Halloween 2013

Axel the lumberjack and Pearl the 80's aerobics instructor

Halloween was pretty relaxed this year.  Jeremy had a futsal game late that night so I opted to leave the lights off and not hand out candy.  We came up with costumes for the kids using items we had around the house.  Then we went out once it started to get dark.  We visited the church down the street and stopped by a couple of our neighbors' houses.  Since we were only making a few stops, we didn't even have Pearl bring a bag to put her candy in.  Our neighbors are apparently extremely generous though and we ended up filling up our pockets before heading home.

Once we got back, we let Pearl pick out one piece of candy to eat in her high chair.  Then Jeremy left for his game, I put Pearl to bed, and I feasted on candy.  It was a good night.

-Kira

Halloween Night

Last night was so much fun! I really enjoyed decorating for Halloween.  This was my first year attempting it.  We had around 60-70 trick-or-treaters of all different ages.  Some of the little ones were afraid of all of the spiders I had hanging from the top of the entryway and a few of the teenagers were freaked out by the shadow of my dress form in the window.  Parents and children alike were appreciative of the decorations.  It was definitely a success! 

I couldn't get a single photo to do the decorations justice.  I tried taking pictures during the day and in the dark.  All of the spiders were too small to be visible in the photos.  They were certainly the coolest part.  I wish I could show them to you.  Here are a few photos:

 You can see a few spiders in this one.  They were hanging everywhere!

 Our little family of mice.

 The green glow.

I hope your Halloween was as fun as ours!
-Kira

P.S. If you're interested this is a link to all of my posts dedicated to decorating for Halloween this year.

Halloween update and other things

Tonight Jeremy isn't home so it's just me and the dogs.  The weather is so terrible the dogs won't even go outside so we are just hanging out.  I'm drinking hot chocolate with marshmallows, working on Halloween decorations and watching Trail Blazers Courtside.  If you happen to be an Oregonian and a Blazers fan let me tell you, this show is so much funnier on television than it is on the radio.  I heart Mike Rice.
Anyway, a few people have asked me where I'm at with the Halloween decorations.  I'm really not that far to be honest, but I will have everything ready to put up by Saturday.  The plan is to cut out a bunch of black silhouettes of different creatures.  I'm going to have tons of mice scurrying against the base of the hallway, a creepy owl in my sewing room window with hopefully a green glowing light behind it, and a bunch of bats.  Some of the bats will be attached to the side of the house while others will be folded to look like they are in flight attached to the roof overhang with fishing wire.  There will be spiderwebs with lots of spiders hanging down from the overhang as well.  Below are photos of the silhouettes I have been cutting out.

 We better get a ton of trick-or-treaters to make this worth it!  I already bought a ridiculous amount of candy and I am trying very hard to not eat it myself.  I don't have much self control when it comes to chocolate.  According to Jeremy I have 1/16 the self control he does when it comes to sugary treats.  I think it might actually be worse than that.
 Happy Monday!
-Kira

Decorating for Halloween

I have never shown pictures of the front of our house.  Even when we first bought it and I posted photos I avoided the front.  This is because it's really ugly. We plan to eventually change everything and make it look more like a house and less like a fortress.  Here is the entry way in all of its glory...

 Notice how someone patched in a rectangular security door to go over an archway.  That probably kills me more than anything.  Also, you can see I have a pretty sweet view of the back of the garage from my sewing room.  I'm thinking maybe a mural is in order.
 I may have figured out one positive to this situation though.  Halloween.  I have been told by the neighbors that we get a ton of trick-or-treaters on our street.  I think our house looks scary as it is so we may as well embrace it and decorate.  If we don't decorate I doubt the cute kids in their little costumes will even knock on the door because this place is just not very inviting as it is.  I only plan to decorate for that particular day.  I don't want to clutter up the narrow hallway for the weeks prior to the event.  My dilemma is that I have never decorated for Halloween before and I am not sure what way to take it.  Should we go for fun and playful or really scary like a haunted house?  I'm also looking for things to do that are cheap and relatively easy to make since they are only going up for one day.  I've started to compile photos of concepts that I could handle making from the Martha Stewart website.  There are a lot of great ideas!

Please share your decorating ideas!  I could really use the help.
-Kira