The Taylors Halloween Party part 1--the guests

Russ and I threw a Halloween party last week at our house. We had such a great time and wanted to share some of the night. Russ and I were so busy that we didn't have a chance to take the pictures, but our friends Heather and Cody were awesome and went around and took a lot of shots. Thanks a ton guys... you are the best! Here are some of the photos of the night.

Russ, Baxter, and I were all vampires in matching capes and necklaces.

Here is my cousin Stephanie's husband, Jeff spinning in the background.We took all of the furniture out of our dinning room and he DJ'd the night away for us. The music was awesome, Jeff is way talented.

Kevin (Michael Scott) and Michelle (Flapper)

Heather and Cody (Harry and Hermione) (Thanks again for taking all of these photos guys! You're the best!)

Rok (Skelator) and Narine (thanks again for all of the help on the food Narine!)

Melanie & Andrew (Whip-It Duo)
Ashley and Travis (Nacho Libre and his Nun)
(Chad, Dave, Kelly, Brad, Rachel, Carrie, Allyson, Rob, and Nick)
Another vampire shot!
Iryna, Maxim, Roman (cave woman, pirate, and knight)
Carole (my mom, the statue of liberty)
Nick, Carrie, Christine, and I all checking out the food.
Rob and Casey (in drag, and a deviled egg)
We did a fashion walk where everyone had to strut the line and show off their costume. The winner was Michael Jackson (Brad). Everyone looked so awesome!!!!!!!!!! I think I might take a couple of the ideas for possible costumes in future years!

The Taylors Halloween Party part 2--the food

The food was awesome! My friend Narine created a whole bunch of ideas and we put them to life. The menu included mummy dogs for appetizers (hot dogs with croissants wrapped around them with pepper balls as eyes--they went so fast we couldn't get a picture of them!), then for dessert we had coffin brownies (brownies cut out like coffins, with RIP written on them), Frankenstein rice crispy treats (rice crispy's dipped in frosting with sprinkles, chocolate chips, and mike n ikes), pumpkin rice crispy treats, RIP pudding cups (brownies or sprinkles were used as the dirt and a chocolate cookie with RIP on it as the tombstone), and the most beautiful pumpkin cake you've ever seen (so beautiful that no-one touched it and still, a week later, I'm using as a centerpiece because it just looks so great!). We had sherbet punch (fruit punch, orange juice, 7-up, and orange sherbet) with some dry ice to give it a scary look. Here are some pics of the food.

The Taylors Halloween Party part 3-Decorations

Russ and I had so much fun planning the decorations. Russ spent a lot of time outside on the entry way which was decked out with a hanging ghoul, spider webs, pumpkins, and tombstones.

And the bloody hands on the front door.......

When you walked in there were vinyl stickers of flying birds about the flyer place and up the hall. Russ has a plotter (aka sticker cutter) at his store, so I got the images for him and he made all of the stickers. Underneath the stairs was the picture of me holding Russ head on a platter (we had a lot of fun a few weeks prior doing a mini photo shoot and taking a whole bunch of halloween photos). We did the stairs and inside entry way with fall leaves.

Some of you might recognize some of these photos of Russ from his graduation cards we did a couple of years ago. We decided to blow them up and make a "costume wall" with Russ in all of his poses. This was right in the entry way when you came in.

And then there were three photos lined up of me running scared with a knife in my hands and fear in my eyes. This was above the couch in the family room. In the DJ room there were three more shots--black and whites of Russ, Baxter and I with flashlights shinning on us looking scared. They turned out really cool.

And we had floating pumpkins in the pool. They decided to have a party of their own and stay in the shallow end instead of floating around the pool, but Heather and Cody did a great job helping us figure out how to get them to float (thanks again guys).

And what is a halloween party night without intense fog? Around 10 pm some of the thickest fog I've seen came galloping in. It gave an awesome ending to a great party!

We had so much fun planning the party! And probably went a little overboard, but hey we're the Taylor's and nothing is ever normal about us........

Passing Out Candy... Baxter and I were a hit!

Baxter came up here all on his own.... and Russ decided he had to take a shot. This was his second costume of the evening since the vampire attire had a hard time staying on.

I want to suck your blood!

Baxter sending a Happy Halloween wave

Baxters costume

Off with his head!

So for our party we took a whole bunch of fun photos and posted them around the house. Here are some shots of what we did! My favorite is the one with Russ' head on the platter!

Monster Mash!

Look what my mom sent me today! So funny! This is Russ, my dad Jim, my mom Carole, my brother-in-law Riley, and my brother-in-law Chris.

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And Cathy sent one of Baxter, Brian, Cathy, Russ and Scott. So cute!

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Franz the Butler, Makeup and All

Grandma, Russ, Chris, Jen, Jim, Debbie, Carole
Carole, Jim, Debbie
Wow... check out the makeup! I've never seen him like that before! :)

The hills are alive..... with Franz the Butler

Try singing the title... catchy huh? Well the Barlow hills are alive... they have been for the last four months as my dad, Jim, has been studying, practicing and enjoying working on a theater production with the San Clemente Stake Church of Jesus Chris of Latter Day Saints... you guessed it, The Sound of Music. Russ and I had the pleasure of attending his second opening night last night. My mom is sending over the pictures, so I'll update soon. My dad plays Franz the Butler who in the play has a lot of parts. It was really cool to see him on stage acting. When I was a little girl he did a couple of other amateur productions with the church including "Moving On" and "Razzle Dazzle" where he played singing and acting parts. Going to the Sound of Music was a little bit of a flash back for me and very enjoyable. He did such a great job! All of his queues and everything were perfect. It was a little weird to see him heil hitler though. Not so sure I enjoyed that... but hey Franz the Butler was a Nazi, so what can you do... he played his part perfectly. The evening was great and I'm thinking of going to see it again next week. The play made the Orange County Register today. Anyway, it was such a treat to see him up there acting. I'm so glad he has fun outlets like this that he likes to do. It made me so proud of him! :)

Link to the OC Register Article:

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/cook-maria-mccleary-2610662-church-experience

Fwd: Kristen 1

> I love my sister Kristen! And it's days like this when I need a
> laugh that she seems to brighten everything up. Here is our texting
> conversation this morning. How random, but how funny is she?
>

Kristen 2

Kristen 3

Here are the sterilized items

The sterilized knee hammer

So I went with Debbie to her doctors appointment today and there were
all kinds of toys to play with.
Soni pick up the knee hammer and Debbie is like "don't pick that
up or they are going to have to resterilize everything. Funny Debbie

Holy Poop!

 

So this morning, Russ and I wake up to this next to my side of the bed.  The little stealth puppy must have grabbed the scriptures off of the night stand and taken it to his lair (aka underneath the bed) and decided to shred away.  There was leather and pages everywhere when we woke up.  So Russ says "forgive him for he knows not what he does."  All I've got to say is I'm not cleaning up his holy poop. 

Disneyland Date Night

Last night we went to Disneyland with Rachel & Chad, Matt & Christine, Travis & Ashley, Angela & Ian.   Casey & Rob came too, but they had to leave early.  It was insane at Disneyland.  We left the Irvine Spectrum to drive up there at 6pm.  We didn’t get into the park until 7:30--- during this hour and a half, we got up to the Disney exit pretty easily, however we sat in a very very long line for the parking garage for over an hour. In this time Russ managed to pick a fight with a mom in a mini van who wouldn’t let him merge.  He rolled down the window and asked her why she wouldn’t let him merge. She argued back that it must be because he is wearing glasses and he can’t see that the merge isn’t happening yet, and he shouldn’t be trying to merge at that moment. Russ went back to give her some fly comments and she of course argued back, but in the end, she let him in.  Ahhhh... 

And then for the four hours we were at Disneyland we were only able to go on two rides because of the lines and the crowds.  So we went on Space Mountain (which was so cool how they changed it so it was a “scary theme for the holidays) and Indiana Jones.  On Space Mountain, Russ tried to show everyone how cool he was by talking about how after the ride you can hang back for a second and then jump on the ride again where there are empty spots.  Everyone was in awe by this “trick” and to prove that it worked, Russ did just that.  He jumped on the ride right after we got off.  He gave us a thumbs up as we watched him start to pull away from the loading dock.  But he didn’t get very far. One of the ride attendants noticed what he did and a few seconds later they stopped the cart and asked him to get out before they would proceed with the ride.  So he came back to our group with is head hanging low. But he still swears it works, he just got caught.  :)  I must admit that it is true. When we’ve gone to Magic Mountain or Knott's Berry Farm I’ve watched him do it several times.  It was just so funny that it didn’t work the one time he was trying to prove that it did.


Despite the long lines and the infinite time it took to park, the night was extremely fun because we got to hangout and talk with everyone who was there!  We’re looking forward to another Disneyland Date night soon!    

It's One, Two, Three Strikes Your Out At The Old Ball Game!

Creative help?

I need your creative help! A $10 gift card to Yogartland (or your favorite dessert shop) to who gets the winning slogan for a logo I'm designing. I need all suggestions by noon tomorrow (October 2). The company is a dance studio. Their logo incorporates a crown/tiara in it. They are mainly a ballroom dance studio, but many of their students compete and they stay on the edge of dance. They offer other classes such as salsa, ballet, etc. They might want to go with something "royal" or "generational" or something about being on the "edge." If you have any ideas, please comment!

Russ gets a personally signed Chip Foose mustang

So Russ met a guy tonight who is opening a shop in Down Town Disney
called the Ride Maker. It's a store similar to Build A Bear, but for
boys who get to build their own cars. They can choose the body, thr
color, the window tint, the engines, the lights, etc. Such a cool
idea! Russ and the guy hit it off talking and the guy gave him this
car! So cool! Russ is going to go to the grand opening too. So fun!