Our first ever Halloween party

Well look who has decided to finally post something. Sorry that I have been away so long. I just haven't been feeling it.

But since we had our first ever Halloween party last Saturday night, I decided I should come out of blog retirement aka: laziness, and tell you all about it.

In case you were not there, you missed a fun time. It was small, but lots of fun. And no alcohol was involved. See you can still have fun without booze.

The secret is to have ice shaped like a skull in your blood aka: Shasta Tiki Punch.

And you must have nachos. No party at Kim's house is complete without nachos. I decided to be a little healthy by adding a spinach dip to the mix.


And I had lots of fun putting together this graveyard 7 layer bean dip. The graveyard decorations are made from flour tortillas that I cut out using cookie cutters and a knife, then baked them in the oven until crisp. I should have used some food coloring to paint some color. Maybe next time.

We had lots of food. Mike made riblets, Danica made funeral potatoes. Jeannette and Eric put together the mummy dogs, I made the garlic bread bones and my neighbor Roxanne brought the KFC chicken and the ants/spiders on the log (celery sticks with peanut butter and bugs painted on).

I had a couple of more Halloweeny dishes I was going to make, just ran out of time. There is always next year. I even made cupcakes, but never got them frosted. Luckily Jeannette brought hers that were. I still haven't frosted my cupcakes.

Oh, and I almost forgot, I did make fossil cookies, but they all disappeared before I could take any photos. And what are fossil cookies? They are snickerdoodles that I imprinted with a plastic spider right away they came out of the oven. So it made an imprint of the spider. Looked like a fossil.

After dinner we all went outside to watch a Nightmare Before Christmas movie at the "Dive In Theater" over our pool. Mike was mad I didn't take a photo of the movie. I told him it never shows up if I don't use flash and if I use flash, you can't see the movie. So why bother.

Here is Michael (Taylor's husband), Taylor and Danica. Taylor is dressed up as a pregnant woman. Oh wait, that is her normal self.


Eric sat in the jacuzzi for awhile, while Jeannette sat on the edge. When the movie was playing the jacuzzi was full.

We were going to pop popcorn for the movie, but everyone was so full from dinner. And we never did make our s'mores. But no one noticed.

After the movie it was time to take photos. Everyone was suppose to dress up in costume. But it was mostly the kids that did so. But a few of the adults did as well.

I set up an area complete with ripped cheesecloth and lights for taking the photos.

Eric used part of one of his boys costume for his photo with his daughter Danica.


And who is Danica dressed up as? Why Danica Patrick the race car driver. And that is a wig Danica is wearing. She used to have long black hair, but right now it is short & bleached blond.

Taylor didn't dress up. So for those who didn't wear a costume, I had some funny glasses and other masks they could wear for photos. All my props came from Dollar Tree. The funny glasses and noses were the biggest hit.


Taylor and her hubby Michael dressed as a pregnant man.

Jase and Cade. Loved their costumes.

I didn't get to dress up as my costume needed to be altered and I never got it done in time. So I put on a pair of funny glasses and nose and a couple of dollar boas. Mike was a cowboy.

Since this is a family blog, I'm not posting the photos of my neighbors and other friends since you won't know any of them. But you can see their photos on my facebook if you are really interested. My neighbor Kenny made a real scary "Pinhead".

I had plans to make some other photo props, but never got them done. Being a procrastinator does that. But no one cared. They loved the props I did have and had fun taking photos.

All in all we had a good time. It was just my family, Eric's family, the next door neighbors and some friends. Taylor and Michael brought some of their friends as well.

We will definitely have to do this again next year. Maybe we will even invite you.

Kim

Last Fling of Summer & Happy Birthday Jeannette

Fall has definitely arrived here in southern California. The temps have been in the 70's all week. NICE!

But last Saturday it still felt like summer & was on the hot side. So I invited Eric's family over for one last summer fling and an outdoor movie.

Jeannette was the only one who didn't come. She had worked all day & was tired. Too bad as I had made chocolate cupcakes to celebrate her birthday. Which by the way is today.
Happy Birthday Jeannette!!!! Or in other words, happy 32nd anniversary of your 18th birthday.


I promise not to divulge how old you are today.


Just have a grand day. And don't forget your cane, you might need it now.

And now back to our regular scheduled post. Taylor & Michael arrived in their very first car as a married couple. They had just purchased it the day before.


Here is Taylor showing off the car.


Too bad Taylor can't drive it. She let her permit lapse & has to get a new one. So for now, only Michael can drive the car.

We had a fun time swimming and then BBQing hamburgers. I never seem to get any photos of the food. Probably as we are always too busy eating it.

After dinner it was time to relax in the jacuzzi & watch a movie, pool side.

We even invited our neighbor over. Her hubby had a tooth ache so he didn't come. But Roxanne and her sons Reinhold & Hayden came over. Even Jesse's girlfriend Brin was there. And Cade brought one of his friends over as well.

Our pool has this shallow area that is perfect for sitting in a chair. You can keep your feet in the water to stay cool. Or better yet, sit in the jacuzzi to watch the movie. Except you get quite wrinkled by the end of the movie.

Michael & Taylor actually left before the movie started. Party poopers!!!


Here is Mike setting up the projector. He is waiting for Jesse to bring out the Xbox to play the movie.


And here is the movie screen all set up over the pool. Just waiting for it to get dark enough to show the movie.

And what movie did we watch?


Danica & I love, love, love this movie. We have to watch it every year. This has become an annual event for us. Gets us in the mood for Halloween.

Gary Oldman is so sexy in this movie. Be still my heart! Don't tell Mike.

Even a couple of doves wanted to watch the movie.

You can tell who the die hard Dracula fans are, as Danica & I were the only ones who stayed & watched the entire movie. Everyone else either got tired, too wrinkled or too scared to stay.

Oh well. They missed out on some killer s'mores. Just kidding. We didn't make s'mores. But now that it has become cooler, they are sounding pretty good. Maybe this weekend.

It was a fun night spent with some of my most favorite people in the world. Can't wait to do it again.

I love spending time with my family. They are the best. Too bad everyone else in my family wasn't here.

Well I better go get ready for work. Just wanted to get this post done & to wish Jeannette a Happy Birthday!!!

Clash of the Titans

Last night Mike & I went to the movies. We saw Clash of the Titans. It was pretty good. Not great, but good. Better than the 1970's version (which I also saw back then). And it should be better, since we now have better special effects. Avatar was still better. And Sam Worthington is great in both. Not bad to look at either.



The only time we go to the movies is when a friend of mine gives us free tickets. But then we can't see anything that is newly out. So that usually limits what we can see. So out of the 3 movies we had to choose from, Clash of the Titans was our pick.

What you probably don't know about me is that I love, love, love Greek Mythology. Well, at least I did when I was a teenager. So seeing this movie brought back great memories. Especially seeing Pegasus. Except I'm not sure I liked a black Pegasus. Pegasus is suppose to be white. And Perseus was like a knight in shining armor, so he should have had a white Pegasus.

I loved Pegasus when I was a teenager. I was obsessed with Pegasus. But there wasn't much Pegasus stuff around as unicorns were more popular at the time. I did get a t-shirt at the Del Mar Fair that had an air brushed Pegasus. I'll bet I could get Eric to make me another one now. I may just have to do that.

So my love for Pegasus was what got me into my obsession with unicorns when I was a teenager. Both were mythical horses. And I loved horses.

Did you have any obsessions when you were younger? And do you like Greek Mythology?

Kim's Top Ten

Isn't it the time of year for making lists? I'm not much of a list maker, but I want to change. So today, I'm going to share with you the Top Ten reasons why my Christmas decor is not put away.

This is as close as I've gotten to putting away my Christmas stuff so far.

Exhibit A: My family room table
I've managed to stack up all my Christmas plates, placemats and glasses. I did get my silverware put away. The mercury glass votive candle holders are packed away in the box. And I've taken down the hanging snowflakes from my chandelier. But the rest of my family room looks like Christmas! And my tree is still up.

Exhibit B: My living room dining table. Most of my living room Christmas decor has been moved to the table. I just need to get the boxes down from the attic & pack it away. And yup, my tree is still up in my living room as well.

My original goal was to have Christmas all packed up & put away this past weekend. But I failed. I'm not good at making goals and keeping them. I seem to get sidetracked too easily. That is why I never make New Years resolutions. I know I won't keep them. Did you make resolutions this time of year? If so, what are yours for the coming year?

I want to change. Really I do. But here are the reasons I didn't get it done. They are not in any order or importance, or what I liked the best. I put them in the order in which I was sidetracked.

1) We'll start with New Year's Eve. Who wants to put away Christmas decorations on New Year's Eve? Mike & I decided to go to the movies instead. You see, we rarely go to the movies as it costs money. Lucky for me, I have a friend who works at a movie theater & she occasionally gives us free tickets. Since it was the last day of December & the tickets were going to expire, we decided to see a movie.

I wanted to see Sherlock Holmes or It's Complicated. Mike wanted to see Avatar. I didn't. But since Sherlock Holmes & It's Complicated where special engagement movies we couldn't use our free tickets to see them. Avatar was the only movie we could see. So we went.

But I was wrong about Avatar. It was a great movie. I liked it. Definitely worth seeing. Now Mike wants to see it in Imax 3-D. Have you seen Avatar yet? Did you like it?

2) New Year's Day. Great day for taking down decorations. But instead, I decided to cook a ham dinner & invite Danica, Jase and Cade over for dinner. Eric and Jeannette had gone to Idaho to take Taylor up to school and left their other kids at home. So I invited them over for dinner.

It was like having Christmas dinner all over again. We had spiral cut ham with glaze, cheese potatoes, yams, green bean casserole, corn and the family green Thanksgiving/Christmas jello salad. And no, the above photo is not of our dinner. I forgot to take any photos of dinner or our company. I was too busy cooking and eating to think about photography. Can you believe that I forgot to take photos? And I have two blogs? Food can do that to me.

3) After dinner I turned on the TV & what was on, Pride and Prejudice. Now I had just bought this DVD for myself, for Christmas. And I had just watched it the week before. For the first time in my life, no less. Can you believe I had never seen this movie before Christmas? Me neither.

Well I loved it so much the first time I saw it, I had to watch it again. The Christmas stuff could just wait. Mr Darcy couldn't.

4) Saturday: When Danica was over for dinner on New Years she asked if I wanted to go shopping with her the next morning. Shopping!!!! I'm in!!!!
So we went shopping for most of the day. Got a cute apron & placemats at Kohl's for Valentine's Day. They have cupcakes on them! Found some Valentine plates at Target, as well as some Christmas stuff on clearance. Good thing I hadn't packed away my Christmas stuff yet. Ate at Chipotle's for the first time. It was OK, don't think I'll go back.

5) Saturday night: Guess what was on TV tonight? The Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers. I guess the Fellowship of the Rings had been on the night before, but I was too busy watching Pride and Prejudice.
Don't you just love The Lord of the Rings? And can you believe that I never saw the final installment? Lucky for me, it's on Sunday.

6) Sunday: Today was the day I was going to get everything put away. I even told Jesse that he couldn't have his girlfriend over as I was going to be in the family room putting everything away.

And what did I do instead? I took a nap. But what a nap it was. I slept for most of the day. Isn't Sunday the day of rest?


7) The Return of the King. I had to watch. I'd never seen it before. And I'm in love with Aragorn!Wow, that was such a long movie. Over 4 hours on TV. Luckily it started early enough that I wouldn't miss my next distraction.

8) More TV: Desperate Housewives & Brothers and Sisters. I had to see who died when the plane crashed onto Wisteria Lane. And I had to see if Kitty was going to live or die. So much drama!!!

I'm glad it was Carl (sorry Carl). I like Orson. Sad for Lynette. I still love this show.

I'm glad Kitty made it. I like her. And I love Robert aka: Rob Lowe. He has the most gorgeous eyes. So that pretty much took up my entire weekend.

But I thought this was a top ten list. Kim, you've only listed eight reasons why your Christmas decor didn't get done.

Well, here it is Wednesday, so I should have been able to at least get a little done on Monday & Tuesday after I got home from work. Right? WRONG!!! Here are my last 2 reasons why my Christmas decor is still up.

9) The Bachelor. Did you know that the new season started Monday night? Did you watch? Isn't Jake a hottie? Can any man be that good looking & be that nice?
And did you know it's going to be The Bachelor's most dramatic season ever? Don't they say that every year? I guess I'll just have to watch to decide for myself.

10) And my top reason for not getting my Christmas decor packed away......THE TUDORS. My new obsession. I bought myself the first two seasons for Christmas. Don't you buy yourself Christmas gifts? I already watched the first two seasons the week between Christmas and New Year's. I wanted season three, but it costs more and I didn't want to spend the money. Lucky for me, Danica got season 3 for Christmas. She is letting me borrow it.

Last night I watched the first 5 episodes of season 3. I liked the first two seasons better. But then, I am a fan of Anne Boleyn. She was feisty. Jonathan Rhys Meyers makes a great King Henry VIII on this series. He is definitely worth watching. Tonight I will probably watch the last 5 episodes.

If you are a fan of this time period, this is a great TV series. But I have to warn you, it can be a bit racy. It's on Showtime, so there is nudity and sex scenes. And did they say the "F" word back in that time? It would probably be considered "R" rated, but I'm the black sheep in my family, so I watch stuff like this. Since I don't have Showtime, I have to wait until next year to see season 4 when it comes out on DVD. Boo hoo!!! Did I tell you I was impatient too? I have too many weaknesses.

All I can say is that I'm glad I didn't live during that time period. It was brutal. They make it seem all romantic. Even though I'm sure it really wasn't all that romantic to live during that time.

Well there you have my top ten reasons for my Christmas decor still being up. I did promise Mike that I'd have it put away by Valentine's Day. Wish me luck!!!

It's almost here!!!