Why I Oughta...

On Saturday, I wrote about how we went to Menards to check out the Halloween stuff , but on that trip there was a stand-out piece that is worthy of a separate post.  It is this HUGE inflatable animated light-up Halloween dragon. Check out the video below to see it in action, but here are the details as I gathered:  it has wings that move back and forth, it's belly glows with a fire-y glow, the eyes light up red and it makes some noises of some sort.  (Pay no attention to the 'Monster Mash' you hear in the video, that came from some other inflatable!) It is $199.99 right now on sale.  I didn't buy it (we bought a different inflatable that I'll post about later), but wondering if someone I know out in Naperville will/should buy it.  Granddad loves a good inflatable, right?!?

This year's total:  308 trick-or-treaters. That's down from last year's number of 326 .  (the numbers in parenthesis are last year's numbers) As you can see, the 'neighborhood kid' number was up 7 from last year, but the 'non-neighborhood kids' number dropped by more than 10%.  Have to believe that's because of the weather. In 2013, we had 326 total . In 2012, we had 327 total. In 2011, we had 269 total . In 2010, we had 236 total . In 2009, we had 184 total .

On Thursday night, we packed up all three kids and drove over to Carol Stream where a family has set up a pretty incredible Halloween set-up. It is called "Canyon Trail Cemetery" and...they live on a street named Canyon Trail. The yard is chocked full of pneumatic-driven creatures that pop out at you. The details are here on their Facebook page:   https://www.facebook.com/CanyonTrailCemetery . The folks who own the house sit out front and don't ask for anything to check it out.  There is a place for canned food donations and cash donations to a Dalmatian rescue fund.  They couldn't be more nice. We asked how long it took to set up and the guy said he starts the last week in September and then takes a full week off of work to get it going. Pretty incredible stuff.  (Like Richard Kristie...) They really, really, really love Halloween.

Here's the same event from back in 2012 . The Bird really grew up!

We've lost six or so pumpkins (that we grew ourselves!) on our front porch to critters this year and after the girls had carved their pumpkins last night, I figured we had to find a way to make them last until Friday. First....I filled a spray bottle with bleach and hit every 'cut' surface.  We'll see if that does anything to stop the mold? Then...as you can see...I took out a little bit of fencing and wrapped them up.  You can't eat what you can't get to, right? Come and try me, squirrels.  I dare you.

I've tried growing pumpkins for a few years and either mold or critters ruin the fun.  This year, I saw a few promising 'fruits' that had blossomed and I decided to try to keep the critters away with some fencing.  This is the biggest pumpkin that I've ever grown that doesn't have a single nick in it from squirrel teeth. Gnome for size reference...

Like in year's past, this year we tried another water putty witch.   Here's the mold we used in 2012. This years is smaller, but has her riding on her broom.  The Babe is going to get busy painting this gal over the weekend when we have other things we need to attend to!

Despite the rain, we had A LOT of trick-or-treaters show up yesterday.  Just like in year's past, I tried to keep count.   Last year, we had 327 total .  This year?  326. Last year we had 8 adults, this year just 6.  But...there were a few people that had multiple bags where they said that their son/brother/sister was 'Sleeping in the car'. In 2012, we had 327 total. In 2011, we had 269 total . In 2010, we had 236 total . In 2009, we had 184 total .

Our trip this year really cramped our Jack-O-Lantern style this year.  We made it out to Sonny Acres just this week and had some slim pickings of the pumpkins. In year's past, I've gone crazy.   See the Owl Pumpkins here .  This year, it was all about the Babe.  She wanted to carve her pumpkin with a very specific pattern.  That's what you see here.  She had her heart set on the star eyes, so Nat was able to help make those happen. The Babe couldn't be more proud!

The family of four has made their annual appearance on Indiana Street.  Here's what they looked like in 2012 , 2011 , and 2010 - their first year. Last year, we added the Pumpkin Cemetery, which is also back this year, but we made a new addition - that Nat absolutely hates!  More on that soon.

I have news for you folks:  We're 100ish days until Halloween and that means it is time to get your pumpkin/gourd seeds into the ground.  Based on the package, I'm actually a bit late, but with some care, I think I can get these guys up to speed.  Since we're not eating any of the pumpkins/gourds I'm growing, I have no problem giving them a feeding or two of fertilizer to get the fruits nice and big. I have planted these in a totally different part of our yard.  Totally separate from our vegetable garden both because of the above mentioned fertilizer, but also because of the bugs that these things draw.  I want to be able to use some Seven on them if I need to and (although it says it is safe for vegetables that are being eaten), I prefer to not do that on the rest of our plants/fruits. Having not grown this type of swan-neck gourd in the past, I have no idea how successful we'll be, but I figured it would be nice to have a few of these around come fall.

We had 327 trick-or-treaters come to our door last night.  Now...I have to admit, that my nephew wanted to do some of the 'tracking', so he was writing down some of the numbers so this may be fudged a bit, but not by a ton. That's 86 kids that we "know" (or live on our block/next block), 9 adults with no kids, 6 teens with no costumes, 1 girl who refused peanut M&M's and the rest made up of kids that we "don't know" and don't live in our neighborhood. The numbers saw a big jump this year and are on a clear upward trajectory. Last year, we had 269 total .  And only 37 kids that we "knew". In 2010, we had 236 total . In 2009, we had 184 total .

How about my talented wife?!?  Thanks to her handy work, there's a pretty great Mickey the Mouse jackolantern on our front porch ready for the deluge of kids (and adults!) who are going up and down our block. Last year we had 269 individuals come to our door .  Will we top it this year?

We carved pumpkins last night and light them up for this video.  (If you are reading this in your email, you should click through the title above to see the video)  The Babe drew her face and we cut it out.  I tried a pumpkin with some brains!  Although, you can't totally see them in the video.  I used a white pumpkin and cut it into the shape of a football helmet, minus the facemask.  And then just wedged it into the top of the open orange base pumpkin. Here's what it looks like in photos:

As usual, the pinata took center stage at Noonie's Halloween party.  Unlike past years, this thing only survived a few wacks. Those are some realistic costumes, eh?  Werewolf with glowing eyes! Here's the post and photo from Noonie's Halloween party in 2011 . Here's the post and photo from Noonie's Halloween party in 2010 .

We spent a few hours this morning trick-or-treating around the Elmhurst City Center.  Businesses were giving out candy for kids and the downtown area was packed.  The nice guys at Sushi Nest (above) were awfully nice to the Babe.    She was a princess.  But with an owl hat and a Muppets hoodie underneath.  She went with it! The Bird didn't get out of her stroller, but she was the star of the show.

Nat and the girls came back from TJ's with these beauties in their bag yesterday and while I'm a fan of the traditional TJ's cookie of fall (Their Maple Cookies), I have a soft spot for their holiday-themed Joe Joe's. These ones are particularly cute with the jack-o-lantern face and orange cream in the middle.   With Halloween being 3 weeks away, I'm seriously doubting that they'll last that long.

Yesterday, we spent a few hours in the morning getting some of our Halloween decorations up in the yard and around the house.  Still plenty more hours left until we get our stuff set up. For the "Pumpkin Cemetery", I grabbed a few pieces of tongue-and-groove boards from the remnant rack at Menards and printed out the letters in a funky font.  Then I traced them on with pencil and painted the letters in black.  I threw on a few coats of polyurethane to seal it in and provide a little bit of weather-proofing. I picked up a little bit of edging fencing from Menards, too.  And stuck that in the ground. For the pumpkins, we debated between real and fake.  We ended up going with real.  Not sure if that is going to end up being wise in the long run, but only time will tell.  I painted on the eyes and mouths and then painted (with a pastry brush) a slurry of red pepper flakes and water all over them.  Before that water dried, I also sprinkled on a bunch of chili powder. You

Put down the first coat of a few colors on one of the witches.   I'm certainly not very artistic, so this is a tricky experience for me.  I'm trying to use some color but trying to keep it away from being too much like the cartoon Jesus that was re-painted recently .  

The carved apple head continues to shrivel up.  Just two days later , we're getting the eyes to skrunch up a bit.