Halloween is such a Great Excuse for a Party

Traditions fuel me.  

Especially traditions that involve people I really love.

Last year at Halloween we were true West Coast newbies and were thrilled to get an invitation to go to our new friend's house for a Halloween party with some other school families.  It was so comforting to be a part of something bigger than just our family in our new city.

This year Marc and Michelle decided to repeat last year's mayhem and throw an even bigger Halloween party.  It fueled me, alright.  When you're repeating something great and it feels like tradition, it feels like your roots go down just a little deeper.  When you look around the room and you see even more faces that are significant, and you love the ones you've known for while even more you know you are living in richness.

But before we could get to all of the great people and food and fun of the party, we had to dress up. 

First off, let me tell you about Ellie's costume.  Ellie fell in love with Charlie Chaplin this summer at the Burnaby Village Museum's theatre where she watched Charlie Chaplin films and couldn't get enough of him.  It was her idea to recycle her "groom" costume from her spring dance recital and turn it into a Charlie Chaplin costume.  How many 8 year old girls want to be Charlie Chaplin?  Just mine, as far as I'm aware.   We added a value village boys dress shirt, a cane, hat, and moustache and eyebrows from the dollar store and we were done!  

Here's our Charlie!

When we were  in Winnipeg this summer, Sasha and I found Hannah's old "Clowning Team" costume from LCS hanging in the closet.  It fit her perfectly.  Sasha is so easy to please... a momma's dream at Halloween.

A new nose, some glasses, some curls in her hair, and our little polka-dot clown was born!

Hannah was a challenge.  It's not easy to appease a nearly 12 year old girl who shoots down every last one of your ideas.  After exhausting my brilliance and creativity with responses from Hannah like, "that's dumb", "no" and "no one will know who I am" one million times, I remembered the little purple poodle skirt that our friend Brenna donated to the Penner costume pile once upon a time.  After finding a shirt and saddle shoes at Value Village and adding a dollar store scarf, she was set as a girl from the 50's.

That left me and Mike.

Some grey felt and cut-up oven liners and tin foil transformed us from mere mortals into Salt and Pepper shakers.   And yes, I'm the pepper because I'm way more spicy.

Enough about costumes.  Let's get to the party!

There was a room dedicated to decorating mini-pumpkins....

Can you believe this little pumpkin's eyes and lashes?

These women are lovely, nurturing, very kind and maternal in real life.  

I promise.

And this guy is normally very masculine and manly.  

The testosterone just oozes out of him.

Our neighbor Stan should work in make-up in the film industry.   

Isn't his wife Sandra adorable?

But not quite as adorable as my favorite little pumpkin, Ava.  

I kinda like her mom, Lisa too.

But Ava's got more kissable cheeks.

The kids had an amazing time being together.

We ate each other's delicious food and shared our lives just a little more.

Rich deposits.

I was full.