and Halloween begins

Halloween is a big thing at our house. We used to live in town, before my crazy idea to have an organic farm, and every year we would have a haunted garage. The kids loved it, they loved helping set it up and be part of the props, it was the highlight of Halloween week. Maybe that explains why we have 5 tubs of Halloween stuff.....serious problem we have. There used to be a line of kids waiting to walk through the garage. One year we counted how many kids walked through and it was over 300. Shit, come think of it, why didn't we charge?? Hindsight.

Now that we are living out in the sticks, we don't have trick-or-treaters or haunted garages, although I have entertained the idea of having a haunted walk through our pine forest but the liability issues always stop me short, and the kids go into town with their friends and walk the old neighborhood to trick-or-treat. Considering the old neighborhood is like any typical suburban neighborhood, houses for miles right on top of each other, it doesn't take long for the kids to fill pillow cases full of candy. Yes, I said pillow cases. Their reason for being ready to go home? Their bags are too heavy to carry. Jesus.

Because I am neurotic about Halloween and love everything about it, I never let my kids be anything that isn't scary. No clowns, unless they have bloody fangs and claws; no fairies, unless they are all dirty, greasy hair and white face like a corpse; no cute little animals: bunnies, unless they are rabid; teddy bears, unless they are grizzlies; no kitty cats, unless they are also rabid with long claws and sharp teeth......you get the point and deepness of neuroses, right? It has become a family joke that the kids can be whatever they want for Halloween as long as it is scary and gross. Can you just imagine the years of therapy they will be paying for because of their insane, controlling, Halloween-freak of a mother??



See? Devil and Zombie Cheerleader, in my opinion, the only kind of Cheerleader to be.

It's a tradition that we set up the TV in the kitchen while we carve pumpkins and watch horror movies (love that TMC has 10 days of 24-hour horror movies!!) and bake pumpkin seeds. Then after they are done trick-or-treating, we all dump the candy in the middle of the floor, while watching horror movies, and sort it out in piles of like/dislike/want to trade/don't even think about touching.

The pumpkin pictures above are from last year.....I stole the idea of the pumpkin 'puking', but loved it so much, had to copy it.

Let's see, this year we have a pirate, dirty, torn-up, bloody, killer pirate, of course and a devil, complete with yellow fangs, bloody claws and flame emblazoned leotard. Wow, even just typing this makes me realize how over-the-edge I am!

If I find the energy between all my gore-inducing Halloween costume making, I will have to post a Flickr set of the Halloween costumes over the years......the level of insanity can only be conveyed through pictures, no?

Just to add to the level of fun, my friend and I are having an adult party this year, although it has to be the weekend after Halloween so the 'kid' stuff doesn't interfere with our adult fun!

And the kicker?? John and I are going to go as Lucy & Desi! Not scary! You should have heard the kids. They are bound and determined to find a way to make I Love Lucy disgusting and gory.......we'll see how creative they can be.

What are you and your kids doing for Halloween? And - a question - is there an age when you think kids are too old to trick-or-treat? I'd love to hear some opinions.