Halloween Extravaganza!

Cheshire Cat, Queen of Hearts, and the Mad Hatter

     I'll start off by saying that I do not like paste-like makeup, hairs tickling my face, and especially the horrendous act known as putting on mascara. However, when you marry an actress that enjoys dressing up and doing extravagant makeup, there's got to be a little give and take... so I told Megs that this year for Halloween, we could go all out. After going to Value Village (a 2nd-hand clothes store) every other day for 2 months, Megan was giddy to put on our makeup and the finishing touches to our costumes. It took about an hour to do all of my makeup, much like a haircut for a screaming 2-year old takes 45 minutes, but in the end it was definitely worth it! 

      As it turned out, we won the award of best overall couple for our costumes. Our spoils were an official Emmy Award and bragging rights to be sure! 

Later we played Name That Movie with 100 movie clips in a few minutes, followed by some dancing. Little-known Fact: The Queen and the Mad Hatter do in fact enjoy a little dancing now and then, despite their frequent exchanges of fierce threats.

Last night we carved some ghoulish pumpkins, the same ones featured in the previous post, roasted the seeds, and watched a movie while scarfing down popcorn.  Halloween is great!

Pumpkins All A-Glow

              

Birthday Fun!

     As the season starts to change into fall, you can often hear Megan exclaim, 'I just love Fall!'.... and with good cause: her birthday is right at the start of the fall season, the holiday season will soon be underway, and she loves pumpkins and Halloween. 

Italy Birthday Cake

     For her birthday, Megan spent an afternoon chatting and shopping (which is apparently fun for girls) with some friends from Church. When they got back, we busted out the lemon pound cake I made that morning. It may not be apparent, but the cake is in the shape of Italy (with it's colors), which makes sense when coupled with the check. So yes, we are planning on going to Europe... early next year perhaps? We're planning on hitting Italy and Germany, so if you know of places to go and see, especially interesting, not-so-touristy ones, please tell us!

Hopefully Not the Biggest Birthday Check Megan Ever Gets

     After more chatting and plenty of cake and ice cream, we headed over to Redmond to a pumpkin patch. After careful screening, many interviews, background checks, calling all listed references, and much deliberation, we settled on the pumpkins that will work the best for us. Due to his unique shape, my pumpkin goes by Noggin or Cranium.

Awesome Pumpkin Patch!

       With pumpkins in tow, we went out to dinner at Wild Ginger, one of the best restaurants in the Northwest, which offers a blend of Southeast Asian cuisine. Despite having roasted duck and some teriyaki, we will be going back there just to order some of their blow-your-socks-off Squash and Sweet Potato Stew. 'Amazing' almost describes it.

     After dinner, we went to a modern dance performance by UW's Chamber Dance Company, which apparently featured some of today's best modern dancers. The performance was kind of out of the ordinary for us, yet very enjoyable and moving to watch and was a great ending to a Happy Birthday.