Halloween 2013

Let me begin this post by saying that Brooke likes Halloween.  A lot.  As in, one of her goals in life is to be able to build and run her own haunted house.  We had plans to make some really awesome Halloween costumes this year.  However, with getting a new job, moving and all of the associated craziness there, we didn't really have time to work on them.  I won't say what they were going to be in case we end up making them for next year.

Instead we went with an old standby, one which we used the first Halloween we were together:

 Abe Lincoln and Cinderella!

These costumes stem from the fact that Brooke really does look like Cinderella (and happens to have a Cinderella-style dress from her cliff diving days), and the fact that I can pull off a relatively convincing Lincoln.  I grew out my beard for about 6 weeks for this.

I know I did the same costume last year, so I promise this will be the last time I'm Lincoln.  However, this was the first time anyone at my new job had seen it, so I feel justified.  I didn't win the costume contest, but I think that's because they didn't have a dead historical figures category.  I couldn't quite compete with the guy who wore an actual pumpkin on his head.

Our ward had their trunk-or-treat on Halloween, so after getting all decked out, we went over to the church to hand out candy.  Brooke grew up with this interesting tradition (they do things differently in Iowa), where you had to tell a joke at each house you went to before you could get any candy.  She made the kids at the trunk or treat tell jokes for their candy.  Many of the kids seemed pretty confused when she asked them if they had a joke, but eventually she got jokes out of most of them.

She also won all the hearts of the girls in her primary class by dressing up as a Disney princess.

After the trunk or treat we went back home and handed out more candy while we watched movies.  We bought way more candy than we needed.  We had heard that this neighborhood gets a lot of trick-or-treaters, but either other people's definition of "a lot" is different than ours, or we missed the biggest crowds when we went to the trunk or treat.  Also, Brooke got a bunch more candy the day after Halloween for 75% off.  Her mom would be proud (about the deal, not the amount of junk food).

It's been a good week.