picture of the pumpkin shaped rice crispy treats! Those turned out well.

Then, Steven and I put on our costumes just in time for friends dressed in their Halloween best to start arriving!

Maegan and Landon Hansen. Maegan was a potato farmer and Landon was Mr. Potato Head. They completed they costume by bringing some delectable potato skins. They won the best couple costume award.

The Vanderwerkins(I know I totally butchered that) were our insurance agents for the night. They were Flo from Progressive and the guy from Nationwide. Super creative costumes! I loved it. Charisse won the best costume overall. Technically I won(toot toot!) but I was the hostess so even though I was super flattered, I gave it to the runner up...That sounded so bad, but I want the people who voted for me to know that it made my night! I worked really hard on that costume! Anyway...

Jessica and Taylor McClellan spiced up the night dressed as salt and pepper.

Britney and John Holbein dressed as a house divided. They are attending rival schools and dressed accordingly. Britney for UNC and John for Duke.

Caitlin and Ryan Sweeney skipped the biker bar just to come to our party and entered with a roar, literally. Ryan's motorcycle is amazing and LOUD! I totally loved it and I've never seen Steven so fascinated by a motorcycle.

Maile and Mitchell dressed as Little Red Riding Hood and the Huntsman. SOOO cute!

There were SO many cute and creative costumes. Everyone was a lot of fun and really got into the Halloween spirit. We ended up walking to Chili's for dinner, in costume. It was fun, but a lot of people gave us that "y'all are crazy" looks. Especially when Maegan had to park her tractor to eat. It was great! Then, we came back and did a Halloween mad lib which turned out hilarious! Watched Hocus Pocus and made caramel apples. Which Mitch helped chop with his real hatchet! It was a really fun night!

Thanks friends for making it such a fun night!!!

Get 'er done...we'll start with Thanksgiving!

I made a to-do list of things I need to get done before school starts back up MONDAY was to get the blog updated. So here goes my best effort. I get bored with it really fast though, especially when the computer starts acting up, but I'll try because these are important memories and I'd like to share them. There's a few though so bare with me, I don't know how to turn off the automatic email notifications I setup when I first started this thing. Also, yes I am aware that they are completely out of order. I'm just blogging in order of memory and which ones are going to be shortest, haha.

This year was the first time ever that Steven and I spent Thanksgiving with just the two of us. We haven't been able to spend it with family for the last 3 years, but 2 of those years we spent with friends. It was a little different. Pretty quiet, but we had a good time and got all of the yummy food to ourselves. We used our fine china, drank sparkling apple cider and cooked dinner together. We totally went the easy route though and ordered a Honey Baked turkey (it was good, but weird. I don't think we'll go the easy route on the bird again), Stove Top stuffing, Rhodes rolls, pumpkin cheesecake from Costco...we did go all natural for the potatoes because I love real mashed potatoes. Earlier in the day we watched bits and pieces of the Thanksgiving Day parades and went on a small hunt for the Thanksgiving paper. I know you can find the sales online, but it's more fun to go through all of the adds together after dinner. Below is a picture of our Thanksgiving spread. Not to shabby if I do say so myself.

The next day we went "Black Friday Shopping." We didn't camp out or anything, but we got some really good deals on dvd's and went to the outlets. We got pretty much all of our Christmas shopping done in one morning. It was fun, but I don't think we'll do it again. You can get most of the same deals online and can even find better deals after Black Friday we found, but it was fun just spending time together and going out to lunch.

Hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving!!!