Halloween

Rob and Zach have done some serious father/son bonding this week. They have both invested time, energy and money in making improvements to last year's Halloween Maze. (To see phase one and two, you can click here and here. Click here to see last year's maze). Although I thought last year's maze was good enough, they decided to add a few gates to the maze to make it just a little more confusing. They built the gates together at the shop, cutting the metal and welding the corners together:

I don't mind the maze too much because my boys have so much fun putting it together but I do have to pretend that I don't care what the neighbors think . . .

I don't really know anyone else who does this. . . I guess it's just another one of those things that the "Crazy Bakers" do. . .

Gloria and Allie helped me make cookies for the party. . .

I didn't freak out too much about the state of my house since Halloween is supposed to be creepy and scary. The cobwebs in the corners fit right in with the theme. . .


This is the entrance of the maze. Lots of webs to get caught up in. We even had a real spider crawling on the wall at one point. Couldn't have planned that any better. . .

This year Rob had more time to work with Zach so we were ready in plenty of time. . .

The pictures don't do it justice, but it was pretty creepy inside.

I decided to dress up this year since I am the official "gate keeper". Mostly this means that I help parents and children decide if they should actually go into the maze. Even though I looked pretty creepy, I was still just a mom trying to assure kids that they could skip the maze if they wanted to and just have candy. I was surprised at the number of parents that tried to force their kids into the maze!! We only had two hysterical girls that I had tried to discourage but they decided to go in anyway.

Zombie-Zach was creepy enough just following kids through the maze. He didn't have to say a word. . .

This is Steph. She helped me guard the gate. I went in with just about everyone so I could help them find a quick escape if they needed it. I also had to monitor Rob with his chain saw. Just having Rob in the maze is scary enough, but when you know he has a chain saw. . . . yikes!

It was a very busy evening. Many of the kids said they went through last year, too, and they were so excited to see that we were doing it again. I got a high-five from a teen-age boy who said he would "totally pay for this!!!" We had a lot of older kids and grown ups go through, too, and they all had fun things to say about it. There were lots of screams but lots of laughter, too!

Three teen-aged girls went through towards the end of the evening and they were acting as though they weren't afraid of anything. They were laughing and talking as they went by Zombie-Zach and hardly jumped when the sound effects boomed in their ears. When they reached the dead end where Rob and his chain saw were lying in wait, everything changed!! As soon as the saw came to life and Rob jumped toward them, I thought they were going to go through the wall! As I tried to help them escape, they slammed me into the gate and then the wall. I was finally able to point them in the right direction as they ran screaming out the exit! It was hilarious!

We had good crowds of people all evening and several people returned with their friends so everyone could experience our craziness. We shut it down at 10:00 even though we probably would have had people lined up until midnight. Our party-goers gathered inside to count their candy and have hot chocolate and cider. Gloria dressed herself as Mulan and Megan went as a scary alien:

Gloria's friend, Selena, joined us for the evening and now thinks we are the coolest people she knows. :)

Andrew's eye's lit up and he was a great addition to the pitch black at the exit of the maze:

I remember when these two dressed up as cute little cowboys on their first Halloween together as 2-year olds!! Times have changed. . .

The whole gang!! Notice that Gary doesn't need a mask to be scary. . .

Andrew, Zach, Gloria, Steph, Megan and Selena:

So, I'm glad this only happens once a year and I'm anxiously awaiting the dis-assembling of the maze but I have to admit that I had a screaming good time. . .

Here are the 3 videos I put on YouTube:

WARNING:(I don't recommend watching these if you are afraid of 1. chain saws, 2. Rob or 3. dark, creepy, cob-webby places)

This one was taken while it was still light outside:



This one was taken while Grandma Jeanie went through:




And this one was taken at the end of the night and is probably the scariest: