#CountdownToHalloween2024 - 4 events in 4 days!

So the last couple days have been really busy! 

I actually have pics from 5 events here, but I'm claiming artistic license. 

I've mentioned before that I volunteer on a search & rescue team so some of these events were with them. 

10/19 was the Elba Fire Dept Trunk or Treat. 

We gave kids the option of candy or pinecones (we were sitting in the shade, facing a large pine tree)

and it was hilarious how many kids took the pinecones!

Beginning the 4 day streak - Thursday, 10/24 was the Top Lights Trunk or Treat

I love going to this.  State troopers, county sheriff's dept, city police, several different fire depts, ambulances, animal control, conservation officers, victim services, child services, and of course - us! 

2 of our very professional K9s

Chuck & Maurice (the disco ball skeleton) were both there!

It was reported that 1400 trick or treaters went thru!

10/25 was the Trunk or Treat at my grandkids' daycare. 

It's supposed to run from 6-8pm but it was pretty much done shortly after 7. 

A couple cars had grown-up treats, too! 

My adorable grandkids. 

Saturday we met up with my sister & her family at Huckleberry RR in Flint, MI for their Ghosts & Goodies event.  

The Spawn in jail

It was fun and very well organized - this is a neat little village where you could trick or treat - and each building was decorated and none of them gave out the same candy.  There were large plywood ghosts that pointed in the direction of the next stop so you could be sure to hit them all.  

We also had tickets for the train. It was about a 45 minute ride thru the woods and they had all sorts of cute little vignettes that were all kid-friendly.  

Finally, Sunday 10/27 was the inaugural trunk or treat at my VFW.  

I thought we had a good turn out - there were about 16 cars (and one Harley!) and I'm not sure how many kids came thru, but there seemed to be a fairly steady stream for the whole 2 hours.

Now we need to build a kid-sized hamster wheel and hook it up to a power station and let the grand kids produce electricity to our house for a while!

#CountdownToHalloween2023 local haunt spotlight - Clinton Twp Neighbor Haunt

OMG - Just a handful of days to go!

October needs to be longer - there's so much more that I want to do, but there's just not enough hours or days.  

So local to me, there's the Clinton Township Neighbor Haunt.  They post a whole map of houses that are participating and you can choose where you want to go.   Since I had the Spawn & grandkids with me, I chose wisely since nobody wants to fight with toddlers + carseats a bunch of times.  

We've gone to Colman St before - it's totally worthwhile to go there.  There's a lot of houses (at least there was 2 years ago when I went) that decorate and I really appreciated that they saw we had a small child and kept the scares toned down around us.  My car got stuck in the mud and I had a troupe of clowns push me out!   However, the Spawn isn't a fan of clowns, so we haven't gone since. 

Twisted Fears is also really cool.  The yard is fantastically decorated and they do a haunted walkthru in their garage.  The only issue I had with that is I caught up to the weenies who went before me and I missed all the scares!  

One of the places we went to is Mayhem on Esplanade - this is one of those places that you have to wonder just exactly what the owner does for a living since he had ALL the big props and those aren't cheap!   I didn't get many pictures since there was just so much to look at!

I had't seen the ghost in person before this - that is awesome!!!

Chuck had a good time, too.

There was a real hearse and a couple real caskets, too.

All of the floating JOLs were so cool!

Next is actually the first place we went to.  I don't know Bob, the owner, personally but I am friends with him on Facebook.  He goes by Attic Hatch.  His imagination & artistry is just amazing. 

All of his props are homemade. 

A fanigrl moment - I got this for my birthday! 

moving on....

this is his newest "pump-karn-ivore"

The Mutant Mantis

The Escape of the Mutants

Monster Wasp

Creep-Roaches

Thie sign on the giant snake says don't feed pets or children to the snake after daylight hours.

the Radioactive Spider

Mutant Long Legs

Skewer-Pion

Mega-Rilla

The little shadows on the right are the grands. 

Giant Window Rat

aw man, I just realized I didn't get a pic of the guy up on the watchtower with a floodlight and the giant spider climbing up to get him.  I think that's when I was just standing there taking it all in!

So we did do the walking portion of the Neighbor Haunt, too.  I didn't get any pics there because I was enjoying the night we had where I didn't have to wear a coat and there weren't many people out, which is what I was hoping!  The kids enjoyed themselves, too. 

As of Sunday, October 22 - very little color on the maple trees!

what the forecast doesn't show is the high of 77* today before the bottom drops out tonight and we get our regularly scheduled crappy Michigan Halloween weather. 

on the plus side, I did get my 4 foot skeletons slathered with Apoxie Sculpt after work yesterday so they'll be going out into the cemetery probably tomorrow!   I didn't think I'd get a chance to work on them this season!

#CountdownToHalloween2023 Secret Reaper

So I frequent the HalloweenForum message boards, probably not as much as I used to, but I still pop on there periodically throughout the year.  Of course I have to sign up for the annual Secret Reaper!

Imagine something like a Secret Santa, but Halloween.  You get assigned someone to reap and someone gets assigned you!  There's a thread of "likes & dislikes" and we also submit a list to the lady who makes the assignments.  This is pretty necessary since there are so many variations of what people like regarding their H'ween.  Like I don't do blood & gore and I don't do the movie or cartoon characters, etc.  It's also handy to note if you're doing a theme.  If you want, you can mention your family situation or critters. 

Some are hard!  I had to reap someone who said he didn't have much room , so he mentioned 28mm miniatures, etc.  I had no idea what those were, but I assumed it was like Dungeons & Dragons type stuff.  And even if I was wrong, he seemed to have liked it.  

But what I got?  Either they are excellent shoppers or totally ignored the $20 spending limit! 

Loved the box decorations.

maple leaves - of course! 

.

I mentioned having cats & gee - I wonder if Rusty thinks there's something in there for him? 

bunny skeleton!  I don't have a little one like this already. 

Love this necklace!  

Bling is always good. 

Score!  Catnip toys & treats!

OMG - I love this!  It's a glasses cleaning cloth!

Personalized with Chuck & my cemetery sign! 

These are so good!  And crazy rich.  

I've been sharing them with the Spouse after the grandkids go to bed.

I'm going to have one of my skeletons in the yard holding this. 

Chuck earrings!  

And they're super lightweight, which is what I look for in earrings. 

Chuck keychain!

The owl has a buddy out in the yard. 

I think I'll put this little guy out in the yard in a random place...

CHUCK MUG!  

With a bunch of critter skeletons!!

I forgot to take a pic of the socks as I unboxed them, so here they are on my feet!

Dinosaur skeletons with ToT buckets!

Then there was a second box for the grandkids.

Stickers & bubbles & toys & candy!  

Everything that a kid dreams about at Halloween!

And 3D printed cauldrons which are super cool. 

So yeah, my reaper was awesome.  

It's about time to take a peek at the long term forecast and see what kind of lousy weather we'll get here in SE Michigan on & around Halloween.....

I can deal with the upper 40s for temp, but the rain needs to not happen!