Happy Halloween!

Around mid September, I got worried about the holidays. I know that

living overseas during the holidays is never quite as good as when

you are in your homeland. So to cure that loneliness, I decided

to follow suit after my Mother (like she did in Nicaragua) and do extra fun festivities

to fill the void.

For Halloween, I decided to make my own party. I discovered something interesting

about myself as I planned this party too... I enjoy planning

and making parties but then when the hour of the party arrives, I am already over it.

So let me explain.

I have been planning for this Halloween party since September where

I spent hours creating a menu, finding crafts to do to decorate my house,

discovering the perfect eerie music

and thinking up games.

I think I gave Martha Stewart's website an extra 100 hits this month.

I decked out my house in cobwebs,

old looking curtains, fake mice, glow-in-the-dark eyes, the works, to make it

look like a haunted house. I spent hours working on cutouts and hand-made invitations.

Then I spent several

days before the day of, making carameled apples as party favors,

baking everything from scratch and even making floating hands for

Dead Man's punch. I figured out a matching costume with Fronk and everything else. I

have to say I actually enjoyed most of this, but the real reward

came a couple hours before the party when everything was finished. You can't tell

from the pictures, but I must say that it turned out pretty rad.

Then, an hour before the party, I decided that I didn't really want to have

it anymore. I just wanted to eat my food and sit under my black light in peace, listening to horror music.

Oh well, the party went on. and I spent the rest of the night running around playing host.

I had a handful of teenagers come over, as I

figured they would most appreciate the party, not being able to go to late night

Halloween clubs

or doing any of the trick or treating.

Here are a few pics of the evening...

Just starting to get the party started.

It was a costume-only party. I forget how little teenagers like to dress-up. But, I admit that I do remember the days when all you want to do is put on overalls, say you're a farmer and call it a night.

Some came out pretty decked out though. Mirna, below, had one of my favorite costumes. Dressed neck to foot, she

was covered in gauze and other medical taping. Very fun mummy!

Pretend Ryan is a greek turned to stone and not a dead angel. I was Medusa. Never a good sign when you have to explain your costume. Oh well.

Game time! My favorite game, not pictured, was trick-or-treat Fear Factor. You can find

so many great things at the butcher, here in Mexico, for this game.

Ryan rolled trick first and kicked off the game eating "dragon" (chicken) foot soup.

haha. I was nice

enough to let him eat the soup around the foot, instead of eating the foot:)

Here are pics of a couple other games.

It was so fun watching Ryan getting into the games. It was like the kid came out in him!

Yum, food. Here are a couple of fun treats I came up with.

Turds on a platter....

and bloody worms!

It was so fun coming up with this stuff. I really did love getting it all ready.

The night was fun too and after a decent clean-up,

my house is back to normal!!

Happy Halloween!