Party All The Time

Yesterday, I headed to Melinda's for a Blogger Brunch. Sometimes, in my mind, I sort of group the entire Wasatch Front as one large city, but in actuality, this "area" is very spread out. I was a little late due to poor planning but was still the first one there.

I had a lot of fun, and I must say that second dates are better than firsts. Even though it was only the second time I had spoken to most of the people there (still a first date for some), I felt so much more comfortable and relaxed. It was great to see Lindsay, Amie, Rachel, Jill, Michelle A., Jenn, and, of course, Melinda. I thought it awfully generous of her to invite such a crowd over and to include our offspring as part of the invitation. It made it easier for me to attend and as far as I know, Henry didn't ruin anything or write on any walls, but I also didn't exactly know where he was all the time either. Melinda, if you read this and I'm wrong, send me a bill.

My Self-portrait (hence the reason my head is so out of proportion) minus a few.

Jill takes the self portrait seriously. This is the position she took up to get everyone in her shot.

Once I got home from that road trip, I relaxed a bit ( I know it seems like that was all I was doing all morning, but I felt darn right tuckered out after the drive), to muster up the strength to take my boys to the Utah Symphony Halloween Hijinx. Maureen ambitiously thought this would be great fun, and to my great surprise, it actually was. Abravenal Hall was filled with costume wearers and we sat and enjoyed an evening full of spooky music as well as a costume contest. Some of the music was a little too slow and long for the audience (they said it was for kids, not me) but other than that, it was a perfect opportunity to take my children to the symphony and expose them to some of the finer arts in a friendly atmosphere.

We missed out on entering the contest (and Seth was sure he would have placed had we entered...so perhaps it's a good thing we didn't) and the finalists were very entertaining. The winner of the individual costume contest was a man dressed as Angel Moroni. And he was dead on. All Gold...same little trumpet...same little robed outfit. I was impressed. The family winners were The Plague and included a child Henry's age as the rat with fleas attached to the costume. A sick child being pulled in the death cart with another child pulling (it's was a decorated wagon and they were pasty pale with nappy hair), then somebody was the grim reaper and someone was a scary looking dark ages physician.

The spooky stage. The conductor was Rocky Balboa so conducted from a mini boxing ring.

The adult costume finalists. Angel Moroni won.

I thought this guy's costume was the most clever. Here is the "statue" standing next to the statue.

Aunt Maureen with Mickey "Henry" Mouse, Leonardo "Sam" Ninja Turtle and Denver "Seth" Bronco.

Our view from the rafters and the beginning of holding squirmy Henry.

I am in constant amazement and baffled as to why this holiday spurs such an outpouring of events and hullabalo. I mean, you should have seen some of the other costumes there. Hours of work and preparation. Not to mention a lot of money invested.

Admittedly, I'm a Halloween Scrooge, and I'm o.k. with that. I get along just fine, and my kids don't seem to notice. Normally, I limit my involvement in all the brouhaha, but after being in charge of the Ward Party AND going to the symphony last night, I had to wonder what I was doing, running the entertainment at Seth's Class Halloween Party this morning. Seth's school manages to provide music and gym and library and computer and even art, but Seth's teacher has to do it all. No specialized teachers for any of that and no room party moms either. We had Seth's parent/teacher conference last Thursday, and she had a sign-up to bring treats, and I asked her if there was a big party or if it wasn't a big deal at the school. She sort of laughed at me and said she's never lived in a place (she's from the Midwest) where Halloween WAS such a big deal. So, there would be the parade and morning full of activities and she was going to have to do it all. Like the sucker that I am, I told her I would do the games and music.

I was too tired last night to run to the store for the props I wanted for one of the games, so like many sharing times I've been responsible for in the past, I went to bed with only little budding thoughts about how I was going to spend my "time" with the class. Even up until this morning, I was hoping I'd have enough time to run somewhere for some balloons for a balloon popping relay.

That wasn't meant to be and as I was driving to the school, I thought of a Valentine game we played last year that I could adapt to Halloween and ran home to get my Costco supply of toilet paper.

We played a Bingo Game that Seth's teacher had brought, then she let them paint some rocks (I don't know what that was about but was SO glad I wasn't responsible for it) and then we played "Happy Halloween" which is an easy game where you blindfold one person, silently point to another and that person says, "Happy Halloween" in a disguised voice. The blindfolded person gets two chances to guess the person with the voice and if he/she guesses right, I pick the next player and if not, the person who fooled the blindfolded person with his/her voice gets to be blindfolded.

Then we played "Make A Mummy" with the toilet paper by separating into teams and having the team work together to see who could wrap one of the team members as a mummy the best in a given amount of time. They enjoyed both games and now, all I've got to do now is manage to get through trick-or-treating and we're done for another year! Woot!

Well, after the sugar high is over.