Blog Parties

Monday, November 2, 2009

Halloween-The finale

So how was your Halloween? Ours was spooktacular!!!! This year I procrastinated until the last minute on decorating outside for Halloween. I finished up about an hour before trick or treating started.

We had about 300-350 kids trick or treat to our house. A lot more than last year. I started out giving 2 pieces of candy, but after an hour, I realized that if I didn't cut back to 1 piece, I was going to run out of candy in a hurry. We did stop giving out candy at 9pm, as I only had a few pieces left.

Here are some photos of my outdoor Halloween decor.
My graveyard. I let this area become overgrown to make it more spooky. Who am I kidding, it looks like this most of the time. The grave stones all came from Dollar Tree over the last couple of years.

Here is a wider shot of the same area. I placed purple twinkling lights on the ground around the grave stones. And put orange lights in the palm trees. The RIP grave stone up front has a motion sensor. When someone walks by it lights up, makes thunder sound & then it screams. It came from Walmart a few years back.

I placed this skull & hands in the middle of my strawberry patch. Looks like a skeleton is coming up from the ground. I got these on clearance a few years back from some company online that I can't remember.


These signs warn you of the dangers ahead. I've had these a few years as well.


These spider web candle holders from Grandin Road are my only "new" purchase for outside this year. I just got them on 60% off clearance. They arrived just in time for Halloween.

I have this old bench that I love to place candles on at Halloween. I really need to paint this bench. The lantern came from Mervyn's on clearance a few years back. The pumpkin has a light inside that looks like a real candle. And my new spider web candle holders. I hung faux barbed wire with skulls along the top of the bench with some lights that look like flames.

I have the ugliest security door around. I hate it!!!! But it came with the house & I can't afford to replace it. It's great in the summer time though as you can leave the front door open and this door stays locked, so you get a breeze, but don't have to worry about your security. I hung a skeleton that I've had for probably 20 years. The "welcome" bat on the handle was made for me by a friend back in the 80's. I still think he is pretty cute.

This is the wall to the left of my front door. The large sign came from Joann Fabric about 5 years ago. The trick or treat sign above was purchased from a craft show some years ago.

I have a round table on my front porch that I always decorate. The spider web tablecloth is a plastic one from Walmart. The wax skull candle holder I've had for years. The black candlesticks were my brass ones I picked up from a thrift store a few weeks back. I spray painted them black just for Halloween. The candles were actually red candles I picked up at the thrift store. I spray painted them black as well. So when you light them, the red wax drips down over the black & they look like they are bleeding. Cool concept, but once the flame reaches the black paint it builds up & you get a ginormous flame. You have to keep cutting off the black paint at the top. So I only lit the candles until I got some blood dripping, and then blew them out. The pumpkin was an antique store find for $2.00. And yes it was already painted that color. The black pedestal that it sits upon was originally wood & from a thrift store. I painted it black as well.

To the left of my round table sits another bench. I placed spider web fabric on the seat, draped creepy cloth on the back & hung some ghost lights. The broom came from the Dollar Tree. The creepy hand is actually a glove that was stuffed, painted red fingernails & added a spider ring. I've had this for years.

Here is the left side of the same bench. The candelabra came from Micheal's a few years back. The ghost candle holder in front I've had forever.

This year I decided to hand my candelabra outside just for Halloween. It was great!

A spider web on my fountain. Did you notice that I let the water get all gross? My special touch just for Halloween.

Now some photos of everything at night.

The candelabra all lit up above my bench with the ghost lights.

A close up of my new spider web candle holders. The front 2 had real candles in them. The largest one in the back had a faux candle. Notice the difference in the light?

I placed orange lights in all the bushes along the left side of my entryway. Sorry that these night photos aren't that clear. I didn't want to use my flash & I'm using a pocket camera.

The palm trees and the bushes to the right & in front of my house also got orange lights. The graveyard area got purple lights.

My blood candles all lit up.

My hanging candelabra all lit up.

I love the look of dripping candles. I just hate to clean up the wax. By the end of the evening, these candles had burned almost all the way down.

And now for the one thing we do at Halloween that makes our house "The best house in the neighborhood" at least according to everyone who comes by. It's a DVD called Hallowindow that we project onto our front window using a projector. I purchased this DVD online last year. It came with 2 different tracks. Last year we played Hallowindow I. This year was Hallowindow II. If you want to see last years version, click here.

I video taped it looking at our front window from outside using my little camera. This video shows you what everyone walking or driving by our house got to see.




My 2 year grandson was suppose to dress up as Thomas the Train. As you can see from the following photos. He wasn't happy at all. He didn't want to dress up and he didn't want to go trick or treating. We didn't get to see him. Boo hoo!!! I stole these photos from my DIL's facebook page.
This is as far as dress up got. Oh well, there is always next year.
And one final bit of Halloween. I made a funny Halloween video of my family. It was fun putting together with the help of Jib Jab.
Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!


Cast:
Mad Scientist: Gunner (grandson)
Bride of Frankenstein: Kim (me)
Dracula: Mike (hubby)
Frankenstein: Jesse (stepson)
Wolfman: Brandon (son)

Since there was only room for 5 characters, I didn't include my other stepson and his wife (grandson's parents).


Well I hope that you enjoyed my Halloween. I know I did. What did you do Halloween? Did you pass out candy? If so, how many kids came to your house. Or did you take your kids or grandkids trick or treating. If you don't celebrate Halloween, what do you do instead?

Now it's on to Thanksgiving!!!

10 comments:

  1. Loved all of your halloween decorations...it's no wonder you had so many trick 'r treaters...it looks like the scariest house on the block!!
    Jane

    ReplyDelete
  2. No wonder you had so many kids - You advertised, LOL ! I guess next year , you better buy more candy !
    Love your card and all your decorations !
    Kammy
    p.s. not one kid came to our house - must be that long walk to the country, LOL !

    ReplyDelete
  3. I bet those 350 kids are still talking about your house....I wish I lived in your neighborhood! Everything was so fantastic...♥ that candle chandelier! That animated Halloween card was a hoot!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Wow! You sure had some great ideas. I never thought about spray painting candles or the candle holders. Great job.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks for stopping by. Your Halloween decorations are great. No wonder all the kids want to come to your house - 300 wow! You must have just stayed at the door all night. I loved the Jib Jab. I have seen something where President Bush danced, but I didn't know you could make one with your own family. Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Kim, You certainly went all out- I love it!! We've always tried to have something unique to entertain our tricksters- Music, lighting, a haunted house... There aren't many kids in our neighborhood now- we didn't get more than 20 this year, and I was used to hundreds. Guess they all grew up?! Oh well, more candy for me.... LOL

    ReplyDelete
  7. Wow, girl. You got the spooky decorating mojo going on. Love the skull in the strawberries. Could that be a new Nancy Drew mystery book? The case of the skull in the strawberry patch? You are too young to probably even know who ND is. Do you decorate for Thanksgiving, too?

    ReplyDelete
  8. love the decorations :D

    isn't that just like a kid to NOT want to dress up LOL :D

    ReplyDelete
  9. 350 kids? Wow, we had maby 30. Loved your decorations. You always to a great job.

    cindy@stitches

    ReplyDelete
  10. You sure had a fun time on Halloween. I enjoyed all your pics and the little one who didn't want to dress up is so cute.

    Great decorations....no wonder you had so many kids!

    Thanks for dropping by and I do hope you link up on Thanksgiving!

    ReplyDelete