A Monster Mash

Greetings, Ghosts and Ghouls. . .

So Kris and I up and decided that we'd attempt hosting our very first Halloween Party this year.

Our neighborhood collection of moms had originally envisioned some kind of block party for Saturday night, but after weeks of casually talking about it without anything definitive being put in stone, Kris decided to put on her fancy hosting pants and take matters into her own hands.  A Facebook Event page was created, moms were invited, Pinterest crap was shared with great relish, and guest lists were expanded.

Before you knew it, we had about fifty costumed people hanging out in our house. And nothing was broke, stolen, or vomited on.

We're now looking ahead at Christmas parties.

Check it out. . .

A Pinterest-heavy Halloween spread of snacks and treats.  It should go without saying that I was in no way involved with any of this, whatsoever.

Yes, that's the Houghs.  We're Mystery Incorporated.

Left to Right:  Fred, Daphne, Shaggy, Scooby Doo, and Velma.

Some of our girls' neighborhood squad.  We bought this cheap-o background and borrowed Chris and Nicole's vistaprint/polaroid printer, which you can sync up to a smartphone, so that party guests could print off Halloween Polaroids throughout the evening. . .

Adults didn't use it as much as we anticipated, but, in hindsight, it was hung pretty low. . .

Kid-friendly Halloween cocktails= big hit

My brother as the legendary Bob Ross.

We had a shitload of kids in our house.  I'm so happy I had a vasectomy. . .

After an hour or so of inside craziness, the kids began running laps around the house, war-whooping like a bunch of Apaches gone mad.  It would have pissed off the neighbors, I'm sure, had not the entire neighborhood already been inside our house. . .

No one knew who this guy was.  Everyone just assumed he came with someone else.

Some various neighbor pics. . .

I made sure to lock up all the valuable - both monetarily and sentimentally - retro video games systems in the back storage room, and hooked up the PS2  in the basement for 'crowd control.'  I knew we'd have a lot of boys on hand for this party, and therefore the usual Barbie and Playmobil fare the girls usually play with probably wouldn't cut it.  This foresight was incredibly successful.

After a few hours, as it got later and later, the adults migrated to our back and front porches, freeing up the living room for the kids.  We dimmed the lights and put in a movie so they could start winding down.  Kids started falling asleep all over the damn place, so this bought us a couple more hours of hang-out time.

Spent.

- Brian