Last night we hosted a Murder Mystery Dinner for 6 of our friends. It was super fun and may turn into a Halloween tradition in our home. These are our good friends Ian and Mindy Durias. Ian played the "Mummy of King Aldrinktodat" (hence the toast) and Mindy was Dr. Angela Deth, a deadly dentist. (I just realized I'm not in any of the below photos. I played Lizzy Bourdeax, whose fiance is the murder victim.)

Yes, that is Jon, and no, that is not a wig. My husband who, for the sake of the game (and the humor-factor) shaved his head and left only a ring around the base in order to look old and very creepy. He played "Dr. Hannibal Schlector", the world's only documented Kosher cannibal.

My sis April was a fortune teller named "Madame Aretha Garlique" (she turned out to be wearing fake garlic and was, in fact, a vampire!)

The Mummy saying hello to Balihi.

Elisha in full costume--check out the fingernails!

Our friends who brought he game over, Peter and Elisha Jenkins. He played sort of a Rogers and Hammerstein frankenstein named "Balihi" and she was "Glumda, the Wicked Witch of Depressed". They were amazing and Peter stayed in character ALL NIGHT, and kept the Billy-Bob teeth in even when others started to dismantle their costumes.

Towards the end of the evening the Mummy's linens had disappeared (all over the floor--haha)... Shown L-R: Ian, Ben Thomas (who played the "Prince of Dimness, Asthmadeus"), and Jon. It was so fun!

An increase of 1500% in 10 years...
That's an increase of Child Internet Pornography in the last 10 years. Please read the following quickly and go to the website to "light a candle"--it only takes about 10 seconds and will help eradicate this filthy industry. Thank you.

"The innocent victims of Internet child abuse cannot speak for themselves.
But you can.
With your help, we can eradicate this evil trade.
We do not need your money.
We need you to light a candle in support of these children.
We're aiming to light at least One Million Candles by December 31, 2006.
This petition will be used to encourage governments, politicians, financial institutions, payment organisations, Internet service providers, technology companies and law enforcement agencies to eradicate the commercial viability of online child abuse.
They have the power to work together. You have the power to get them to take action.
Please light your candle at lightamillioncandles.com or send an email of support to light@lightamillioncandles.com.
Together, we can destroy the commercial viability of Internet child abuse sites that are destroying the lives of innocent children."
Today we lit our candle.

Happy birthday Jon! To see our whole roll, click here.

Jon finally received his Corona pajamas (he's been asking for a year) and his Converse All-Stars. Unfortunately I looked at the size too quickly and picked up a box that said "Men's 10, Women's 12". Jon is a 12, but not a women's 12. Woopsie!

The anticipation is building . . .
"I love shoes! I really do!" 

In order of the "Creaming". Jon is anticipating it since Jonah yelled, "Yay! Pie in the face!" This is Jon's favorite birthday tradition that started when he was about 8 years old and has been continuing sporadically since. To quote Jon, "It's all the benefits of a mud bath, except I get to smell like banana cream." (which, incidentally, does not smell too good an hour later).


 

Jon turned 32 yesterday! Of course we had to celebrate with Banana Cream Pie in the face . . . 

Happy Birthday to the best Daddy . . .

Here it is . . . on exclusive engagement . . . the latest work by young author Jonah Brawley. Enjoy!

On a bright, sunny day Jack decided to go for a walk.

When Jack was going for a walk he . . . saw a tree that was on fire.

So Jack walked on. When he was walking he saw a hole. He wondered what was in it.

So Jack walked on. When he was walking he saw a...

Haunted House. So he walked on past the Haunted House...

And he finally made it home and went to bed at once. THE END!

Unbeknownst to me, Jonah wrote and published his first story the other day. I found it this morning in the office. Here is the cover. To translate, it says, "By Jonah. Illustrated by Lumpy. The guy who wrote the pictures is Jonathan." (He had no clue what illustrated meant when asked, but I guess picked it up somewhere) Stay tuned for the full story...

"Momma made me a strawberry shortcake hat!"

At the Portland Nursery Apple Festival yesterday. It was only day two of the six days they run it, and we got the last caramel apple. Want to see more pics?

Bepo and Jonah decorating paper plates, I mean, making art.

Jonah with his cute pumpkin Choochey-Face.

This is how it went: "What do you want on your face?" "PINK." "A pink heart? A pink flower?" "Pink FLOWER."

Today was my 4 month OB appointment. Heard the heartbeat, measured my tummy, got weighed (yikes!), and scheduled the ultrasound. In just three weeks we can find out whether to buy pink or blue.

Today we went to Sauvie Island to "The Original Pumpkin Patch" (as opposed to the UNoriginal one)--it was a perfect, smokey, Northwest fall day. The kids really enjoyed the caramel apples...Check out more pictures on our new web album. 

The kids and I were goofing around this morning...Ava had crazy bed-head so Jonah was pretending he did, too. Aren't they cute???


 

BFF (Best Friends Forever) These two (Paige Durias and Ava) are just a month apart and play so well together it's almost uncanny. They love each other and just started swim lessons today together. Ava's never wanted to do swim lessons before (trust me, we tried) but doing it with Paigey was so much fun for her she even JUMPED INTO THE POOL! For our timid little girl this was quite the achievement, and on her first day, too! Yippee! Stay tuned for swim-lesson-pictures to come...

A secret message for Poppop: "This is very scary and really funny for Poppop."

A cheesy grin from Avie.