Another Monster Mash

BP and I (2002) as the Knights of Poke'mon.  I still have our swords.

Good evening, children.

Following on the heels of last year's better-than-expected Halloween Bash, the Houghs once again decided to host a costume party for our friends and neighbors.  Kris started another Facebook group page, her Order of Moms set off on Pinterest to scrounge up Halloween party ideas, and we spent days decorating the inside of our house.  We ended up with about 38 people on hand - adults and kids - so it was about the same size as last year, and once again it went off without a hitch.

So prepare thyself, Internet, for some quasi-ghoulish shenanigans from the Hough's 2nd Annual Halloween Party. . .

Kris and the girls set to work constructing 'witches brooms.'

Watson, standing guard over the backyard at his usual post.

Another one of Kris' Pinterest finds. . .

Part of our party prep was setting up the basement for 17 f***ing children.  We hid away all of our fragile, breakable items - musical instruments, computers, video games, etc. - in the Storage Room, and blocked off the Captain's Quarters with the treadmill.  This room is highly off-limits to all sticky-fingered, sugar-induced children, you can bet your ass.

BP and his family were coming out this year, which was awesome, and were bringing up a 'flayed man' cheese head.  The 'flesh' is bacon.  Disgusting, to be sure, but frickin' delicious.

Some of the spread, set up.  Our good friends, Trevor and Sara McNerney, were also coming out, and brought a several 2-liters of pop and drinks for the party (Hawaiian Punch relabeled as 'Blood,' etc.), so we had a mini-Clare High School reunion for an hour or so before the rest of the neighborhood guests started to show up.

We have an on-again/off-again tradition of family-themed costume ideas.  Kris and the girls dressed up as cats (and I carried around Kleenex, as I'm deathly allergic to cats) in 2014, and last year we went as Mystery, Inc.  The girls requested our family dress up as pirates this year, which Yours Truly was TOTALLY down with.  I couldn't talk Kris into a sexy pirate costume, so she went as Mister Smee from Peter Pan.  Oh well.

The Embryonic Crusadah and the Bastard Bastard Harbor Mastah, back in action.

Sara commandeers my phone.

Pirates.

We sent this to Kimmel at the start of the evening, as he's one of our running crew, but unfortunately stuck out in Chicago.

Kimmel sent us this pic in return - him and Dalton.  No idea why Kimmel's a witch, but, if you knew Jon, that's not surprising at all.

Kris hung up this black sheet over her soon-to-be office cubby in the basement, partially as a backdrop for costume pictures, but mostly to block off her computer and office stuff from hordes of hyper children.

BP, Sam and Delia as Bob's Burgers'  Belcher family.

Sally and Katie came as some anime characters, whom I forget the names of.  Sally told me about it, but I forget.  I suppose if you're into anime you might recognize them. . .

The Larson family are hilarious.

I stowed away the drum set in the side room of the basement, and Kris hooked up the kids' karaoke machine/light show so that, when paired with the basement Alexa, the kids had their own dance party area.  It got used.  Heavily.

The Cannonball and her BFF, Maddie.

High School reunion in the Study.

The kids take a break from dancing and playing Twister to. . . look through the girls' baby scrapbook.  No idea.

More Twister (note the missing drum set - I sure as hell didn't want kids banging away on that throughout the night, that gets old after, like, five minutes.)

Smee is not amused.

Trevor brought some rum that he thought would be fitting.

The Bad Moms.

Watson hates his pirate costume. . .

Courtney and her cauldron of jello shot syringes. . .

Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum. . .

Trevor and I, plotting an attack on a Spanish merchant convoy heading from St. Kitt's to Tortuga. . .

Towards the end of the night, as adults began to head home with their exhausted children, more and more kids kept making their way upstairs, clearly bored with the basement after hours of games, activities, and 'stations' we had set up down there.  It ended up working a hell of a lot better than I thought it would, though.

One of the night's more popular 'stations' was this craft table Kris set up in the corner with a folding table and some creepy black tablecloth.  It got heavy use throughout the night.

Loving couple.

Until next year, Internet.

- Brian

Back to T-Dope's

Ah, High School. . . I miss thee.

Hiya, Cyberspace.

Today, the Houghs revisited their past (well, I did, at any rate.)  We were invited to a birthday party by Trevor and Sara, whose children were having a combo shin-dig in Clare. . . at the same old house I practically lived in during high school (I literally spent every day of the '97-'98 summer there.)

Coincidentally, while Trevor has been an old friend of mine since middle school, Kris has been friends with his wife, Sara, since back in the day when Kris attended Clare Primary School.  Needless to say, it was really, really convenient for us when the two of them up and got hitched.

Anyway, they also have two girls (each a year or so ahead of ours) whose birthdays fall close enough to warrant a combo-party.  A ton of people turned out, and the kids had fun exploring the countryside around the house.  Rest assured, it was definitely weird for Yours Truly being at a birthday party - surrounded by hordes of little kids, pink frilly crap, and cakes - on the same hallowed ground that saw countless bonfires, keg parties, fights, hook-ups, break-ups, and every other possible teenage misadventure one could think of.

Definitely makes one feel like an old piece of shit, that's for sure.

Check it out. . .

Trevor's house is out in the country, which was awesome growing up 'cause our group of friends had an unheard of amount of privacy. . . which, in hindsight, was definitely a bad thing.

Our kids were pretty excited there was a pool on hand. . . at first.

Trevor's family also owns the adjoining property (the car shop on which you can see at top right, there.)

The infamous Porch.  Ground Zero for high school shenanigans back in the day.

That row of brush you see dividing the properties is actually a ditch that a little stream runs down.  Once and awhile we had to burn the whole thing down.  Awesome stuff.

The water was a little too cold for this tropics-raised kid.

SWIMMING

Utter chaos.

Here's Trevor's '55 Chevy that he's been working on. . . or not.  We were going to start working on this our Junior year of High School, and planned on restoring it to mint condition in order to get a lot of use out of it our Senior year.  This was ridiculously stupid of us for two reasons:  1.) restoring a car like this takes a lot of time, and isn't something that can be done in six months, and, more importantly, 2.) it requires a shit load of money.  Trevor and I worked at Wendy's in high school.

Headquarters

Later on in the afternoon, I decided to take the girls for a 'nature walk' around their pond. . .

It's not that long around the pond, per se, but it took us forever.  The girls decided to pick wild flowers (also known as weeds) along the way.

Plunder.

- Brian