The Hayes Herald: Halloween Parties

Our local nature center at Cool Creek throws a Halloween bash every year. We've never gone before, but this past Halloween I thought it would be fun to check it out. I had no idea what I was in for! I brought the kids in the early evening when David was still at work. I figured we could stay an hour and then be home for a bit later dinner. I made sure we got there right when it started, but what I didn't know was that we'd be wasting away most of our time in line! They accepted cash only, so it seemed like that would move the line along really quickly, and that there could be several people taking the payments. Nope. One person, single-file line that led on for a mile. Ugh! It was very frustrating. Also as we arrived and saw that most everyone else was wearing their costumes I was wishing we had put on ours!

They were pretty excited to pull out their Halloween candy buckets for the first time! There was a LOT of candy everywhere we turned. Lucky kids!

We took the creakiest hayride I've ever been on! I kept getting worried our wagon would give out!

Around the prairie there was a nocturnal animal display. Stuffed nocturnal animals were posed realistically. I'm sure it was hard for Ezra to tell them apart from reality!

Inside the nature center there was a LOUD room set up like a dance party with tons of balloons for the kids to play in. We stayed in there until I couldn't take it anymore. :) Around the nature center was this creepy webbing and fake spiders, blech! The kids thought it was pretty cool, though.

We also took a very spooky haunted hike in the woods. Thankfully nothing was too scary.

Potion-making station

Face-painting

What was a real winner was the Zoo Boo! We DID wear our costumes to this and it definitely makes it more fun! Eli was a cowboy (just for this event. Unfortunately he didn't own a cowboy hat). Clara was a fairy, and Ezra was a train conductor.

One special area that was set up for the event was this mirror maze that changes colors! The kids' pictures here are evidence that it was SO MUCH FUN! We had to wait in a line for a bit, and thankfully only one family/group could go in at a time. It was almost hard to go through it as quickly as we needed to! It was hilarious to get so mixed up trying to find our way out. Multiple times more than one of us bumped into a mirror mistakenly thinking it was the entry! We all laughed our way through!

Clara and David loved hitting the dance floor again like last year! I'm glad David is such a good sport to dance with Clara because it is one of her most favorite things!

Kids got to try their hand at pumpkin bowling.

Ezra was so fascinated with this jumbo helmet!

How cool is it to combine trick-or-treating with animal-watching? I do believe there were more candy stations this year, enough candy for the kids so that even Mom and Dad could snatch a few pieces here and there from their buckets!

Pumpkin sweep is a blast! Perfect setup in Broomstick Alley.

Eli's favorite again--the cheetah race! Ezra was so determined to run it, too, that he jumped out of the stroller and ran up there. Even though it wasn't Ezra's turn and he hadn't even paid, a few seconds after Eli took off on the race, Ezra ran down the track after him! Haha!

A lot harder to race in cowboy boots!

In too big of a hurry to even put down his kit-kat. :)

Our final Halloween party of the season was the ward trunk-or-treat. The Primary presidency was in charge and I thought we did a fabulous job! Sister Greco (the president) wanted to have an apple nachos bar. She made a GORGEOUS sign that had all of the names of the different ways one could put together their apple nachos and what each of those combinations entailed. She made the different sauces herself, such as chocolate, peanut butter, and caramel, and had toppings galore! There was also apple cider and hot chocolate, as well. It was a great turn-out and a really fun way to spend time together as a ward.