Fourth Annual Hallowe'en Festival 2015

The morning glow shot for 2015.  I was up at 3:45 (old person insomnia comes in handy sometimes) so I had an early jump on getting ready for the day's festivities.  Mom and Dad were not coming until later in the morning, a double booking at the Thatcher-Miller Hotel lead them to cancel their original reservation and just drive up three days in a row.  

We had two frosty mornings this week so the leaves are changing more each day.  They were green last weekend and by next weekend they should be mostly down on the ground.  Baylor has been looking forward to playing in the leaves for weeks now.  

I brought the pinatas out of the laundry room.  We had a candy corn and a sugar skull this year.  They took most of the weekends in September to finish.  

I set up the photo area with the dress up stuff.  Mom and I picked up a few more items at the thrift stores this year.  I think next year I am going to put grommets in the canvas and use hooks to hang it up instead of the tape.  It will look better and stay up better that way. 

I added just a few more games this year.  One was the apple bobbing with the ladles.  The kids seemed to enjoy it though most of the apples were only half eaten or left behind.  But no one left with a wet face.  

While I have the same decorations, I try not to make it look the same every year. And then I give things to my dad and tell him to just hang them up so don't know where they will end up.  In the end, it is all good.      

I had a bit of a change up this year because Gloria removed one of the tables, the one I used for food, so I had to change the floor plan.  But it worked out.  The food went on the back table and the crafts went on the patio table.  

Kristia and her gang were the first to arrive, while I was still making the churros.  They were a hit this year, especially with Baylor.  It was a beautiful morning and not too windy, which can be an issue with the games. 

Another new came was the Spider in the Web game I built.  I bought plush spiders online and they were tossed into the web hole all day! 

Other than that, the set up was pretty much the same as last year.  

I did make a sign for the direction to the bathroom.  I started it with Ghouls and Bats Room (Girls and Boys Room) but I thought the girls might not like being a ghoul and a ghost was a bit more neutral.  

There was an issue with bounce house and we almost did not have one. They apparently never received my reservation request and when they did not show up I messaged them on FB.  She made the arrangements to have it there by 10:30 and it was.   Which made Baylor super happy of course.  He was asking all morning when it was going to arrive.  Molly was one of the few girls who came and she was a Little Pony.  She loved the play house and brought every other girl who arrived over to play in it with her.  

Kartikey was there and I don't think the two of them left the bounce house all day.  I would see them grab a bite to eat and sip to drink and there were off again.

Baylor of course wants to be the first in everything and was quite upset when the little kids got to go first.    

I let him be the first of his age group which was acceptable.  He wore his Storm Trooper costume for a while and eventually took it off when it got too hot.  I had fun getting the grass stains off the knees!  

Kartikey was Spiderman.  

Molly, Little Pony of some sort. 

It took two rounds of kids until it cracked.  One of the older kids asked why it was so hard and I explained it was hard so the little kids all got at least one turn hitting it before the big kids broke it open.  He understood then.  

We did a peanut toss between pinatas.  I think the Sugar Skull turned out pretty spectacular. 

The tiniest one up first, he will be two in November. Thankfully Grandma was there to help.  

He took one turn and then waited on the sidelines for it to crack.  They all got excited when they saw it crack but they had only broken the false back of the head!  More whacking ensued.  

And eventually, it too broke open and spilled its insides all over the grass.  It was a good party with a good turn out.  Well, for Baylor it was a good turn out.  I was sad because my friends were not able to come due to illness, (Tara, I am talking about you) and the McGraws had to cancel because of a broken refrigerator. And Kartikey's mom had to work.  I did shed some tears over it all but pulled myself together because the party must go one.  And it did, for another year.