Tuesday, October 6, 2009

The First Weekend in October . . .

Was a busy weekend here at the Foley Home. I spent all of Saturday stocking up on food for the tribe; and then, on Sunday, we spent the day setting up the yard haunt. Well, it's not completely finished, I still have a few things to add, some cobwebs, creepy cloth and whatever else I discover needs to be done. But for the most part, we hauled everything out of the basement storage area and started setting up the yard. Now, this is JUST the yard - during evenings and weekends, Roy and I will begin work on the garage - the actual "asylum" part of the haunt. Hopefully, this is the last year that we will be doing this during the month of October. I am hoping that next year ALL of the work will be finished by October first and we can start weekend walk throughs to generate donations for our local animal rescues.



It was so nice to have everyone here at home to help with set up this year. (although, I'm pretty sure they will all disappear when it comes time to take things down and pack them away) Not only did it make things go quicker and easier, but it was so much more fun. We even had Quentin, our newly "adopted" son (actually, Jake's best buddy) to help set up. Jen had her hands full with baby Brooklyn and the camera. (she took some really great shots.) I think this is the first year that Jen has been here for the yard set up. Quentin was totally amazed at how people driving by the house started to slow down and gawk as things progressed. My most favorite part is the Monday afterwards, when the neighborhood kids are walking to school in the morning and they see the transformation; then again, when they walk home from school. It's almost as if they suddenly realise that Halloween is REALLY coming this year. The look on their faces is magical.


This evening I took baby Brooklyn outside to enjoy the cool weather a bit. As I've mentioned, we have a large population of Hispanic families in our neighborhood - which is kind of cool, because they are raised to have a really great attitude about Halloween. ( I don't mean to sound prejudice, but most of the "non-Hispanic" kids, are either SO jaded about Halloween, or they have been raised to think that people "like me" are either Satan worshipers, or just plain weird) I had noticed earlier, that we had more than our usual share of kids circling our house on their bikes; and as I stood in the drive way talking to Nick, a pair of older boys finally got the nerve to pedal up the drive and ask about the new props. They went on about how scary the house looked, while their younger siblings gathered on the side walk. They finally got off their bikes and asked if they could touch them. I said sure, and they cautiously walked up and laid just one finger on Bubba's hand, then retreated to their bikes and rode away. About an hour later, they pedaled up the drive with their dog, a little chihuahua, trailing behind them. They stopped in front of Bubba, and waited to see if their dog was as brave as they had been. When the pup backed away from Bubba, they drove off laughing. I'm sure that by dinner time they were the coolest, bravest kids on the block!


Okay, I need to get up early tomorrow and get some things done around the house, so I'm going to post a few pictures from Sunday. (Thanks to Jen and her computer genius)
Uh . . . scratch that. My blogger is being REALLY slow tonight and I'm tired. I promise to post photos tomorrow night.
Sweet dreams everyone.

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