Why I Oughta...

It seems like Menards Halloween has come back this year.  After a down year (at least it appeared to me to be 'down' and likely due to COVID + Supply Chain issues), it appeared that - on our visit this month - they had TONS of new stuff.  This post is going up in late August, but our visit was on Saturday, August 13th, so they had all of their stuff up mid-August.  I've covered this in the past - here's last year .  Below is a look at their Halloween village.  Of note, they've TOTALLY phased out all Lemax Village buildings and are now showing their own house brand of Pumpkin Hollow Halloween buildings and structures.  Menards always has a good set of holiday inflatables and this year they're showing a new (to me) Disney licensed Halloween inflatable featuring the three Sanderson Sisters from Hocus Pocus (and soon... Hocus Pocus 2 ).  It is just five feet wide, but costs more than $100.  Dang that Disney license.   Menards is also selling...

I've covered Halloween inflatables here on the blog over the years - but they've mostly been about Menards.  Like this Blinking Owl from a few years back .  Or these two big inflatables that Nat allows me to put on the porch for a few weeks the past two years.   This year Menards has gone all-in on Jack Skellington, Sally and Oogie Boogie from 'The Nightmare Before Christmas'. But, I've been going to Home Depot a little bit more regularly than I was in the past and discovered their Halloween section this season and am delighted (and surprised) by all the Beetlejuice stuff there.  The biggest piece in the whole section is this inflatable, animated Sand Worm that you can see in the photo above. The center-most worm moves - and you can see it in this brief video below: That's not the only Beetlejuice item - they also have another giant Sand Worm, but this time, it has a screen on the face of it to broadcast movies.  They claim to use 'projectio...

We might not live in Elmhurst any longer, but that doesn't mean we can't keep *some* of our Halloween traditions alive, right?  We didn't find time to get to Sonny Acres this year, but we DID get to Canyon Trail Cemetery in Carol Stream .  I posted about our visit to this house in 2016 , in 2015 , and in 2014 here on the blog.  If you have time, head there before the place disappears for the season tonight!

Or...at least with some ridiculous inflatables on the front porch.  For record-keeping purposes, here's the annual (or some-what-annual) photo of our house decorated for Halloween.  You can see the Big Pumpkin (or "Big Pump" as the kids call him) along with Frankenstein on our front porch.  You'll also note that the mums at the bottom of the steps are the very same ones I 'tied up' with my pro-tip earlier this fall .  There are also a couple of cinderella pumpkins stashed on the stairs near the right railing that you can - if you look closely - see peeking out.  This is the first holiday in our #newoldfarmhouse, so we're starting from scratch decorations-wise.  We've come a long way from last year when we were living in Equation Boy/Man and Vic's house (thanks to their generosity!).  Here's a photo from last year that shows the decorations .  Frankenstein is the only survivor from this whole setup!   To be fair, the line of pumpki...

It is no secret that I have a soft spot for two holiday-related items that are, umm, not super cool.  The first is Christmas Village structures .  Have you met Mantleburg ?  The other?  Holiday-themed inflatables .  Most recently, I've covered how we picked up this blinking eye owl Halloween inflatable .  And I've posted some photos and videos of other Christmas and Halloween inflatables at Menards over the years.  I even have a playlist on my YouTube Channel showing some of these Menards inflatables. The spark for this whole thing around inflatables can be traced back to this post in December of 2013 .  That's when I finally caved and bought our first inflatable .  You'll note that the Christmas of 2013 lines up with the Babe growing up and having some holiday-related awareness.  She and now her sister and brother have certainly influenced my purchase behavior. And, to be fair, I think Nat isn't sold on them.  Scratch tha...

Just yesterday, I posted another photo of Menards Halloween setup with two of the kids and I've already covered a few of the Spooky Town structures .  But, there's a few things that we've bought already that have me giddy with Halloween excitement.  I'll share the bigger things in another post, but first, check out the newest inflatable to our crew: He blinks!?! Yeah.  And this one is definitely not a budget buster and there was just one box remaining on the shelves, so I *had* to buy it, right?  It remains to be seen where Nat will allow me to put up the inflatables at the #newoldfarmhouse.  In year's past, we've always kept most of our holiday-related freakiness (aka inflatables!) in the backyard.  This one is too cool to be hidden from the public, right? And, say what you want about Halloween Creep , but the fact that this was the last one of these things at Menards tells me that consumers are ok with Halloween stuff despite it being August.