happy haunting

maybe it's just me, but did anyone else have a really hard time selecting a halloween costume this year? my dilemma was mostly a result of the epic awesomeness of last year's costume. how to do top this?

not possible!!! well, i put it off so long that i was forced to recycle a past costume. i made this one a few years ago:

too bad most of the kids had no idea what i was supposed to be.

every halloween we have a party/carnival herat work. since that holds little to no appeal for my teens, we put on a haunted house for the younger kids to enjoy. our goal (or rather, the teens' goal) is to have at least 5 kids get too scared to finish and have at least one crier. i'm not so sure how i feel about that, but i suppose it is a good measure of success for a haunted house. i mean, if no one is scared you're doing it wrong.

this year we built a fairly elaborate maze out of cardboard boxes with vignets in wide open areas. the maze itself is totally enclosed and basically pitch black while the haunted portions are lit solely by a single red light in the middle of the room. it's actually pretty creepy. i went through this year and i jumped at least once, which is sad since i helped build the thing and i positioned the scarers so i should have know exactly what to expect. i'm kind of disappointed with myself, but extremely proud of my kids and their haunting ability.

after the maze closed, we had to strike the set. and by that i mean complete and utter destruction of the maze. it was kind of my favorite part :)



and then my boss got in on the action (she's the one with the fantastic mad hatter costume)