I
wish Halloween could be on Saturdays every year. It just makes life so much easier. I’m not
rushed to get home from work. It isn’t
stressful to try to find dinner, do homework, take the kids trick or treating,
and somehow try to get them to calm down in time for bed on a school
night. This Halloween, I started my day
with a 10-mile sloooooow run. For the
rest of the day, I didn’t do much, but the kids had their own lemonade stand in
front of the house that afternoon .
Lance went down to the boat with Buddy and Bella. With all the activity planned that evening,
it was better that the dogs not be home.
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| the lemonade stand on Halloween afternoon |
My
brother in law, Mike, is very into
Halloween, and each year, he turns the house into a haunted house. Since he is living with us, our house became
the hot spot in the neighborhood. He
puts so much effort and time into this. He has amazing props. He has lights and even the eerie music from Halloween. There are hours of prepping that begins
days before Halloween, and when everything is done, he has to dismantle it
after only a few hours of fun. The work
is well received. There are always
crowds in front. My children were more
interested in working at the haunted house then they were trick or
treating. We started to trick or treat
very early at 5:30 p.m. It was light, and we were the only ones out there. They wanted to get back home to scare the neighbors.
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| some of Mike's props |
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| the house-- not quite done yet |
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| hanging body parts and bloody handprints on the windows |
I
love Tiburon at Halloween. We live in a great neighborhood that is really
involved in Halloween. Houses are
decorated, and there are trick or treaters all over. Since it is a townhouse, it is easy for the
kids to go from house to house.
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| some of the many, many decorations in the neighborhood |
As it is
now a tradition, my little Mia and I dress in matching costumes. She complained a little this year about the
tradition, but her whines were said with a smile. She chooses our costumes and gone are the
fairy princess days. It is now about
being scary, and so Mia chose to be zombie cheerleaders. I thought we looked great. Brandon was a
scary clown. Dylan, obviously too old to
trick or treat, dressed as the grim reaper. He stood on a ladder that made him over 12-ft
tall. Many people who visited the
haunted house did not think he was ‘real’ so when he moved, the result were
frightening screams. I saw one girl
about 10 years old just sobbing as her father tried to comfort her.
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| Dylan on the ladder as the grim reaper |
When
we returned from trick-or-treating, it was about 7 p.m. and the kids quickly
changed their wardrobe to participate in the haunted house scare. Mike had four ghouls in the front yard. Two of the ghouls were life-sized Barbie
dolls who were draped in black with a face mask on. Brandon and Maddox also wore the black
draping and masks. Several
trick-or-treaters walked by not thinking two of the four were real so when Brandon
and Maddox moved, screams of terror were heard.
It was hilarious to watch.
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| the ghouls in the front yard. |
Mia
dressed as a zombie, and she basically chased the older kids. I watched as they screamed in terror. Mike dressed as Michael Myers. He was at the top of our stairs. The trick or
treaters were allowed into the house and at the bottom of the stairs was a
witches pot of candy. You had to go up
and get it yourself with Michael Myers staring down at you with a knife. I think several were too afraid to get candy
so we had to move the pot closer to the doorway. Perhaps, the haunted house was too much for
some, but I really enjoyed it.
This Halloween was one of the best!
