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| The Cannonball as Rapunzel from Tangled. |
BEHOLD!
The Beginning of
Halloween Weekend '11
Yes, fans.
Mucho excitement. We're definitely a Halloween family here at the
Fortress of Houghitude. Big fans of costumes, big fans of decorating, big fans of taking ridiculous amounts of pictures. We love this time of year.
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| Abby as a Pirate. |
This weekend, being the last one before Halloween (
which, since God hates me, falls on a Monday), is chock-full of all sorts of Halloween hooplah for the Houghs. Yesterday, we had Alayna and Abby's Halloween party and costume parade at their school, Sunchild Academy. Tomorrow we have to prepare the house for trick or treaters, and then later on in the evening have Trunk or Treating at the church (Kris volunteered us to host a vehicle this year).
Today, as it were, was full of activities at
Osprey Park in nearby
Hunter's Creek. Every year, they host the
Hunter's Creek Halloween Festival - which is very kid friendly, and - most importantly -
free. Like last year, we had hoped to do Osprey's huge Spook Trail with the girls, wherein they could walk around and collect candy from strategically-placed volunteer workers.
Well, evidently the Hunter's Creekers decided that they'd swap out the ol' Spook Trail for a f***in'
hayride.
Hooray!
We skipped that.
So, in place of the 'Trail, we opted to spend a few hours hitting up the carnival games, bounce houses, and booths that Osprey had to offer. We also met up with the
Taylers again, so the Cannonball was able to spend some time with her boy crush.
As always, here's a shit load of pictures. Enjoy:
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| Weirdos. |
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| Parade at Sunchild Academy: Forced march of the princesses... |
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| Alayna with some lady wearing a striped, burlap sack |
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| Alayna with Derrick's mom, Joy |
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| On the way to Osprey... |
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| Abby the Pirate |
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| Avast! |
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| This was a huge hit with Alayna... |
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| Arriving at Osprey Park's Halloween Festival |
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| Sunchild crew. |
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| Holy shit - it's Lego Batman! |
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| Alayna earns her meal ticket... |
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| Note the vintage McDonald's Halloween bucket from the 1980s. Yes. We're classy like that. |
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| People watching. |
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| Trying to look as cool and sophisticated as possible while pulling two kids in a Step 2 wagon. |
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| Lettin' the kids Free Range |
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| Racing |
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| Rehearsing scenes from Disney's Tangled... which we're lucky enough to watch on a daily basis. Two or three times. |
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| Bustin' it up |
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| In the bowels of a bounce house... |
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| Sliding with Derrick |
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| The ol' Bean Bag Toss game. Bane of my existence. |
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| Receiving pity candy from the game's operator. Alayna is no bag tosser. |
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| Alayna and Derrick |
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| Who knows what the point of this game is... |
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| Awaiting Mega Slide |
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| MEGA SLIDE!!! |
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| More bounce housin' (See the kid on the far left? He dressed up as Mr. Smee from Peter Pan for Halloween. I guarantee you that he's the only child in the United States that did so this year.) |
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| Alayna was obsessed with this inflatable seal. |
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| McDonald's for the kids' dinner, courtesy of Nana and Papa. |
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| Alayna decided this needed her signature. Why she signs her surname, I don't know... |
- Brian
We had learned out lesson the hard way last year, when we had gone out with the Woloweic clan and hit up the surrounding cul de sacs in Blue Ridge II (our neighborhood). Remember? Anyway, we skipped Blue Ridge II all together and cut across Isle of Wright St. to hit up the neighborhood cul de sacs where, last year, there was scores of candy to be had.
Good play on our part, that was. Every other house, about, had a solid set up, or, at the very least, someone passing out candy. This is good for exhausted parents who have already put in a full day of work and have to move at a toddler pace through the crowds. We only had to move up and down one street this year in order to score a bucket load of candy for each kid (most of which will be donated to my 'well-behaved' students tomorrow - I don't want all that sugary crap lying around my house tempting me and rotting my kids' teeth).
But seriously - who likes Thanksgiving anyway, right? Puritans, Native Americans, and fat people - that's who. 
