Happy Halloween

JE dressed up as a member of the Power Rangers SPD (which I assume means Special Police Department, or something else equally clever, witty, and irrelevant) while Amber was a pink butterfly.

Liz picked me up from the Bus Station, then we went and grabbed a couple of pizzas, picked up her dad, and headed for the Church where we ate the pizzas while waiting for everyone to arrive for the Trunk or Treat party. Our Church decided to create a safer way for kids to Trick or Treat, so every Halloween the members of our church now park in the church parking lot, open their trunks, pull out the decorations, and decorate the back ends of their cars for "Trunk or Treat".

Having made a last minute reservation for Trunk or Treat (the church likes to know who's attending), and an unsuccessful last minute hunt for costumes for us (adult costumes, that is. The kids already had theirs) I told Liz not to bother getting decorations because most of the people who decorate their cars go to extravagant lengths, so any cheap, last minute attempt we made would look like a cheap, last minute attempt.

After Amber and JE made the rounds of the cars, JE stood behind our car giving out the candy we'd brought. We were the only ones there with Cadbury's Chocolate Frogs :)

I think Cadbury totally missed the boat by not teaming up with Warner Bros. and inserting Harry Potter picture cards into each Chocolate Frog packet. Unless they did do that, but only in the U.K. or Australia while I wasn't there.

On the way home we stopped at a neighborhood "Haunted House". Not a real Haunted House but one someone had created in their backyard for Halloween. As we slowed down to look at it JE announced that he wanted to go in. So Liz stopped the car and we joined the small group of people standing outside the Haunted House. The excited screams and squeals from inside told me that our neighbors had gone the extra mile to ensure any visitors to their Haunted House received a good scare.

When we got to the front of the line the man asked if we wanted to be scared, or not scared. Looking down at the 5-year old boy hanging off my arm I decided "not scared" was probably the wiser choice. A small group behind us had two little 'uns with them, even younger than JE, so they wanted to come through and be "not scared" as well. The man said the little 'uns could come through and be "not scared" but the older girls (teenagers) needed to be scared, so their mom took the little 'uns in, with JE and I bringing up the rear.

The man led us through the twisting, turning, narrow corridors of the Haunted House, calling out "Not scary! No scaring, please! Not scary." It's amazing what you can do with a tarpaulin, numerous sheets of black plastic, a fog machine and fake cobwebs. At various points the Haunted House's narrow corridors opened up (ever so slightly) into small rooms whereupon there'd be either someone in a monster costume who'd wave and say hello, or some scary props, such as glowing skulls with red eyes.

JE got a little bit scared, and it was probably a little scarier than he was expecting, but as we went through I reminded him about Luigi in the Nintendo Gamecube game Luigi's Mansion. Although Luigi is scared he still enters a Haunted House and fights the ghosts inside to rescue Mario. Reminding JE of Luigi helped him to be brave, and before we knew it we had made it through the Haunted House and were out the other side.

When we got home and had put Amber down for the night, it came as no surprise to me when JE pulled Luigi's Mansion from the cupboard and asked me to play :)