October's Plowman family dinner was held on Sunday, October 31. It being Halloween, many of the niblings dressed up so that Grandma could see the costumes they wore for trick-or-treating and other holiday festivities.
Kylee was Batgirl:
This year's ward trunk-or-treat for Halloween, our first one in two years, was held Saturday afternoon in the parking lot outside of our meetinghouse. The bishopric cooked up and served hamburgers and hot dogs for everyone while we passed out candy to the kids.
JB decorated our trunk to look like it was a mouth. I dressed up in my Blue Shirt Guy costume, inspired by the movie Free Guy. This was somehow appropriate, as we were in the parking spot next to the White Shirt Guys, aka our missionaries. It was an enjoyable afternoon spent with the good people of the Stone Creek Ward.
On Friday night, we held our first Improvables Halloween show in two years! (Just consider the twelfth annual Halloween show to have been performed last year in spirit, I guess?)
It was great to have BDAC full again, both on and off stage, for one of our favorite nights of the year. Our players and audience members alike are both quite amazing human beings who once again brought their A-game with wonderfully creative costumes.
For example, Chance and Anne, pictured here, dressed up as Ben and Leslie from the TV show "Parks and Recreation":
Yours truly dressed up as Blue Shirt Guy from the summer blockbuster movie Free Guy.
After the show, all troupe members present posed for this picture:
There were laughs aplenty. There were myriad clever moments. There were brilliant songs created, with the help of Willis on keys, right on the spot. As with any improv show, you just had to be there. (If you haven't been yet, well ... why haven't you?)
On Saturday, everyone's favorite Fun Aunt and Uncle went out on our latest nibling birthday outing. This time, we took eight-year-old Tatum (whose birthday was in September) to Nickelmania in West Jordan for fun and games. Mostly, this involved us playing games that awarded tickets, which we pooled together for prizes for the birthday kid at the end of the visit.
Our ticket-tallying effort was greatly boosted by Jana hitting the 1,000-ticket Monster Jackpot with a perfect spin on this "Price Is Right"-like wheel (honestly, we waited like five minutes for the tickets to be added to her card):
On the way home, we stopped by Swig for treats. Thus concluded another successful day out with Fun Aunt and Uncle.
Last night, we went to CenterPoint Legacy Theatre to see my brother Ben perform in their production of The Scarlet Pimpernel. This is JB's favorite musical, so expectations were high; fortunately, the cast delivered a great performance. My former Improvables castmate Ben Lowell knocked it out of the park in the title role.
In defiance of my wishes, I keep having birthdays. I turned another year older last week.
I had to share, in particular, this incredible birthday card that my six-year-old niece Kate brought over for me, because it demonstrates just what a thoughtful, good-hearted kid she is:
Her little brother, three-year-old Ike, helped out with some of the drawings. Her mom's (my sister, Biz) contribution to the effort was the portion inside the card. It was one of the best trolling moments I have ever witnessed:
