Halloween!

Halloween. I am absolutely obsessed with it. I have heard from a lot of people my age (and maybe it is more normal...) that Halloween has kind of lost its excitement since becoming 'grown up'. Well friends, I am exactly the opposite. Since 'growing up' and being a college student, not to mention currently a teacher to 50 kindergartners, Halloween has only become more and more exciting to me. I LOVE decorating my apartment for Halloween, and even more than that, I love dressing up. Let me just give you a little recap... a little trip down memory lane shall we?

It starts at my freshman year of college, 2007: 

Hard Core biker chick...who wouldn't want to date that right? My thoughts exactly. 

and as if I was not intimidating enough already, well let's add a tattoo, fish nets and 5 inch heels. Yeah... :)

Then my sophomore year, 2008. Year of the most epic Halloween party (until 2011 that is) and our costumes...well basically I have never seen anything cooler or more creative since. I give you; the Troll Dolls.

Complete with belly jewel and all. I loved this year, SO much. 

A few friends and family members at various parties. We all slept in our living room this night. As to not mess up our hair for actual Halloween the next day...with a large sheet under all of us as to not tint our pillows.

Junior year of college, 2009. This year was a hard year. It was going to be hard to beat our amazing ensemble from the year before...so we did not really even do anything for Halloween until the day of. Let me present to you, the 'Spice' Girls. 

Paprika, Nutmeg, Ginger and Cinnamon Spice.
Clever right? Pretty sure it was Kris' idea...she was the brains behind our whole operation.
We thought it was brilliant.

"SPICE UP YOUR LIFE!"

Which brings me to my 'senior' year of college up next, 2010. We felt lame. My best friends had gotten married, one of my sisters moved across the country and well, I did not feel brilliant. Not to mention, I was teaching second grade and felt like I was too busy...oh, if I only knew what the future would bring. Needless to say, I went with my default, 50's girl.

I mean, we are still pretty cute. But I feel like a cop out when I do not go big or go home. Meaning when I do not hand craft my costume. But, it was still pretty fun!

Getting on to the point of this post, I love Halloween and this past Halloween was no different. We decided to throw a Halloween dance party of epic proportions (I am apologizing now for my extreme use of the word epic...you try using any other word to describe what we do!). In 2008 we threw one with the girls in the across the hall apt. Our place was used for dancing, and theirs was food and sitting. It was pretty sweet. There was no room to stand, or sit or anything there were so many people. Our music was hoppin' and the cops came and shut us down. Oops... it was the married people across the way who called and complained, pretty sure.

Well this year, we decided we had had two years off from throwing parties and it was time for another one. After the last one, our apt was disgusting. Caramel popcorn in the carpet, nasty food and water everywhere and I was not up for cleaning that again. So I decided we would have it in our parking garage. Get all the cars to move, (I have the best girls ever in my ward and they all moved their cars for the event...thanks!!) black plastic the walls and spray paint with neon, black lights in all the sockets, food for everyone without running out, epic music playlist (black music!) with bomb sound system, us in our out of this world costume, and attendees. Perfect recipe for a party you won't quickly forget.

Downstairs, during decorating time.

Our food table.

We were decorating all day, and it was more than worth it! We were even left with enough time to go and get us all ready in our costumes.... 

Taco Bell sauce packets, lady and gents! 

ya know, the ones with the sayings. Let's just say we made A LOT of trips to Taco Bell in the month of October..and we had a lot of extra sauce in our apartment to help us pick our the perfect sayings.! :)  

"Think Outside the Bun!"

How adorable are my parents?! Yeah, they brought the fam up for our party.

Pretty much my whole family was here for the event, and it rocked. 

(Fam, where did Parker go and why is he not in this picture?)

Let me tell you, it was beyond crazy weeks before that, and cost us a small fortune, but we gave Provo a party of a lifetime! Throughout the night, there were anywhere from 400 to 500 people. The garage was packed, food got eaten, people came from everywhere and I went to bed ridiculously exhausted and proud to know W4 still knows how to throw an out of this world party.

Jealous you weren't there? 

It's ok...maybe we will throw another one.

I am a little bit sad to take down all of my Halloween decorations, but lucky for myself, and my roommates...Christmas is just around the corner! :)