Halloween 2006

Well, this is a late post, but I'm still recovering from Halloween. You see, last year, the people across the street went crazy and created a graveyard for their house. So of course, this year, C wanted me to also make a graveyard that had a sign that said "Keep Out" on it.

I got most of the tombstones on a Wal-Mart run. I know, I know... not great for the community, but it's halloween decor. C'mon. I also picked up a lighted gate, a skeleton, a chain, a couple bag o' bones, and a fogger. C and I made the sign ourselves with some silver spray paint and black paint for the letters. I also picked up some cheap Malibu garden lights so I could light the tombstones at night and create some shadow effects.

The weekend before Halloween, my brother, Rod, came out for a work trip. Lucky for me, he helped me set up the graveyard. We staked in the tombstones, put up the fence, and set up the lights. All we had to do next was to wait for Halloween to come.

On the actual day, I took off from work early so I could put up some finishing touches. I hung the skeleton in the tree and put a strobe light beneath him. Then I set up the fogger to blow fog over the graveyard. I also put spooky candelabras in different windows of the house and put a ghost in the upstairs window. For a final effect, I found this clip on YouTube of the entire Haunted Mansion ride and I played the audio outside.

The whole thing went off really well. The kids did their trick or treating early and got some good candy. Good thing that they went early, b/c for whatever reason, everybody decided to come to our neighborhood to trick or treat. I ran out of candy twice and had to run to Albertsons for more. $60 worth of candy! I must have passed out candy to about 300 kids or so... Insane. I did get a lot of compliments on the decorations though, which was cool. Next year, we'll do the garage too...

picts here