Halloween... in November

Ok, I know that's it's halfway through November and most of you don't really care about Halloween anymore. I guess that's the problem with getting behind on posting around the holidays. Oh, well. I have pictures I must share!

We had a good time with Halloween this year. It started with a cool visit from some super cute trick-or-treaters.

A fairy-kitten and a fairy-pumpkin. Store-bought costumes aren't as creative as I remember. But the kids like them, so it's ok.

My door helper.

Halloween is fun!!

Halloween night was pretty calm for us. We gave candy to lots of trick-or-treaters until we ran out. The little one got tired of trick-or-treating early in the evening, so we kept her at our house while her sister kept making the rounds. She tuckered out pretty fast.

Sleepy pumpkin.

But Halloween wasn't over for us. The following weekend we had our second annual Halloween Party! I recognize that it's a little weird to have a costume party a week after Halloween, but I don't care!

It was a good time. I made some yummy snacks, and most of us dressed up in silly costumes. Our costume theme this year was internet sensations and viral videos. We had the double rainbow guy, cigar guy, chimpanzee riding on a segway, Dr. Horrible and Captain Hammer, Marzipan and Homestar Runner, Foamy the Squirrel, and Facebook herself. (If you don't know some of those references, use google and youtube to waste a few hours of your time.)

Food. Cupcakes (some brought by my good buddy, Mel), guacamole, tortilla rolls, bacon weenies, and fruit salsa with cinnamon chips.

Chatting. I was glad to see some friends I don't get to see very often!

Marzipan and Homestar Runner.

More chatting.

Chimpanzee riding on a segway.

Viewing funny videos on the laptop I set up so people could show others the inspiration for their costumes.

Dr. Horrible and Captain Hammer!

Setting the cloak back. We were excited to have an extra hour to party!

So it was a pretty fun evening of eating, drinking, chatting, and being silly. This whole Halloween party thing seems to be turning into a yearly tradition for us!

Arkalalah Madness

I don't fully understand why I love the crazy town-wide festival that takes place in Ark City, Kansas every October, but love it I do. I'm sure it has something to do with the deliciously fatty food that seems never-ending. Or maybe it's the numerous silly events, like the races and egg-toss competitions, the high school band shows, or the ridiculous coronation of the "Queen Alalah." (Yup, you read that right.)

But I think what really makes me look forward to this crazy event is the idea of spending a weekend hanging out with family and amazing friends.

I am not a native Ark Cityan (Ark Cityite?), so it was rather late in my life that I first experienced the awesomeness/ridiculousness that is Arkalalah. When Matt first took me to his hometown for this festival, I was a little skeptical. Observing the coronation of Queen Alalah as one of my first Arkalalah events further convinced me that this was some weird Kansas thing that I would never understand. But as I watched an entire town (and many surrounding towns) come together to celebrate traditions and old-fashioned family fun, I kind of started to get it.

Plus, the fair food really is spectacular.

This year, Matt's high school class was gathering for their ten-year reunion. Most classes choose to host the reunions during Arkalalah, since so many people return to town for the festival anyway. The idea of seeing old classmates stimulated a mild curiosity in Matt, but we pretty much just used the reunion as an excuse to enjoy eating way too much food while visiting with family and friends.

We flew out after work on Thursday, and we were prepared to take in the fair early Friday morning. I enjoyed delicious chili, a chocolate banana on a stick, and ROASTED CORN!

I developed a little bit of an obsession with roasted corn on this trip. This is the first of two trips to a corn booth. Considering I was I little more reserved with my eating this time round, that's pretty crazy.

But as I mentioned above, the real purpose of this trip was to visit family and friends. We spent the day chatting, catching up, and walking around the festival.

Our awesome friends, Dac and Alisha, and Matt. This will be the album cover when they decide to start a band.

Fire! Me and one of the nieces.

We spent a large part of the weekend hanging out with some of our closest friends. Matt has remained very (oddly) close to a group of guys he knew in high school, and the addition of wives has not diminished their love for each other. In fact, the wives' club has developed our own close friendships. Unfortunately, one of the couples is currently in Virginia (you may remember Tarl and Joy from here) and they were unable to attend the reunion. It was the perfect occasion for a group-wide skype!

Tarl.

The group.

The boys. Probably laughing at some boy joke.

Saturday in Ark City brought far too many people for my comfort. But we braved the crowds to take in the annual parade. One of our nieces is in her first year on the flag team, so we had to cheer her on in the parade and at the flag competition after.

Walking in the street. The sidewalks are lined with chairs of those preparing to watch the parade.

Look! It's our niece!

Ark City's flag team put on an awesome show!

Finally, it was time for the "main event." The boys prepared for the reunion by looking through old yearbooks:

While the ladies got prettied up and talked about baby stuff (John and Anna are expecting their first child any day now!).

Anna's belly.

Then we were off to the awkwardness that is a high-school reunion.

Disappointed in the beer selection. They've really become beer snobs in their old age.

Me and Alisha. I was very glad to have my friends there!

Conversation time.

Having fun?

Chatting with Bri. I actually know her, so that was cool.

Us.

I love this picture for many reasons. Mostly because it has two of my favorite ladies in it. But also because John is dancing like an idiot in the background (on purpose, of course).

Old roomies.

The wives were ready to leave while the men were still talking.

In the end, the reunion was a little weird, but the guys seemed to enjoy themselves.

So another Arkalalah has come and gone. I enjoyed the food (though we didn't imbibe quite as much as we have in years past) and the silly events (go band!) and the cool people, who I miss already.

fun. Times

We've kind of had a run of awesome concerts lately, starting with the two-day Mile High Music Fest in August, followed by Ben Folds, and now fun.! I think it's pretty awesome because I love music.

Last weekend, we went to see one of our new favorite bands, fun.. Their name is a little confusing, but they actually call themselves "fun." with a lower-case f and a period. I promise, I'm not making this up. It made things a little confusing when I told people I was going to the fun. concert. Anyway, I call them one of our new favorite bands because they've only been around for a couple of years, but I feel like we've been listening to them for much longer. That's because Matt and I have loved the lead singer's former band, The Format, since college. The song that really got us into their music was the title track off their album, Dog Problems. It's pretty ridiculously awesome. If you don't believe me, have a listen.



I've always loved The Format's music because of the epic, storytelling quality that they consistently utilized. I feel like I travel through various emotions and states of mind as I listen to each song. The Format combined many musical elements to create really good music, which seems to be more and more scarce in our modern culture.

When we heard that The Format had broken up, it was pretty disappointing. Luckily for us, the lead singer quickly formed fun. and I have been listening to them ever since. Here's one of their songs from their new album, Aim and Ignite.



I tell you this history of one of my favorite bands in order to prepare you for the remainder of this post, which is all about the awesomeness that was the fun. concert.

Umm... they forgot the period. Lame.

I took pictures of our tickets because (a) I was excited, and (b) the Fox Theatre sucks at organization and we stood outside in the cold for an hour - I was a little bored. It made me angry, but I was still excited.

We got inside just as the first of two opening acts was starting.

The first opening act. It was a guy whose name started with a "J." He was kind of cool, but obviously, not very memorable.

The second opening act (though they played a really long set) was Steel Train. This was when they mellowed down for a song. The rest of their set was crazy, with lots of jumping around and excitement. Unfortunately, jumping around makes pictures look blurry, so this is all I got.

Finally, it was time for fun.!

fun.

Awesome.

So excited.

The band put on a really good show. The epic quality of their songs worked really well onstage, and the lead singer's theatricality, along with the other musicians' talent and passion, added to the whole show. Most of the audience in the small venue knew all of the words and sung along the whole time. In fact, the musicians struggled a little with keeping up their energy in the high altitude, so the audience was encouraged to help out! It was a great show, and I hope to catch them again the next time they come to town.

So good.

I guess you could say that fun. was fun! Ha!

Down on the Farm

Sometimes my job is pretty cool. Well, my job is often pretty cool, but sometimes it's super fun in a non-educational way. Last week, my school's SpEd department took a trip to the farm. It was the best field trip I've ever been on, even including all of those I took in my own school days.

Our trip to the farm was made even better by the fact that one of my students LOVES everything about the farm. And I mean LOVES. I can't put into words the amount of joy he experienced in this field trip. In fact, a significant amount of misery was also experienced in waiting for the day to arrive. We had many meltdowns and crying fits because "Today's not the day!" But finally, Farm Day (as we were calling it on all of our many countdown calendars) finally arrived.

We started our fun day with a big breakfast with all of our kids. Each classroom was responsible for making something to contribute; our class made juices. The kids loved following the directions and making something delicious. After the very large breakfast of pancakes, bacon, and juice, we got on the bus for our trip up to Loveland.

After getting a little bit lost on the back country roads, we finally made it! My little kiddo was so thrilled to finally see the animals!

Big pig.

Charlotte's web... or an awesome spider web over the pig pen. I liked to imagine a little spider saving the life of a little pig.

The farm had pigs and piglets, cows, chickens, kittens, a horse, and kids (baby goats), which were my absolute favorites!

The two sisters were huddled together.

I got to hold each of the goats. It was pretty awesome.

My teacher and a piglet.

After our tour of the farm and the animals, the kids got to take hayrides and cook hot dogs and marshmallows over our large campfire.

Children and fire! Scary...

For the rest of the trip, the kids had free reign over the place. We wandered and played until we had to drag our kiddos back on the bus.

The kids wore out the pigs.

Visiting the cows. They were his favorite.

Ancient KFC bucket inside the chicken coop. Oh, the irony!

The kids (and the teachers) had such a great time that they were talking about it for days after. It was such a fun day!