Halloween at Our House

We have totally gotten into Halloween this year.  I decorated like crazy for the first time.  Our front porch is wide and long and I have put stuff all over it.  I have also put up spiders and bats, bones and pumpkins in the living room, family room, and entry.  A neighbor came over to talk to me the other day and when I invited her in she said, "I'm not sure I can come in.  I'm really afraid of spiders.  I almost couldn't ring your bell."  We have spiders around the front door, an enormous spider on the front porch in a giant web, and spiders all over the room I would have sat in.  I took her into the library where there are no bugs.

 

The front door and porch as you come up to the door.  

I have three ghosts hanging to the right of the door, but you can't see them in this picture.

Giant spider outside . . . 

and spiders all over inside. 

My friend Heidi has the inside of her front door covered with fun Halloween things her kids have made at school.

I love that idea and have copied it.

These are all Brandt's creations, mostly because Blythe hasn't really been to school yet.

I love them!

The entryway is crawling with bugs.

In addition to decorating, I find, during the month of October, that I feel compelled to do crafty things.  I am not a crafter by any means, but Halloween brings something out in me.  I purchase the makings of numerous crafts, but not being a natural crafter, not all my projects get done and those that do don't always turn out like I had hoped.  Still, we have done several things.

 

Mikayla wanted to make Frankenstein monster cupcakes and came over to our house to do it so we could help.

They were both cute and yummy.

Mik brought Kila who dug furiously in the yard and wound up with filthy paws.  

I had to give her a wash, just like the kids.

In addition to Frankenstein monster cupcakes, we made Rice Krispie treat candy corns.

Again, cute and tasty. 

The candy corn theme continues in a sugar cookie medium.  

These were small, only about twice the size of a regular candy corn.

I could have eaten 23 in rapid succession.

I restrained.

Somewhat.

Melted crayon pumpkins.

Looking at these pictures, it occurs to me that my "crafting" mostly involves food.

Perhaps I'll make a push over the next couple of days to do true crafty crafts.

We also went to Pumpkinland on a whim one sunny afternoon.  Pumpkinland is near Kent's office, we had gone to see him, and having about an hour, we stopped and ate popcorn as we went through the corn maze, the children climbed on the giant pumpkins, and played on the pumpkin pyramid.

I didn't have my camera with me when we went to Pumpkinland.  

It was an impromptu decision and I didn't have the camera in my purse.

So, although I took about ten pictures with my phone, only these two actually turned out.

While reading a blog, I discovered a picture editing site called picmonkey.  They have fun Halloween functions that allow you to make your pictures very spooky.  Mikayla has zombified and witched us in fun ways.  We look creepy.

Demon baby Donovan in a sink of blood.

Zombie Blythe wanting to eat Greyson's brain.

And speaking of creepy, last night we went down the street to a neighbor's house for a "haunted forest.  They live next to a small orchard and a vegetated hillside that is somewhat forest-like.  Many of the neighbor kids were dressed up in very scary masks and costumes and leapt out of the shrubbery to scare us.  Several times Brandt said, "I'm scared! I'm scared!"  Blythe, too, said she was scared, and when we finished she said, "Mom, that was really scary.  I don't ever want to do that ever again."  We'll probably go again next year.

All this fun festive holiday celebrating, and we still have three more days!

One last picture for this post.

Brandt is being Dracula.

He dramatically swept the blanket around himself as a cape and gave a sinister laugh.

The only thing missing were fangs and him saying, "I vant to suck your blood," with a cheesy accent.