I've been meaning to post this one for a while, well, yeah, since Halloween. For Karly's 13th birthday we wanted to do something really different that none of her friends had done before, but still kind of Halloweenish since you can't get away from it when your birthday is October 16th.
So we came up with the idea of having her friends put on a haunted house and inviting the neighborhood and ward friends to go through it. Every single person Karly invited was eager to participate. I began the basement transformation way ahead of time, and when the girls came they put the spooky finishing touches on it, got on costumes and did each other's makeup, as well as scarf down a few dozen taquitos, egg rolls and other stuff from the goodie table.
We borrowed a lot of decorations from our friends the Field's who are living in Australia and are storing their Halloween decorations in the attic of the church. Shhhhh! Don't tell the building manager. Shhhhh! Don't tell the Field's, either. Anyway, at our front door was an obnoxious skeleton who told bad jokes. When you stepped inside, I was there to greet you and guide you to stick your hands in the bowls of bones, brains, guts and eyeballs.
Then you headed down the hallway through drapey, black cloth. Waiting in the coat closet was someone who would jump out and scare you. On the right, in our "Brown store" was a witch stirring a bubbling, green brew.
On the right was a huge spider web and the creepy prom date who just wouldn't leave you alone, but followed you around. I created a huge wall going down the length of the middle of the room, so, for those of you who have been to my house, from the dryer almost to the wall of bookshelves. The wall was almost to the ceiling, covered in black, plastic tablecloths with glow-in-the-dark bats and bugs taped to it. Opposite the wall, on your right, was the "doctor's office" where we had a patient laying on a narrow table with her "guts" coming out of her tummy. There was no blood because I wanted this to be a "clean" haunted house and not too gruesome.
Next you passed by a motion sensitive Frankenstein hand in a bird cage and creepy pictures that changed when you walked past. Hiding in the furnace room was someone who squirted silly string at your legs. We also had people hiding in the wall, which was built on top of seminary tables, who grabbed legs and ankles. At the end of the wall was a tall tower where another sillly-string shooting person was hiding.
Sitting on top of the bookshelf was a girl who had taped herself between the tall bookshelves behind a web. She would sit motionless until people walked by then start talking to them and asking for help. That was creepy. On the shelves were lots of battery candles and glowing skeleton heads. Around the corner was the graveyard cornfield wall. Dorothy would pop out with her pet alligator and ask how to get home to Kansas. Finally, a motion sensitive ghost was by the back door where you would exit.
In the backyard, Jason and Phebe handed out candy. The whole thing was a big hit and lots of the neighborhood boys wanted to go through again and again. This did nothing but delight the 13-year- old girls. We sang to Karly and had ice cream sandwich cake. The whole night was a success and mom's told me that their girls couldn't stop talking about it. Here's the whole motley crew.
Did I mention we put a black light in over the washing machine? Karly and I were testing it out the night before and as we looked at each other, Karly started screaming. Apparently, my eyeballs are possessed. We checked everyone else's eyes the night of the haunted house and no one's eyeballs looked like this in the black light except mine. Super weird...or does this explain a lot of other mysteries?
