Wanted: Dead or Alive

We've never really been big halloween celebrators. This year our friends Brooke and Karlo from Sunday School invited us to a murder mystery dinner party. We've never done one before but it sounded like fun, so I signed us up... without telling/asking Caleb. Okay, that's not totally true. I told him a month ago when I committed us, but we both pretty much forgot until the week of when it came time to create our costumes.
For anyone who hasn't played in a murder mystery party before, basically there is a scene and everyone is given a character to play. You eat and play your role and at some point a murder takes place, then the survivors have to figure out who did it. It was a little complicated, but still pretty fun!

Our murder mystery took place in Gravestone, Arizona. It was made up of all sorts of crazy Western characters, including Wavy Willy Bronchus, Abby Oakley, Suzanne B. Anthony, Doc Galaday, James Jessie, Calamity Janie, and Hutch Cassaday, and over course, the Pinkertons.

I should back up and say that last Saturday was the first REALLY cold day we've had up here. In fact.... it snowed!! If you look carefully in the pics you can see how big the flakes are.

Usually, I would have been excited. But, my role for the party was Katie Fishman, a lasso-roping saloon waitress who is a good girl having trouble staying on the right side of the law.

The outfit was awesome, until I had to walk half a mile through the snow in this outfit. I'm afraid some of Brooke and Karlo's neighbors thought I was a not so classy person...

However, as much as I loved my costume, Caleb's was AWESOME! I'm still not sure he's forgiven me for making him where his outfit. Meet Virgo Arp, a former Union soldier who is now a U.S. Marshall out in Arizona. Unfortunately, he was shot in the arm yesterday...

While we were enjoying our dinner and chatting it up with the other characters, unfortunately Wavy Willy was found dead, which was pretty unfortunate for me since we were childhood sweethearts AND he was the one who shot Virgo. So.... we were both suspects

 Luckily, in the end, it wasn't us... it was that wylie Abby Oakley who didn't appreciate Wavy Willy insulting her gun skills and killed him for it! Overall, we had a FANTASTIC time:

 The Pinkertons... I thought they were the murderers and were in it for the gold!

 Virgo and Katie!

 All of the Arp family

 Katie and her boyfriend Doc Galaday (in reality, this is my friend Karlo. He's from El Salvador and when we were talking about that I was from Texas, he asked me if I ate armadillos... I was like, um, no, they are nasty creatures usually found dead and run over on the side of the road. Well... except for the one my dad has stuffed on his shelf... but turns out that in El Salvador armadillo is eaten and he loves it. Ew! So, mom and dad, if you happen to see armadillo anywhere, feel free to send me one. Karlo will cook it for me!)

 The wild west show gang

The whole group!

And that was how we celebrated Halloween this year! Of course, I can't post without giving you a pic of these precious faces

Scarlett is teaching Rhett to lay on the clean laundry. She has also taught her some bad habits, which is why both the dogs start obedience school this week! We are hoping that Scarlett makes it all the way through without getting kicked out for being a disruption this time. We are just hoping Rhett learns something, we'll see. Check back soon to see the table I decorated for our church's ladies tea!