Spook-tacular weekend

Lame name for a blog post? I don't think so! This weekend has been absolutely spook-tacualr! And, it was just what I needed after last week, a long stressful week at work, where I managed three rush jobs, got my feeling hurt by my boss, got a promotion, and conducted my very first interview. Needless to say, last week was a bit stressful.

On Saturday night E and I went over to Logan's house for a Murder Mystery party. Neither of us had done one of these, so we weren't really sure what to expect. E was instructed to dress as a butler, and I could choose a costume. I decided to where a Kimono a friend gave me, so I came as a Japanese lady.

Logan has never hosted a party like this before, and we were blown away by how much effort he and Brooke put into this. The table was set with draped black cloth, there were hands and arms strewn about. Rats were holding each place card, and black candles set the mood when the lights were dimmed.

Dinner of severed heads (with tomato brains in tact) and black pasta was served. Luckily the heads and pasta were delish. The game started with E (the butler named Stretch) introduced himself and told us we were in Jack Ular's castle. Quickly we found out that Jack had been murdered with a steak through the heart! Who was it? Logan the Vampire Slayer? Landon the horror actor from Hollywood? Me, the ex-lover? We had a great time trying to solve the mystery (it was Jeremy, the local coffin maker that killed Mr. Ular by the way) but the best part was E's mysteries Dr. Evil accent that he had whenever reading his portion of the script. Needless to say, we had a great time.

Today we had another Halloween event that E and I had been looking forward to for some time. My Grandma wanted to host a "Carve-off" contest where we would each carve pumpkins for a prize. In addition, we were all asked to bring a harvest inspired dish. E and I showed up with a Famous Connie Corn Casserole (very yummy indeed!) and our tools to win the competition. E and I were on a team, and we got started right away. We had all our squash and pumpkins that we needed, and even a MONSTER mushroom we had found in the woods earlier in the day.

Everyone got really creative, and we carved and carved, ate snacks and drank margaritas. Soon our deadline approached and we all set our masterpieces outside. It was time for the judging! Each of us got to vote for the three categories, funniest, scariest, and best of show. Also, there were a couple impartial judges, my Grandma didn't carve, and her friend Morrice helped out.

The votes were counted...

Chandler won scariest with an awesome huge pumpkin eating smaller pumpkins! Pumpkin guts and broken pumpkins were scattered everywhere.

Kendra and Theo won funniest with their "When Pigs Fly" painted pink pumpkin.

And E and I won best of show for our cats! We did two cats, one made out of squash, the other made out of the HUGE round mushroom. We won a gift certificate to one of our favorite local restaurants, so, of course, we'll invite my Grandma to share in our winning dinner!

After the competition we sat down to a great harvest inspired dinner and laughed, talked, and spoke of how much my Grandpa would have loved this. We all miss him.

Our winning entry, two cats. Some of the other entries.

And one of the best parts of the night was when Chuck and my Mom showed off their interactive pumpkin, from The Exorcist (remember the girl thats head could spin while she barfed?) Well, here she is: