The Halloween Party Mystery

"How would you like to go to a party, Frank?"

Frank Hardy glanced up at his attractive, eighteen-year-old girlfriend and smiled. "Nancy, you know I never stay home from a party."

With a toss of her red hair, Nancy pulled the invitation from her pocket and said, "I'm glad to hear that, Frank, because I've got a mystery for us to solve!"

The idea of a new puzzle made Frank's pulse quicken. He stood quickly. "What kind of mystery, Nance?"

"Just take a look at this!"

The two huddled around the ornate invitation. Nancy slid her finger around the edge, tracing the twisted gilded gold frame. Her eyes lit up.

"What do you see, Nancy?" Frank furrowed his brow and waited for her answer.

"Well," Nancy began, moving her face closer to his so as to direct him appropriately to her discovery. "Look at the rose in this corner. Do you see anything strange about that?"

Frank gasped. He grabbed Nancy's hand and picked up his trusty flashlight. "Come on, Nance. We've got work to do."

Okay, so the original idea for our Halloween costumes didn't quite turn out the way we'd planned (the Kandy Korn costume was too much for me...). Instead we opted for an original idea that also gave me an excuse to buy cute shoes. I was America's favorite red-haired sleuth, Nancy Drew. And Jon was my buddy Frank Hardy, of the Hardy Boys, of course.

Our day didn't start with the idea of a mystery. Rather, we had a plan. And it worked! Breakfast, grocery shopping, bread baking, watching Ghost Breakers, costume prepping and partying. The pumpkins look great! Let's hope they stay fresh at least until tomorrow night. I can't wait to give out candy. That's another cool thing about being all grown up and in our own house... we get to answer the door for the trick-or-treat crowd. Someday we may not see that as a privilege. For now, though, I jump up when I hear the doorbell ring!

There was no mystery about the night, naturally. We went to the annual Halloween party at the Youd's house (or Mr. and Mrs. Dracula's castle), and had a really good time! There were some really original costumes, too:

1. Ultimate Dodgeball Team Members
2. A chick magnet (Pete in a black shirt peppered with peeps.)
3. The Geek who missed BlizCon
4. A Pirate and his booty... er... Treasure
5. The Bride and Pai Mei (of Kill Bill Vol. 2... Steve did carry around an eyeball all night for authenticity's sake)
6. Post-Baby Britney Spears
7. A Cat Burglar (who did not once let her cat out of the bag!)
8. (Center Director) Bob the Builder (it was a guy named Bob, which made the costume funnier)

My contribution, beyond my cute costume, was my famous pumpkin bread. Now that we've come around to the three months in the year that pumpkin bread is appropriate... I plan to churn it out for any and every occasion. If you don't want pumpkin bread, don't ask me to bake.

After some good rounds of Apples to Apples, which really is one of my favorite games, and some classic (seemingly endless) games of Beirut we called it a night. I'd blog more about the party, but today is a very sleepy day.

The pictures are up in our gallery (user name/password: friends/friends). Hope your Halloweens are happy!

P.S. I am a red head now. It's exciting. And thankfully the reviews have all been positive. It wasn't just as a tribute to Nancy Drew, either. I actually dyed my hair before the idea to change costumes came to me. But it turned out great! And Jon likes it, too. Hehe!