Happy November!

Oh my goodness, NOVEMBER?!?! I haven't been on the boat all summer, and we're finally going out today. I am excited! NOVEMBER!!! Sheesh....

Here are all the pics from last weekend when we started decorating, Amanda's birthday, and then last night, Halloween. I'll start with my lovely cranberry-cherry pie, before I covered and baked it. It was delicious! Here is the recipe I used. Except, I couldn't find fresh cherries at Wal-Mart, so I used 2 cups frozen cherries and 2 cups fresh cranberries. I used refrigerated pie-crust because I am pastry challenged. Look how beautiful the filling was:

And it was the perfect consistency on the inside after I baked it. TRY this recipe. It is so good.

The guys were rigging stuff up outside, and Alex was a big help.

Here is Tom looking all svelt.

Here he is last Halloween. South Beach Diet, folks. Even men like it.

We found this hippie in our tree protesting our using it to rig up a flying bat. Oh wait, that's Clint.

The ladies (me, Amanda and Emma) sat inside carving pumpkins. Here is mine:

Here is one side of Amanda's



And the other side of Amanda's

We found this neat motion/sound activated flying thing at Party City this year and knew it needed to be part of our decor. Look out, it's gonna hug you!!!

Aaaaahhh, it got Tom! Tom likes hugging it, though...

Alex wasn't sure what to think. Sure, it looked scary, but it moved so slow.

Me and Amanda, photogenic as ever. Alex still mesmerized by the ghoul.

I caught Emma and Alex being sweet on the floor watching TV. I took a picture, walked away, and heard Emma yell, "ALEX! Get OFF me!!!" LOL

Clint and his girlfriend Marianne carved pumpkins later. Here is Clint's

And Marianne's.

Fast Forward to Halloween! Clint and Marianne arrived in style. Zombie style!

We put some little cauldrons in the yard with water and dry ice.

The ghoul is still kickin' it even in the daytime. Heading over to say hi to his buddy the cheesy stuffed pumpkin head man.

I had my own cauldron going. A crockpot full of pulled pork. Here is the recipe I used. It was/is delicious. It could've been South Beach friendly had I used a low-carb BBQ sauce. That tiny bit of cinnamon really stood out in a good way after it cooked all day. More on cinnamon later.

Greg couldn't resist taking the "motor bike" for a masked ride.

Tom in costume.

Here's the house. Pictures don't do it justice. Plus it's so much better for kids! One kid walked up and said, "Your house is always the best!" Another little girl came up with her parents, and her mom said, "Look, we made it to the door this year!" LOL But all in all, the trick-or-treating was VERY disappointing. We had about 5-6 groups all night. I had thought on a Friday more people would be trick-or-treating, but I suppose Halloween being on a Friday night, more churches and stuff did things. *sigh* Oh well, we had fun anyway.

Me and Tom, man I look tired! I had been going strong since 7am.

John wanted a costume, so there ya go.

The three stooges do Halloween, again!

Group shot of costumed folk!



Me and Amanda looking a little more photogenic than the week before. LOL

Somewhere in all of that, Natalie and Cody came by. Amanda and I went to school with Natalie in Edgewood, and Cody and Rusty (Amanda's husband) were friends in Wills Point. Well, a few weeks ago, Amanda was at Natalie's, up to no good, and Amanda accepted what they dubbed "The Cinnamon Challenge". It's simple. Ingest a spoonful of cinnamon and earn the respect of your peers. I knew how it turned out for Amanda (not well), but still we found a few goobers to try it at our shindig. So we lined em up at the sink, got the camera ready, and let em loose.

Clint and Marianne stepped up first.

Not easy! You can't do it. I promise. Try it! (With a camera handy.) I love this picture because you can see Clint's little puff of cinnamon he coughed up. haha

Meanwhile, John and Greg were outside, and we figured they could be the next targets. Unsuspecting inebriated boys. Here they are looking all confident and happy.

Hahaha!

There is cinnamon EVERYWHERE here. I love Greg's face! hahaha

Somehow, Cody disappeared when we did the group shot, so here is Rusty and Cody.



John spilled chips on the floor, and I handed Tom our kitty spritzer (to spray the cats when they're somewhere they're not supposed to be). Bad kitty, John!

And so it ended. Everyone went outside at this point except me. I was DONE. I was so tired! I curled up on the couch with a blanket, and somehow found the strength to drag myself to bed about 30 minutes later.

All in all, it was a fun night, and a nice way to ring in NOVEMBER!!! I hope our guests had fun. I think next year we might have a bigger party, since we can't count on kids to come trick-or-treating. Maybe we'll party on Friday night so everyone can have their family Halloween stuff on Saturday.