It must still have been in the middle of the summer when Troy and I were sitting on the back porch talking about...Halloween. I mean, why not? Actually, you might be surprised at how prevalent a topic that is at our house. It seems like coming up with costume ideas is a family hobby. Anyway, as we sat there sweating an enjoying the blooming flowers, we were talking about great couples costume ideas. Troy and I had so much fun the last time we dressed up, going as Hi and Ed from Raising Arizona. Many people were confused but more people than I expected recognized us immediately and loved it. We talked about going with another 80's movie couple...and landed on the idea of Ed Rooney and his secretary Grace from Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Our eyes met and in that moment of silence we realized we had just approached a truly fantastic idea. Then we realized something. Our kids are old. We don't really have any Halloween celebrations to attend or trick-or-treating to do. Where the heck would we wear these amazing costumes?
Well, maybe we should just host our own celebration, we said. That little seed of an idea began to grow until we had in our minds planned a whole ward party including a chili cook-off, costume contest and photo booth. We decided to think about it for a few weeks (seeing as how it was July) but by September we still found ourselves really wanting to do this. I proposed the idea to our church leaders and they seemed enthusiastic about it.
I really tried to keep it simple - with everyone bringing chili most of dinner was taken care of, besides some chili toppings and paper goods. I sent out announcements and sign ups, and we planned it for a week night when the youth are normally meeting. At first, it didn't seem like there would be a ton of participation. But I forged ahead.
I especially enjoyed the decorations - just white table cloths, glass vases all found at the second hand store for a dollar each, dead branches found in my back yard, and these little feathery crows I found on Amazon for cheap. I thought it came together well!
Hunting down the costume parts was a little more tricky than I expected, but they came together pretty well. I failed to find any flip-up aviator sunglasses for Troy (if you don't know what I'm talking about, then go watch Ferris) but I think I made the look happen. The best part what ruining one shoe and one leg of Troy's suit pants. I had a hard time with Grace's hair, and realize now that I should have just pinned up and sprayed my own hair, but whatever. We got a lot of laughs.
Another joy for me was putting together a playlist of creepy old songs from the 20s and 30s - no Monster Mash or Thriller on this list! It was so fun and I seriously love my new Halloween Playlist.
So we really did have a chili cook off, complete with prizes for the top three winners plus extra prizes for the spiciest and the best vegetarian. We had a photo booth, and we had games and a scavenger hunt for the kids. We skipped the costume contest but other than that, it really was as fun as I was hoping. We had a better turn-out than it seemed like at first, and I think we already have it on the calendar for next year.
It's a good thing we did this too because we didn't have a ton of other Halloween celebrations after that - Emma dressed up for school as a satyr from the Percy Jackson series, and Chase made some plans with friends. But no trick-or-treating. I made a chicken pot pie for dinner on Halloween, which was on a Sunday, and carved the top into a jack-o-lantern. Oh and Emma was the only one that managed to carve a pumpkin. Well, Chase did too, with his buddies. But that was about as festive as we got.
Hooray for Spooks-N-Beans - and I have to give credit to our Bishop Bryan for coming up with the name. We are talking about naming the event next year "Return of the Beans." We'll have to see. I'm just glad people want to do it again!
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