I have been sick sick sick. Came down with a terrible cold that just kicked my butt. I was able to get Halloween put up, but it was not done to my normal Type A standards. Oh well, there's always next year.

Speaking of next year, we have decided it will be our last Halloween extravaganza. It takes 6 weeks to put and 3 weeks to take down, pack and put away. It's just becoming to hard to do (at our age.) And now Jim is sick sick sick.

We had a record crowd this year. Gave away all the candy I bought for 1200 kids, plus several sacks of candy our neighbors gave us. CARNevil and the expanded Room of Doom were a big hit. There were adults who would not come down into the courtyard because of the clowns! I was telling grownups "it's not real, it's all play."  Which of course, was not entirely true. Here are the clown volunteers, Cheryl, Rich and Jim. Rich spent some time playing dead clown on the ground and kids would kick him trying to decide if he was real or not.

I wish you could have seen how scared people were of Arachnophobia, trying to avoid the cobwebs and sidestepping the spider webbed bodies. People had to go through a couple of times before they got over their fear of the bodies.

We had more live actors in the Room of Doom this year and it was great! Lots of screaming and laughing. People loved the Bates Motel Room because the stuffed guy looked so real they were focused on him and  didn't see the live actor on the other side of the room who scared the heck out of them! Here are a few pics from the finished Room of Doom.

This narrow hallway leads from Bates Motel to the Morgue. You have to go by a boarded up window that has fake hands and masks stapled onto it. One of the hands is real and scares people when it touches them in the dark!

 

Scariest of all was Mom who passed out candy, pretty cool for 84 years old! She used blue permanent ink to line her lips, good thing it came off. Love the fact that my Mom helps with Halloween.

Next year we are adding the Tunnel of Terror. It's a garden path next to the house that's shaded by trees and shrubbery, feels REALLY enclosed. I don't like walking down this path at night, it's always creepy. Plan on doing a pumpkin terror theme with a version of these pumpkin scarecrow's for this scene. Will be adults only and super scary. Love it!