Avengers Assemble!

We had another great weekend! It all started Friday when we went out to celebrate Issa's awesome report card, and it finished last night with dinner with a good friend. In between, we finished reorganizing the house (do you hear the angels singing?) and went to a Halloween party. I volunteered to bring a salad, and because I love a good holiday celebration, I raided Pinterest to find this:

How cute is that?! It was insanely easy (even the cucumber jack-o-lanterns were easy--just time consuming), and it was a big hit with kids and adults. I added food coloring to the boiling pasta water for the pasta, carrot curls, broccoli, cheddar cheese witches' hats, celery, and Italian dressing. Voila!

And, for the first time ever, our whole family went in costume, thanks to Issa's insistence:

Tony Stark, Black Widow, and Captain American ready to defeat a very cute monster. It's hard to see in this picture, but Brad really did have an arc reactor. He broke out the soldering iron on a cheap laser tag vest to make it stay on and blue. It wasn't a huge stretch for him to get into character.

On a whole different note, today is kind of a big day around here in a very surreal way. We are getting our house professionally cleaned for the first time, which still feels so odd to me, and Brad is on a plane headed to his first day at the new job. Meanwhile, my sister is having surgery. Extra prayers are much appreciated.