gma2rjc

Is anyone doing anything special for Halloween? Planning a party, carving pumpkins, making masks, etc.?

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Along the way, take time to smell the flowers - unless you're in a hurry.

Angela

We always decorate. We have funfoam ghosts and bats we hang, plus decorations the kids made in their really early grades. We saved old Barbie dolls that the kids no longer wanted and we dismember them and leave various body parts around..... an arm poking out of a potted plant, a head in the candy dish, a pair of legs sticking out of the bathtub drain..... I have more fun decorating for Halloween than I do for Christmas. I have a big orange poncho that I safety pin yellow eyes, nose and mouth to and I go out as a jack-o-lantern. We almost always carve pumpkins (although I rarely think to get a photo) We have an eleven year old. I take her out trick-or-treating while my husband stays home and gives out candy. Last year my oldest had some friends over and they watched scary movies until 3 in the morning (then my husband drove the boy home since the buses had stopped running, and we told the girls to shut up and go to sleep!) I think she wants to do the same thing this year, but with a different group of friends. We will be stating and end time this year!!!!!!
You didn't mention what you do Barb!

gma2rjc

The Barbie doll thing is so funny. What a cool idea.

We don't usually do very much, sometimes nothing. But this year my brother and sister-in-law are having a haunted garage to scare the neighbor kids. We've done it there and in my sister's garage a few times in the past. It's a blast! The kids love it.

One year, 3 of my brother's and my nephew all dressed in black (hats, gloves, long sleeve shirts, etc.). They left the lights off in the garage and closed the garage door most of the way. It was set so the bottom of the garage door was about 18" off the cement.

They had a chair sitting in front of the garage door with one of us girls sitting there handing out candy in regular clothes.

As you walked up to the person handing out candy, everything looked normal. But, they made it so that the trick-or-treaters HAD to walk along the front of the garage door to get their candy.

When they got about 1/2 way across the front of the garage, my brothers and nephew would simultaneously yell/scream and crawl (on their stomachs) out from under the door with their arms reaching out to grab an ankle or bag of someone's candy.

It scared the McNuggets out of everyone walking by. Unfortunately, once in a while it would startle someone so bad that he/she would stomp on one of the guys hands.

They had someone standing at the bottom of the driveway to send a signal if there were little tiny kids approaching. They didn't want to jump out at the little guys.

One time, in my sister's garage, her husband set up a big cage with a cover over it and a sign that read "See the man-eating chicken". The way it was worded, you expected to see a huge chicken eating a man. Instead it was a man sitting in a chair with a KFC bucket on his lap, eating some chicken.

They also had a bowl of candy sitting on a table for the kids to grab what they wanted out of the bowl. When a kid touched the candy, someone sitting under the table would scream and push their hand up through the bottom of the bowl and grab the kids hand or wrist. That was funny to watch.

They set it up so that there was a hole cut in the center of the table, big enough to comfortably fit your hand up through it, but small enough that the bowl, with a hole in the center, would still sit flat on the table. The table had a skirt around it, so nobody knew there was someone sitting under it.

It seems like every year there are fewer and fewer kids. I wish it would go back to the way it was years ago. There were lots of kids out and most houses had their porch light on.

__________________
Along the way, take time to smell the flowers - unless you're in a hurry.

Angela

My daughter would skip your brother's house. I think they deserved to get their hands stomped on a few times!
Last year we asked a couple with a small child in a stroller if my daughter could walk up to the scary looking house with them since nobody is mean enough to terrify a little one. If they had said 'no' she wouldn't have gone to it at all. She won't go if it even looks like someone will jump out at her. Haha, I remember years ago, when we lived in a townhouse and didn't hand out candy (the kids were really small and neither of us wanted to miss taking them out) our friend had a scary mask on and NEITHER of our kids would go near him until he took it off even thought we told them who it was!
Last year we had more kids than usual. I thought I had bought plenty of candy. (read that as: I thought I would have lots left over. I got good stuff!) There ws hardly anything left! I'm guessing that it was because it was a Friday, so this year I will get a little more, hoping for leftovers, since it is on a Saturday.
I'll admit that I didn't come up with the Barbie idea myself. I can't remember where I did get it from though. It is one of my favourites. Especially when someone new comes over.

gma2rjc

Your daughter being afraid of going to scary houses reminded me of a little girl I used to watch. I took her to the mall with me and we were just walking by all the stores. I started to walk into the Halloween store, and she wanted nothing to do with that. She didn't even like seeing what was in the store windows. It would be neat to know just what little kids are really thinking about all that stuff.

I don't blame you and your husband for both wanting to go with the kids. The last few years, I've been going with my daughter's and grand kids. I wouldn't want to miss a minute of it. We've been blessed with good weather the past 2 or 3 years.

That's funny that you buy the candy you like for the left overs. That's a good idea. lol

Barb

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Along the way, take time to smell the flowers - unless you're in a hurry.

specle

We are going to add a little more "horror" into our halloween this year.
The kids are getting older, no more sponge bob costumes...now they want to be vampires and zombies.
we are going buy old clothes from the salvation army....and tear them and paint with this spray blood I got at Walgreens...

gma2rjc

That'll be a lot of fun. The more cool effects, the better.

Barb

__________________
Along the way, take time to smell the flowers - unless you're in a hurry.

artsy_momma

I try to involve my son in making keepsake decorations to look back on when he is older.
Here is an example of 1 of the things we have done so far: http://funhandprintart.blogspot.com/...handprint.html

I also plan to get some cute pictures in at a local pumpkin patch

Angela

Those are cute artsy momma. I have a handprint angel in my Christmas stuff that my youngest made at school. I think the wings are the handprints. My kids are 11 and 15 and love seeing the things that they made when they were "little". We have tons of halloween stuff that they have made over the years! Some are so 'primitive' that they are scary!

cdat

We have a birthday party and halloween party combined at our house. EVERYONE is required to dress up.