Saturday, October 29, 2011

Halloween 2011, Pt. I: Sunshine Parade and Osprey Park

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.

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' hayrideHooray!

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:


Weirdos.


Parade at Sunchild Academy:  Forced march of the princesses...
Alayna with some lady wearing a striped, burlap sack
Alayna with Derrick's mom, Joy
On the way to Osprey...
Abby the Pirate
Avast!
This was a huge hit with Alayna...
Arriving at Osprey Park's Halloween Festival
Sunchild crew.
Holy shit - it's Lego Batman!
Alayna earns her meal ticket...
Note the vintage McDonald's Halloween bucket from the 1980s.  Yes.  We're classy like that.
People watching.
Trying to look as cool and sophisticated as possible while pulling two kids in a Step 2 wagon.
Lettin' the kids Free Range
Racing
Rehearsing scenes from Disney's Tangled... which we're lucky enough to watch on a daily basis.  Two or three times.
Bustin' it up
In the bowels of a bounce house...
Sliding with Derrick
The ol' Bean Bag Toss game.  Bane of my existence.
Receiving pity candy from the game's operator.  Alayna is no bag tosser.
Alayna and Derrick
Who knows what the point of this game is...
Awaiting Mega Slide
MEGA SLIDE!!!
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.)
Alayna was obsessed with this inflatable seal.
McDonald's for the kids' dinner, courtesy of Nana and Papa.
Alayna decided this needed her signature. Why she signs her surname, I don't know...
- Brian

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