"Scary" Halloween

For the first time ever, I had outdoor props for Halloween. But it felt as though I went overboard, even though my display was nowhere near as gruesome as our costumes on the Zombie walk.

Last winter I made this tombstone out of styrofoam. I was planning on making about 7 of them, but it was a messy job, and we were preparing to sell our house, so I stopped after just one.

Turns out one is a good number.

Thankfully the weather was very good yesterday, as I spent an hour digging a thin trench in the front yard just the right size to slide the tombstone into. I also propped it up with a few paving stones, and concealed them with leaves. I really should find a better way to hold this tombstone upright. I can't imagine how long it would have taken to set up an entire graveyard.

Not only was it time consuming to set one grave up, but it, along with the groundbreaker ghoulish head (the one delivered to me at work), and my fog machine, were actually scaring kids away from our house.

I know what you're thinking. Those wusses! I told them to suck it up, but very, very small, and very, very young toddlers don't seem to respond well to intimidation. I am used to getting teenaged trick-or-treaters: the ones that actually appreciate some of this stuff. But this year, in our new house, the average age of the kids we got was about 4.

So, off went the fog machine, and I spent much of the night consoling small pink ponies, baby ninjas, and more princesses than I could shake a stick at. But I have to admit it was 10x better than worrying about teenagers making off with half my props while I waited for the doorbell to ring.

For me it was a Happy Halloween. For the kids, it was most definitely scary.