Minnie Mouse, Toto, and Dorothy left Kansas for little ol' Burnsville for a great Halloween full of firsts and fun this past weekend. One of those firsts, was Mom and Dad dressing up in full costume with the girls this year. Mom was a cute farmer girl and Dad was a tacky tourist. And continuing with the neighborhood parties this year, our new friends the Clarks and Kloetzkes both had some fun Halloween events in store for the neighborhood - both of which were firsts for the Clemens family.
On Saturday, we enjoyed some great conversation, laughs, food and drinks at the Clarks while all the kids played games like pin the eyeball on the ghost and searching the haunted woods for little pumpkins full of yummy sugary candy! On Sunday for the main event, the Kloetzkes had a pizza party for the families with younger kids in the neighborhood followed by a hay ride complete with hay, of course, lit pumpkins on the trailer, and a big bucket with ice and some treats for the adults. We brought James and Dad's parents, Larry and Shirley, with us to the party to join in the fun! After the pizza though, Grandma and Grandpa took James home to hand out candy and keep James warm while Mom and Dad stayed with the girls. Good idea, because it was COLD!
Cold aside, the kids had an absolute blast, especially Annie, who told Mom "That ride was sooooo much fun Mommy!" - the smile on her face was priceless and truly heartwarming. This was a bit of a surprise too because one of the kids on the hay ride was wearing a wolf mask and the site of him had Anners in tears as well as giving him a really wide berth for the first 20 minutes or so! She wouldn't go near him (at least not without Mom or Dad)! She overcame her fear though by getting buddy buddy with the 40 something hay ride driver whom she called "the boy" because he helped her on and off the trailer (eventually she would only let him help her!) and wanted him to walk with her up to the doors and back! It was cute and in the end it really helped her get comfortable with the wolf, AKA Owen. Katelin also had a great time with the older kids in the group, including Kate Clark, who was in the same DayCare with Kate last year - it was great to see them having fun together again! Ah, there are so many little stories!! This is getting to be a long post! Annie was hilarious when we got to the second house; she hopped off of the trailer and looked at us and said "Caaaaaaannndy.....whaaa haahaaahaaa!" and ran faster than we've ever seen those short little legs run before! It was too cute! I think Mom and Dad has just as much fun as the girls did simply by watching them have so much fun with all the kids in the neighborhood.
We also learned that there is some hardcore Halloween decorating efforts in the neighborhood; the Kloetzkes had an awesome outdoor projection screen, laser light show, strobe lights, and some perfect Halloween music to blend it all together - it was pretty amazing to see as we started the hay ride and just as amazing was the way we ended the hay ride at the Haunted Cul de Sac! Our friends the Ericksons were part of 6 homes that went all out setting up a unique and spooky experience for the neighborhood complete with skeletons "driving" cars lit up with strobe lights (hard to describe but the effect was really sweet), amazing costumes, 100 tomb stones, giant spiders, spooky music, a gallows, and a remote controlled spider! Needless to say, this scared the shit out of the littlest of the kids there! Annie and Addison Kloetzke were probably traumatized a bit from the experience! Hopefully not though! All in all, it was a GREAT weekend and we're realizing how lucky we are to have so many great families in the neighborhood with kids so close in age.
Here are some pics from the weekend.
