The Brewer's Halloween Special!

 

I have to say that this year's All Hallow's Eve festivities were awesome. If I were to describe the day in two words: Laid Back.

We started the day with cinnamon buns & juice. We had the TV on TCM & AMC for cheesy scary movies. I used my brighter eye shadows to give Mae a fairy face paint. Cameron joined in the fun and I gave him a black eye. Josiah refused to have any part of it. I gave up on him and took a wedge brush and pigment to my own face. After putting a few finishing touches on costumes (I made myself a pen necklace & dyed Mae's hair red), we had carne asada for lunch (Cameron makes amazing carne asada). I cleaned up, the kids watched Nightmare Before Christmas while chowing down on cookies. Before we knew it, it was time to get ready. I started way ahead of time on my hair. It had been a challenge on Saturday for Talicia's party. I did a better job on Halloween and got it done faster. I can't believe people use to do their hair like that all time! Once my hair was secured to my head with back-combing, bobby pins & hairspray, I dressed my little ones.

Cameron got dressed in his "Guy from 1993 costume": flannel, sweater, Nirvana shirt, ripped jeans. A slight alteration to his day to day outfit. We had promised the kids a trip to McDonald's and they were thrilled. I loved watching them march in there with their costumes, proud as could be. We hadn't been to a fast food place in a long time, much less inside one and sitting down. They were on cloud 9.

It was dusk when we left and we headed down a street close to the Gamble House. The houses were incredible! A few of them were decorated really well! There were already groups of kids out. This street looked like Halloween from the movies: huge oak trees lining the streets, groups of kids squealing with delight & parents smiling and chatting with each other. The house that we had to get to first was decorated like The Haunted Mansion. They had a Madam Leota, singing ghosts, the bride from the attic and the hitchhiking ghosts. It was incredible.  The house next door had parked a van to look like it had crashed into their house because of a spider attack. Smoke poured from the engine and spiders had killed any occupants of the van and wrapped them quickly as left overs for later. It was quite impressive. We stayed in that neighborhood for an hour and then headed to South Pasadena.

I recommend a drive through South Pasadena any time of the year. It's gorgeous. On Halloween it's magical. Most houses are decorated, neighbors sit out in lawn chairs to pass out candy & everyone seems to be in the spirit.  We ended up trick or treating near two "famous" houses: The Draper residence from Mad Men & The Banks residence from Father of the Bride. Both houses were great, the English couple that lives at the Father of the Bride house were the only ones who knew what Josiah & Mae were the whole night! They were so sweet, calling him "The Doctor" while handing out candy.

We spent another 2 hours in the neighborhood, impressed by the effort that some of these people put into their homes for one day. One gentleman, dressed as a ghastly butler handed out candy in his front yard full of floating ghosts, another had three life-sized witches standing around a bubbling cauldron & another had giant glowing cat eyes looking down on us from upstairs windows.
We finally got back to the car, my feet hurting (why did I wear heels again?) & ready to show the kids the house used in the original Halloween. We turned on the street, I pushed play on the theme and we drove slowly down the drive way. It was pretty spooky. Even if it's only a chiropractor's office now.

Cameron made his way back up to our house, but not before we found an spooky Gothic house, complete with a wrought iron gate, fog pouring from open graves and lightening that seemed to be affecting only the haunted property! As we left, the gates eerily closed. We were the last welcome guests of the evening. The specters and spirits grew weary of the living!

We turned the Ghostbuster's theme back on and drove home. We visited with Tiffani. The kids shared with her their spoils of the evening. Bruno the cat also stole a few bites of chocolate. After bidding "Good evening" to Tiff, I wanted out of the confines of my 1960's costume! Panty hose are not my friends. The kids on the other hand would not shed their Gallifrey-en gear. Josiah requested a spooky episode of Doctor Who that they watched while I removed 9,500 bobby pins from my head. At bed time, I put my favorite Universal Monster movie on: The Wolf Man. Josiah loves it too.

As soon as Mae was in bed and covered up, she was asleep. Amy Pond was tired of her adventures. A girl has to get her beauty rest. Josiah managed to stay up and see Lon Chaney Jr transform, but soon he too had fallen asleep (not without a valiant fight, sonic screwdriver in hand), dreaming of the TARDIS, Rory & saving the galaxy. As soon as both were asleep, I found a couple of goodies from their Mickey Mouse pumpkins. Thank goodness for dark chocolate reese's peanut butter pumpkins! I watched a little more of Wolf Man and drifted off to sleep.

When my kids think back to Halloween and want to capture that feeling again, I know they'll think of this Halloween. It was the best Halloween I've had with them. I can't stop thinking about it or the joy of the evening.

I have a ton of pics and some video to put up still. I'll save the pics for Wordless Wednesday.  :) I apologize for the weird layout, I'll try to fix it later. :)