Ladies Night Out Costume Party 2012

Monday night was the annual Ladies' Night Out costume party which was once again hosted by Janice J. at her home. Janice puts on a great spectacle of Halloween displays. It's very festive and the perfect location to have our annual party. Last year she had it at the church building and it just didn't have the same ambiance as it does when she has it at her home.

I had no idea what I wanted to be this year and didn't put too much thought into it until last week at which point I decided to be a Mummy. I needed a new fitted sheet for my bed anyway because The Tide had scratched yet another hole in the one on the bed and so I bought a cheap microfiber sheet set and tore the flat sheet and pillow cases to use to wrap myself as a mummy Jackie came over after work to wrap me up and she did a good job on my upper body but the legs fell down before she even left the house. We got a good laugh out of that. She had to go so I re-wrapped my legs and then my arms came unraveled. I was riding with my friends Janet and Deborah and so when I got to Janet's house I asked them to help re-wrap me again because again my legs had fallen down. Suffice it to say that this wasn't the best costume idea I had ever come up with. I did ask Janice to take my picture before it all came unraveled for good. It wasn't long after this that I ended up just taking it all off.

I'm a Mummy...kind of

This year there were not as many folks who dressed up as in years past. Pam, who always comes up with a good costume dressed up as a mother spider and had an orange web covered over her torso with little spiders on it.

Deborah came as a butterfly catcher. I liked her costume the best.

Some that I did not get photos of included Marilyn, who came as a black-eyed pea. She painted a black eye on her face and then wore a sign with a P that had black polka dots. Peggy was a self portrait - she held up and empty picture frame in front of her face. Three girls came as S'mores - one was a Hershey's bar, one a marshmallow and one a graham cracker. One girl came as a banana and another dressed up as a Goth girl.
One of the most interesting moments of the night was when a surprise visitor showed up. The person who wore a flannel shirt and some sweatpants and a terrible looking mask. After looking at the mask for a while, some people got a little creeped out. It was probably a good 15 or 20 minutes before the person revealed who she was. Everyone guessed and only one person got it right and how she guessed correctly I will never know. The person was Jan, the mother of my friends Shelley and Kimberly! She attends a different church and so it was a complete surprise to me when she took the mask off.

The mini pumpkin cheesecakes were quite good and I even had a few left over to bring to work. Here is a link to the recipe. One can of pumpkin and one package of Oreos will make three batches. Very good and super easy to make!

I also announced to the ladies that I will be handing over the reins to someone else as I will soon be placing membership at Mayfair (more on this later). Next month will be my last hoorah as leader of the Ladies' Night Out group at Chase Park and after almost 10 years at the helm, I'm glad for the break. I will still get together with the ladies when they meet each month, but I won't have the pressure of coming up with an activity or buying a hostess gift or buying gifts for the winners of the game. I'll just get to go and have fun and not worry about anything and that, my friends, sounds like a good time indeed. 

Pam, the spider mom, won the grand prize. Deborah, the butterfly catcher, won the second prize, and Christina, the Goth girl won the third prize, although she ended up giving it to me since I have never received a vote in all the years I have been hosting the costume contest. I liked the prizes so I gratefully accepted.
So, it was another successful year at the Ladies' Night Out costume party. I look forward to being with these girls next year and seeing what kind of crazy costumes they come up with.