The highs and lows of Value Village

Those of you who guessed Juno were right (and those of you who guessed Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore made me laugh, but I see your point.) On Saturday night Chad and I went to HallowBash, a big charity fundraiser party that's held every fall and this year took on a Halloween theme (even though it's 6 weeks early). It's been going for a few years now and we've meant to go in the past, but things have always come up. Chad now works for the main organizer of the event so there were no more excuses, and man, am I ever glad we went - it was a riot. They sold out of all 350 tickets, and I only saw two people all night who did not dress up. The event was held at a local horse stable - the animals were evicted for the event. There was a haunted maze you had to enter through, a buffet dinner catered by a local restaurant, a costume competition, a Fear Factor event I would prefer to forget having seen, a hypnotist and a live band. Oh yeah, and an open bar. And while I prefer to think that the reason I felt so awful yesterday is that the kids had colds last week and have now passed it on to me, I think it might be a little of that last bit as well.

We placed 3rd in the costume competition for Best Couple, missing out to Dog the Bounty Hunter and some blond chick (his wife?? - I've never seen the show.) Many of the people who knew what we were thought we were a riot, and luckily we got some "Go Juno!" cheers when we were on stage to prove to the rest that we were indeed supposed to be 'something', but there were some people who had no clue what we were. I ran into an old friend who thought I just dressed up as a pregnant woman with a black wig. After the costume competition I was approached by a guy who said, "Who the heck is Juno? I feel like I am the only person here who doesn't get it!" And if you haven't seen the movie, then you probably have no clue. Alas, there were too many like him who didn't get it so we fell short on the applause-o-meter, but the prize was a 40 oz of somethingorother and after the open bar, I don't feel like that's something I'd be into anytime soon, anyway.

We put together the costumes at our local Value Village and can I just say - that place ROCKS. Where else can you say, as you walk in the door, "I need to find an orange-and-white striped shirt" and bingo - there's one there? They just have so much stuff, and it's so well organized that it makes everything easy to find. Our entire costumes came from there and Chad's t-shirt logo came courtesy of an internet download and some iron-on transfer paper from Staples. We did scout the big new Goodwill store that opened here this summer, but man - it's just not the same.

The downside to all this is that when we were at ValVil on lunch this week for some last-minute costume components, I found a Little People school bus for $1.99. Liam and Mallory have a toy school bus that they adore, but it's small and has no working parts. This one has doors that open and seats inside for the myriad Little People we have at home. So I picked it up for them, and can I just say - I regret that I did. Because they have been bickering about it ALL.WEEKEND.LONG. Who gets to play with it, who gets to touch the rest of the Little People set up in 'bus stop' stations around the house, who gets to touch the Little People Princess Castle that is the houes of the Little People riding the bus, who gets to go near the couch or the kitchen counter, both of which have acted as the school the Little People are being bussed to... it's maddening. I think I need to track down another Little People school bus. This is definitely one of those times when having two of the same toy to preserve my sanity will be worth it.