Halloween is upon us

Halloween Decoration #1 - check

 I made a promise to myself a real long time ago that when I had my own house, I would do it up real big when it came to the holidays. Well, Halloween is upon us, and by golly I finally got me that house. And while I joke and poke fun at the state of things around here, I also realize that little by little we really ARE turning this formerly dirty little thing into a home. Did I mention it's blue? Man I love a blue house.

So, that being said, I'm turning my attention away from the endless painting that has become my life, and the girls and Chris and I are making big plans (we're so good at making the plans) to decorate our abode for our neighborhood's celebration of all things ghoulish.

We've been told that the Independence Parkers take their Halloween seriously. We plan to go spider web to spider web with the best of them this year.

The question that gets asked around here the most these days is 'how many more days until Halloween?' As we tick off numbers, we also make lists. Here it is so far:

1) Spider webs and fake spiders
2) Tomb stones in front yard
3) Sidewalk to the house lined with many carved jack-o-lanterns
4) Ghosts hanging from the front tree
5) A pumpkin with a bloody leg coming out of its mouth; a man-eating pumpkin. Mae swears it should be called a pumpkin, eating man. I forgive her her misunderstanding of hyphenation.
6) A fog machine in the front yard
7) eery sounds coming from the front door
8)A pumpkin fence (This is Mae's idea, inspired by the candy cane fences she loves at Christmas time. I tried to tell her it would be a very short fence.)
9) A bat chandelier hanging by front door. (Link here). I didn't follow the directions exactly, and I think I made it easier.

It goes on, but I'm trying to keep a touch of reality to the whole planning process, so I usually cut them off at a certain point. And since we will be out of town quite a bit before the big day, we are really limited in terms of crafting time.

Today I finished item #9 on the list. The girls got all excited when they saw the supplies come out. I gathered them around me and started to direct but the looks on their faces stopped me.

What? I asked.

We don't want to help, they said. We want to go outside and play with our friends.

It looks like I've got my work cut out for me.