Halloween Fright Fest, 2012

Last night was our annual Halloween party.  Each year, I swear that I won't do it again next year, but those big blue eyes of my girls change my mind every time, darn it!

Because I'm so involved in the party, I have yet to get a picture of any of it.  Just imagine everything dripping with Halloween decorations.  Seriously, we have more Halloween decor than Christmas stuff.  And food?  Meatballs, punch, candy, severed-finger cookies, Cheetos, a jell-o brain.  Here are the highlights from last night:

• Knowing that Johannah will be planning activities for the rest of her life, I put her in charge.  You can't imagine the number of lists I have found around the house!  However, they were all for good reason--everything was ready to go by the time the guests arrived.
• Our 1/4 mile long driveway was lit with luminaries (100 paper bags, 100 pounds of sand and 100 candles).  We've never done it before, but we will definitely be doing it again.  The dark night, and our driveway lined with candlelight.  It looked so cool! 
• The kids were dropped off at the bottom of the driveway where I gave them glo bracelets and sent them up in the driveway in groups of five.  They were told to follow the luminaries up to the house, not knowing that John had planned a "haunted forest" through the one section of our driveway that is lined in trees.  He had recruited other adults to help him, and I couldn't help but laugh a nervous, terrified kind of laugh every time I heard the screams coming from the forest.  The "kids" (these are teenagers mind you) loved it.  In fact, after everyone had arrived, I insisted on going through it too--as John says, fear is an exciting thing!
• We had cleaned out and decorated our rather large garage--spider webs, strobe lights, spooky ghosts that talked, and a fog machine.  Johannah had line dance music going so while everyone arrived, they were dancing and eating.  None of that uncomfortable what-do-you-do-when-you-first-arrive-at-a-party feeling.
• Next was a hay ride through the neighborhood and "bigger or better".  It doesn't matter how many kids we invite (or don't invite), there's never quite enough room on the hay wagon!  However, they squish, and it's fun for all.  
• Bigger or Better.  The kids split up into teams of five and were given a small bag of M&M's.  We dropped them off throughout the neighborhood where they rang people's doorbells and asked for something "bigger or better" in exchange for their bag of M&M's.  I don't even know how many doors they knocked on for each series.  You wouldn't believe the things the kids got!
• a light-up Christmas reindeer for the yard
• a mattress
• a Rembrandt painting (an original, of course ;-))
• a stunt bicycle
• a vase, decorative pillow and a Nike sport bag
• Of course, I love sitting on the tractor with John, circling the neighborhood, and just enjoying a beautiful fall night.
• Next, we played musical chairs in the garage.  There's nothing like seeing 24 teenagers, trying to win this kids' game!
• Next, gross fest.  I mean Fear Factor.  We enlisted five "volunteers" to play, and we promised them that the reward would be good.  In fact, the prize was $10 in candy (wrapped in a pretty bag), or a $10 bill.  What did they need to do?  Drink a crazy combination of sardines, Spam, green beans, dill relish, mustard, lemon juice and tomato sauce, all blended into a chunky cocktail, before anyone else.  Unbelievably, the winner was Audrey Foster, a 12-year-old Asian girl (I can say this because I tease her mom all the time about being Asian), who said it tasted like chicken salad!  She even beat JOHN!!!  She took the candy :-)
• The pinata was next.  John had jimmy rigged the thing to hang between the tractor bucket (lifted sky high) and a ladder.  It took too long to break, but the kids were glad when it finally did.  Of course, we finally had to use a stick (versus a plastic bat) and took off the blindfold to break old Frankenstein.  
• Finally, Glo's favorite part of the night.  A bonfire in the backyard with s'mores.  John told his scary "Golden Arm" story that never fails to scare everyone.
• Johannah's friend Collin drove up from Virginia for the party, so the Hoefts stayed with us through the night.  They even helped clean up the very sticky counters from the "witch's brew" (punch with dry ice).  It's good to have friends.

Like I said, I could have told most of this with a couple of pictures, but I don't think I'll ever find time to stop and take one!  

One end note.  I'm thankful that my kids keep me young.  John and I used to throw our own adult Halloween parties in Germany, and they were EPIC.  Would I want to throw one now?  Probably not.  I would have a million excuses, but the main one would be that it's just too much effort.  However, we will do just about anything for our kids, and when the kids ask for a Halloween party (and never expect, nor ask for a birthday party), why would we say "no"?  The morning after the party, I'm always glad that we did it.

And I tell them that we're not going to do it again next year.  

Yeah, right.