Costumes & Cocktails

Like I always say, the first and most important thing to check off a party planning list is INVITATIONS! Check, check, check! I fell in love with these invites from tinyprints.com....

The colors gave me inspiration for how I wanted to decorate....and I kind of just ran from there with various ideas which ended up turning into three big containers of stuff I'd bought. The crazy part is I had no idea if it would all end up fitting together. Many trips to Hobby Lobby and lots of planning had me stacking up supplies and goods in the garage for over a month. Ya see, this is the first Halloween party we've hosted and only the second Halloween party we've ever been to. Here's a look back at our first!  I've never been the type to decorate for Halloween specifically...we always just do some simple fall decorations. But this year I decided to spook the place up and ended up having a lot of fun with it! So why were we having this party in the first place? Well I'll give all the credit to my lovely husband who suggested we have a costume party. Within five minutes I had invitations picked out and had already set a date. I wasn't messing around...that's how excited I was about the idea! Next to cross off the list...COSTUMES!!

Greased Lightenin'

It didn't take long for me to decide on a get-up. Now Riley on the other hand was a little bit of a challenge. He was against the whole couple's costume thing once he found out what I'd picked out. That is until I showed him a video of the final scene from Grease....this is when his eyes lit up and I could just see him thinking "why have I never watched this movie before?!" Hook, line and sinker. I finally had myself a Danny Zuko! I have always loved the movie and watch the carnival scene over and over and sing along. For one night I could be Sandy...if only we could dance and sing on that funhouse then we'd be set for life! I waited patiently for our costumes to come in the mail and almost died of laughter when Riley finally got to try on his wig. Why are wigs so darn funny?!?!

The morning of the party I had some awesome help from Katie and Lacy setting up the room at the hotel. I'm really hoping that this will be our last party at the Hampton. Now we will finally have a home here to house our friends and family! 

The girls and I worked magic on the meeting room and soon it was transformed into a creepy spider-webbed party room. Complete with cockroaches, spiders and flies on the food counter and an old surgical tray covered in blood and human organs. Katie caution-taped the room up while Lacy created some super cute centerpieces out of the random container of decorative stuff I had collected. I forgot to mention another little helper that was with us…..

Riley soon came to pick her up for a nap and the girls left while I made a run to Walmart. The afternoon was full of preparing food, baking, running, watching football, costuming up and hauling the food and drinks to the hotel. I had to toss a run in the day somewhere....after all, I was about to be Olivia Newton John. Kind of imtimidating. The entire time I ran I was playing her song "Physical" in my head as motivation to keep going. Lol! Riley was on Hallie duty and made sure that the babysitter was picked up and ready for a night at our place with the babe. Dara and I hopped in Riley’s big rig looking like a couple of idiots in costume and headed to the party to set up. What would I do without my Dara to help me work at super lightening speed to get everything ready in time for the first guests to arrive.

I was so excited once it was finally PARTY TIME!! Our friends and family trickled in and wowed us with their costumes! Lots of laughs for sure!

Greg as Keith Stone

Lacy as Flashdance chick

Rachelle at the Hooters girl and Steven the redneck (check out the tat)

BJ & Kim as WWII officers

Melinda & Brock as Scarecrow and Dorothy

Matt & Heather as a couple of boobs

Larry the biker man

Bill & Kathryn as Sgt Fanning

Shelley as the pregnant, thirsty kitty cat

Dara as the Wet t-shirt Contest Winner

Katie the old lady and Luke the hunter

Bailey the inmate and Spencer the cop

It was scavenger hunt time!!! Teams of four set out with their list of clues and rules to get back first and win. Each group had to go to six locations and take a picture at each place. Riley and I waited behind and stayed entertained by the texts coming in from the scavengers making their way through town. Here are a few of the pics some of the teams sent back....

The winning team came running through the doors about twenty minutes later....the Hooters girl, redneck and WWII officers made for a quick team! Flashdance, Keith Stone, pregnant kitty cat and scray clown with monster feet took second place about ten minutes behind the winners. I think this is why the Sgt Fannings, the hunter and the old lady made it back last........

That old lady and her walker slowed things down a bit :)

I’m 99.9% sure that everyone had a great time and even better, almost all of the food was eaten which meant we didn’t have a lot to take back home! We have the best friends and family anybody could ever ask for…..

So happy that my dad was there!

Kathy was ready for an upgrade

"Hey, I bet they'd hire you too...."

"My knee highs are starting to bunch "

Disorderly conduct for sure

Luke's robbin' the cradle

My sister the inmate...so proud

A night to remember

Fun times!

I had many failed attempts to get Riley to do a Danny/Sandy dance or just a shortened rendition of "Summer Nights" with me. Instead I opted for a quick photo sesh with my slick-haired counterpart where we tried our best to channel our characters....

I think this is me asking him how to hold a cigarette

"Tell me bout it, stud"

Two things: Riley with a cigarette in his mouth is just plain wierd and Danny never used a cell phone

We got a lil too loud

Hell's angel..he may look tough but he's really a teddy bear

The blonde suits her well...and her friends make a great cupholder

Everyone stayed behind after the party ended to help tear down decorations and pack everything up. What took about four hours to set up took a quick fifteen minutes to take down, pack up and load in the car. Thank you so much party people!

UNTIL NEXT YEAR….I CAN HARDLY WAIT FOR COSTUMES & COCKTAILS 2012!!

You can pick your friends.....

....and you can pick your nose, but you can't pick your friend's nose.

No problems here. She's content with her own schnoz......

After snapping this picture I quickly removed her finger from her nose. Hopefully this doesn't become a new habit. But I wouldn't be surprised because she thought it was hilarious! Silly girl!

Momma called the doctor and the doctor said....

No more Hallies jumpin' on the bed. :(

My original blog title was going to be "there will be blood" stolen from the horribly-made 2007 film....but I decided that was way too creepy (even in the spirit of Halloween!)  But that is neither here nor there. What is here is this big ol' fat lip on Hallie's face......

"This is so not cool mom...do you really think the hat draws the attention away from my face?!!"

She was having a grand ol' time romping on the bed when "plop" she went face first on the wood floor. It's pretty important to add that we are currently living ghetto style and sleeping on a matress on the floor since we are furniture-less at the moment. Mind you I would not have been turning my back had she been on a regular height bed. EEEEEK! My first sight of Hallie blood was very scary I must admit. After a good fifteen minute scream fest and lots of rocking and kisses to magically heal her lip she was able to calm down and get back to doing what she does best....being dangerous. Mother of the year has been far out of reach for awhile now but now I've been nominated for most endnagering mother of the year. Lol! Paranoid father of the year was checking for missing teeth and a concussion while I was feeling pretty poopy for turning my back to look in my closet and leaving her to her own devices on the bed. She could be found banging her head on the tile a short hour after her bed accident. This is how Hallie felt about the whole situation.....

"This isn't happening!!! My friends can't see me like this!!"

"Tomorrow is Halloween! This fat lip will ruin my entire costume!"

Needless to say, there will be no more jumping on the bed...and we may need to ramp up our reading of  her "no more momkey's jumpin' on the bed" book!!

When Life Hands You Lemons...

......make lemonade. Well what did you think I was going to say?? ;)

Ok, you know we too well. What I would like to say is something like this:

When life hands you lemons, throw them on the ground and stomp on them until you have a nice big pile of sticky lemon juice. ;)

Last week was another one of those that I'd just rather forget. Is is sad that not having time to blog makes me kind of antsy inside? Yeah, I though so. ;) Monday came and went and was surprisingly less Monday-ish than normal. Tuesday was a day I was looking forward to....it turned out to be one giant headache. After an unexpected visit from the gas company telling me that they had to fix a line and shut my gas off for the day. Bummer considering Tuesday is my baking day. Eh, I could live with cutting out the baking as long as I could blog during Hallie's naptime. Or so I thought. There was a knock at the door just ten minutes later....yep, you guessed it. The gas company telling me that they accidentally cut our phone line. Awesome. No phone line = no internet. They had managed to steal my very essence in ten short minutes. So in the big scheme of things it was no big deal at all.....except for the fact that I would have to make the dreaded AT&T phone call. :/ Hallie and I spent our day playing, sleeping and jogging. We decided to take a jog over to the new house because I wanted to try out our new jogging grounds. It was a nice change of scenery and I was excited to see that the running trail went further than I thought they did.

Tuesday = Laundry day.....

"I hope she sorts first"

We got to make a visit to Gman at work as he drove through town. Although we only had time for a quick trip to Sonic it was well worth it seeing her smile at her Gman.....

"Let's make this a habit!"

We stayed out and about and visited another special guy. DADA! Hallie helped him do some office organization while I used his computer to print some stuff off. Which reminds me of another home malfunction that's driving me crazy...the printer won't work unless the internet is on. But it worked out well because Hallie made sure to Feng Shui her dada's office to make it more zen-like....

She's meditating here

Long story short, I finally had the gas turned back on but still lacked internet. That would have to wait until the next day. Speaking of the next day....it sucked. Like really bad. I woke up with one of those yucky feelings deep in the pit of my stomach like the day was not going to go well. Mid-morning I got a phone call from my Aunt DeeDee saying that my grandma had been taken to the hospital after the home health nurse called to say that she was sounding strange on the phone. Ya see, I was actually supposed to go start physical therapy on her that day. DeeDee went over to check on her and found her looking slumped in her chair and not responding to her. After a few hours spent at the local hospital they determined that she needed to have a tube placed to help her breath. She was then mediflighted from Shattuck to St. Mary's in Enid where family was waiting to see her. Hallie and I would soon be on our way but not before knocking out a few obstacles along our journey to Enid. I was in a tizzy to say the least and really missing my mom at this point....she would've been the one calming me down telling me that everything was going to be okay. Me, my spinning head and my little girl made a stop by the nursing home where I do some work on our way through Mooreland to finish up some paperwork. She was a BIG help. The parallel bars and stairs were like a mini playground for her. But she surprisingly preferred to sit on the desk and eat office items....

Cutest tape dispenser I ever did see

Once we finally arrived at the hospital I left Hal with her many fans waiting in the ICU waiting area. Grandma was not looking good when I went to see her. She was on the ventilator and was only able to blink a couple of times. I felt so sorry for sweet, sweet Meme. I caught the tail end of a conversation between the doctor, Lana and David....his words were "I think everything is going to be okay." Big sigh of relief considering I had been imagining something so much worse all day long. If I'm being honest I think that our family has had to spend more than our fair share of time in ICU waiting areas crying and being scared. Hallie was a little light that shone on the somberness in the waiting room.....

"Don't worry...be happy y'all"

Pauline and Presley popped in and surprised me when they came around the corner. I had no idea they were making the trip down from Missouri. It was a sweet surprise. Hallie of course had hugs and smiles for them....

Lana, David, Lisa, Dara, Gman, Bailey and Spencer rounded out our group.

 Hal gal had a grand ol time learning new words, pushing on the pop machine and playing the drums with Aunt Lisa.....

She sure knows how to liven up a waiting room!

"Let's all just take a deep breath, okay?"

Thursday came and went which meant Friday was upon us. Friday always gives me a little extra power boost knowing that I don't have to deal with the stress of work on top of everything else going on last week. After work Hal and I took another trip to Enid to visit Meme. She was now off the ventilator and able to talk a bit. We stopped by Gman's house to pick him up, as well as some dinner, and finally made our way up to find a waiting room full of family. Of course Hallie wasn't able to go back to the ICU but I took a video of her in the waiting room and showed it to grandma. It was so relieving to see her smile and hear her chuckle....and she even found enough energy to make a few jokes. Lana, DeeDee and I were stifling our laughter after grandma told us it looked like we were playing a game of charades while trying to guess what she was saying...or more like whispering through her bi-pap machine. While I was able to spend some time with her Hallie was being entertained in the waiting room......

I just couldn't handle how cute her owl outifit was so of course I snapped a picture before we left the house earlier that day....

"Whoo whoo!"

I was so surprised to run into my friend, Bev, whom I hadn't seen in way too long. She just so happened to be visiting her grandma in the hospital too. Lots of hugs and chit chat later, she left and I decided it was time to head home. We stayed later than I'd planned and got to bed much later than I'd hoped. I'm sure Hallie enjoyed the car ride back just about as much as I did. This is how she left the hospital.....

"I promise I didn't pee"

I promise too. Only one pair of jammies and her water cup had leaked all over them in her bag. Note to self: bring two of EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE!

I was thankful to end a solumn week on a happier note. Grandma still has a long road of recovery ahead of her. Physically she needs a lot of improvement to be able to get back home and function on her own...and I'll be there with my ankle weights at her doorstep when she gets to go home.....get ready grandma, I'm going to therapize you like crazy! Everyday is precious. Everyday is meaningful. Time is not to be wasted. It's to be spent with the ones that you love doing things that show them just now much you love them.