The Evil League

For several years in a row in Columbus, we threw big Halloween parties, but last year we didn't because we were new in Utah and pretty much had no friends yet. This year, we decided to start up again, but on a smaller scale since our tiny house only fits so many people (plus, let's be honest, we still do not have THAT many friends, give us some time to work up to that).

This year's theme was villains. We sent the guests these creepy severed finger invites from Martha Stewart with a "Don't Forget!" reminder to come to a meeting on the Evil League of Evil and a blog address for more info.

Truthfully, at the time I sent out the invites, I had no idea what we were going to do and told myself that I could come up with elaborate plans later.

Here are the Villains that showed up to our meeting to see if they could get into the Evil League of Evil (they all did an awesome job). Bonnie and Clyde

Captain Hook and Smee (you have to be impressed with Lisa figuring out a way to incorporate her pregnant belly)
the Kathy Bates character from Misery and the swam of bees that killed Thomas Jay in My Girl (Whit said that was the movie that most traumatized her in her youth so that was the most evil villain she could possibly think of)
Wal-Mart AKA big-box American Capitalism and Big Oil
Tanya Harding and Kirk (who warned us ahead of time that he has a policy against dressing up on Halloween, but we wanted him to come anyway)
Larry was a classic Vaudeville villain
and I was The Queen of Hearts (although I had plans for an elaborate Elizabethan collar that I just didn't have time to finish sadly)
Hannibal and Medusa.
Once all of the guest arrived we sent them out on to prove how evil that really are. I made scratch off lotto style cards with eight evil deeds they had to perform before they could begins their training for the Evil League of Evil. Of course I forgot to take pictures of hardly anything because I was rushing around all night, but I used this tutorial, which gives you an idea of what they were like.

Some of their evil tasks included talking on a cell phone during a movie

Recruiting a henchman (this is my favorite photo of the night)

Rooting for the U (Larry and I both went to BYU and couldn't help giving some of our big U fan friends a hard time)

Once they had all their photos they got a clue that sent them to The King's English, a local bookstore, because every super villain has to know how to research things like where to find kryptonite and what Kim Jong Ill would like for his birthday. There they had to find a cashier and quote the first two lines of Poe's "The Raven" to get their next directions. The cashier gave them each and old book that was hollowed out to hold two tiny cameras and a clue.

It said, "You all need a secret Lair that commoners wouldn’t be interested in entering. Head to Summum Pyramid: the Pyramid of Modern Mummification to see just such a lair, and no we cannot reveal whose lair this is, but we warn you to be stealth, you don’t want them to catch you snooping. We thought these cameras might come in handy for surveillance purposes."

And yes, there seriously is a pyramid downtown where they practice modern mummification on pets.

There they found a bucket with Halloween whistles in it and a clue that said, "Every Super Villian needs to have a suitable secret identity; someone who seems crazy enough to keep people from getting close, but not crazy enough to be a threat. Head to Gilgal Garden for a good example. Once you are a member of the Evil League of Evil, you may use these items to make the League’s secret signal if you are in great need of help. "

At Gilgal Garden there was another bucket with glow-in-the-dark masks, and a clue that said, "The key to creating newsworthy chaos is setting the scene, be sure to pick the creepiest scene possible before you strike; for example a dark empty amusement park. Head to the rides at Liberty Park to see what we mean. In the meantime, we have provided these masks to wear for those of you who do not yet have a foolproof secret identity. Be sure to wear them to your final destination!"

At the empty amusement park they found another bucket full of surprised balls that I made like this that had skull rings in them and directions to head back to our house to be handsomely rewarded.

I think that everyone had fun on their adventure. It seemed like they did. In the meantime, I was home finishing dinner and dessert. When everyone got back, we had a candlelit dinner on our back patio, which of course I didn't remember to take pictures of until the end. We served hot apple cider, pumpkin soup and chili in bowls made from hollowed out pumpkins, and spinach salad, and little cornbread muffins.
with Mummy cookies (thanks for the suggestion mom) and pumpkin cake for dessert.

Then we played our homemade version of SceneIt using famous villain scenes, of course.

It really was a lot of fun and thanks to all of our friends for being up for an adventure!