Shayne and I have always been "Halloween people." In a lot of ways, I think Halloween was what initially brought us together. We started dating 11 years ago on October 23, 1999. It all began when we started buying things to make his mom's house spooky for Halloween night. We bought a few fake crows, some spider webs, and an alien that we hung in the front window. The next year, we added to it with a couple of "dead guys" out in the yard and gravestones, and every year it grew and grew. Before long, Shayne's house was the talk of the town because it was the house with the spook alley on Halloween night. It took a lot of time to prepare for, and sometimes just as long to take it down (which I guess is why Jeanette decided she didn't like us doing the spook alley anymore).
Now that Shayne and I are married, our traditions and love for Halloween carries on and is being passed onto our children. We still like to make spook alley's and decorate for Halloween, but we also love holding our yearly Halloween Party. It is "our big thing" as we like to tell people. In years past we have had the spook alley's, games, big dinners, and contests. Our Halloween parties have made a name for themselves like Jeanette's house became the "house to beat" every Halloween night. I plan at least 2 months ahead for them, and they never disappoint.
This year we had the party at my Mom's house in Spanish Fork. No spook alley though (Dad's house, Dad's rules). We decorated the upstairs with balloons, table cloths, confetti, and center pieces. This year, instead of having a costume contest, we had a Halloween theme pizza contest. I was surprised when eight pizza's entered the contest! Evan's skeleton head pizza took 1st place, 2nd place was my Mom's jack-o-lantern pizza, and coming in close in 3rd was our gluten free Frankenstein by Sarah C. We also had a jar full of candy to guess how many pieces were inside. Guessing 275, Patrick won the closest guess to the actual number of 301. (I thought it was cute to see the kids guessing 15, 16, 10, and 1000.) The kids had their own game of pin the nose on the pumpkin. Arisa was so proud of herself for winning the coloring book.
Lastly, we played BINGO. I noticed some people won a lot of prizes for their lucky cards. Shayne was the only person that didn't win anything :( . We had prizes ranging from $1 - $10 gifts. The grand prizes were socks which Sarah C. and Dad won, a light up jack-o-lantern that Danny won, and for the grand prize - a blanket and pillow ghost set that Patrick won. Elle and her friend Matthew won a couple of prizes too.
When it was time to go home, I have to admit that I was sad that another Halloween party had ended but happy to know that we still have another week of Halloween ahead of us. Thank you to everyone who came, I hope you had as much fun and memories as we did. We are already looking forward to next year's party, and hope that many of our friends and family that couldn't make it will be able to attend next year.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN WEEK! :)
