Hallo-Mania!

This weekend was great. Except that church has gone from a fairly uneventful 3-hour block to a 3- hour "wrestle-with-your-kid-who-wants-to-grab-everything-or-else-throws-a-fit" event. But that's another thing.
It started out on Friday (because that's typically how most weekends begin) with Aaron and I going out, first going to the store to buy the stuff for our Annual Halloween Party (this is the third year we've done it so that qualifies it as being Annual, just so you know.)
Then, for dinner, we tried the Kona Grill. We always pass it and see tons of people at the bar and on the patio, so we thought it was a happenin' place. Well, it IS a happenin' place if you are single/and/or/old and drink. And that is not us, so Strike 1. The inside was nice looking, we had high hopes, and I really wanted to like the place. But it was pretty expensive, and your entree didn't come with a side salad, you had to order it separately. So we split a meal and I ordered a 'side salad' that cost 6 bucks. Since it cost so much, I thought it would be pretty big, a la Cheesecake Factory. Nope, it was a dinky salad that I could make at home with a bag of lettuce and a cucumber. It did taste good, but not 6 bucks good. Strike 2.
And then we waited. And waited. And waited and waited. It took FOREVER to get our entree, at least 20 minutes. Strike 3. Finally it came, and it was pretty small, but we did split it. And there were these tasty fried carrot-y things. But the waitress didn't offer us any compensation for having to wait so long for our meal, so that sealed the deal. 2 out of 5 stars.
After dinner, we went home and decided to watch the old movie "Clue". We'd never seen it before and since we bought the game to play at the party, we thought we'd try to remember how to play it by watching the movie. It was quite silly.
Saturday arrived and we started off the day by carving pumpkins. Will was amazing at carving his!This was Aaron's Sponge-Bob Lookalike one that he spent forever on, and was very proud of.During the day, Aaron snuck into Will's room to grab something, and he was trying not to wake Will, but unfortunately, Will can not be fooled. This was Aaron saw:Then it was time to get ready for the party. My menu for the night was chips and guacamole, strawberry green salad, tortellini pasta with olives, and pumpkin cheesecake with caramel sauce. I decided not to do anything that would be too much work like the first year, when I ended up cooking all day and night and did dishes the next day for over 3 hours (dishwasherless, remember?) So believe it or not, this menu was very easy. Spooky. Oooooooh....We invited some of my cousins who live near us, except that my cousin Reid's wife couldn't come since she wasn't feeling good. But we ate, drank, and played Clue, the new version that includes a home theater (in the new mansion on the board of course) and a trophy as a weapon. Aaaand...

A good time was had by all.