The Baldwins: Halloween Haunts and Hilarity

Halloween finally arrived for the ghosts and goblins breathlessly awaiting a day of frightening frolics! For me and my family, Halloween started on October 30th and continued through the 31st (and there were even some lingering celebrations on November 1st as well)! On Friday morning, Megan and Camryn and even Kenny joined me at my office for some trick-or-treating, pizza, and a Halloween costume and jack-o-lantern contest! Camryn wowed everyone with her adorable and irresistible cuteness in her octopus costume and surprised her mom with just how much she loved the Tootsie Pops that she got trick-or-treating. We weren't sure by the end who had more drool and sucker juice on them - Megan or Camryn the Kraken. Uncle Kenny showed up wearing such a clever police uniform that our receptionist thought he was a real cop! I got many envious looks and several compliments from the ladies at work over Kenny and his costume. It was such an awesome day that I'm not sure much work got done by anyone at our company!

Megan the enthusiastic Halloween party-goer and Camryn the Kraken! (Before Auntie Katie's desk chair got covered in Tootsie Pop and spit.)

Officer Ken!

Mom, Camryn, and Auntie Katie go trick-or-treating!

It's Halloween and you owe us money!

The jacket says it all:

Our Risk Department knows how to do Halloween!

The pumpkin I carved for our contest. (If you can't tell, it's a skeleton holding a scythe with a full moon in the background.)

On Saturday, I hit the mall after my acting class and had to wade through crowds of little trick-or-treaters and their families to get to the stores I wanted to check out. There were so many adorable and creative costumes! I saw a bride of Frankenstein (with her own hair standing straight up), a man with a severed neck holding his own head, an entire family of Mario characters, and even a Maleficent costume! After managing to crawl through hoards of candy collectors (and they give out candy at every store - I really should have gotten in on this action!), I headed up to Lehi to join Megan, Karl, and Camryn at our friends' Dave and Kathy Carey's house for a wonderful Halloween party. Their house is absolutely beautiful and they were the most generous and welcoming of hosts. I met a new friend there - Calvin, an incredible friendly and sweet kid who is just about to go on his mission. He was impeccably dressed as a 1930s gangster, complete with a fedora and a (fake) cigar and machine gun. Karl went as a dashing pirate (and even made his own boot covers), Megan was a beguiling mermaid, and Camryn was the Kraken of the deep! Craig was there as a cereal killer (yes, I spelled that right!) and Dave and Kathy went as two anime characters who get married in a certain story (I admit I can't remember what it was). Stephen came as a Pakistani cab driver and Melinda made a downright delicious Chiquita Banana girl. Kenny joined us later as a sexy cop, and other friends Justin and Ginger joined us with their four adorable kids, who were cute as a button as Cinderella, Optimus Prime, Spiderman, and a wee little monkey. Their littlest son, who just made his earthly debut three weeks ago, got snuggled by just about everybody at the party. In fact, that might have been the best part of the whole thing for me - cuddling a tiny baby with bright, curious blue eyes and a nose I just wanted to kiss while he looked into my face and gave a big yawn every so often. The kids went trick-or-treating while we scarfed homemade tortilla soup (thanks, Megan!), cookies, candy, doughnuts, and soda. Ah, the hedonism of Halloween! Ken and I had to leave a little early so he could get to bed before an early work day the next morning, but we all had a wonderful time and I left so glad to have such sweet, genuine, and awesome friends.

That cute little octopus can now say "Ball!" as well as kick it around with one or two of her many feet!