Tales of a "Butcher Shop Victim"

Happy Halloween to all!  As I'm sure I've mentioned before, I am at quite an awkward stage in my life when it comes to Halloween.  Too old to go trick or treating, too lame to go to college Halloween parties, and I don't have kids yet so I don't even get to take anyone trick or treating.  I LOVE the costume part of Halloween, but unfortunately I am too busy (or scatterbrained?) to come up with solid costumes each year.  Not like we would have anywhere to wear them anyway.

My life Halloween goals are as follows:
Phase 1: Detailed, handmade, and clever couple costumes.
Phase 2: Detailed, handmade, and clever coordinating family costumes.  My children may or may not get a say in what they would like to be for Halloween (no superheros allowed).

As you can see, I have yet to start these phases of life.  Bailey and I have never had coordinating Halloween costumes!  The closest we've gotten are our togas from Senior "Morp".  And I've been wearing that toga every Halloween since.

Anyway, I didn't do anything of significance tonight other than go to Chili's with Bailey's family after I ate dinner.  An expensive and dangerous idea for sure (I might possibly explode from all the food).  But I must tell you of the Halloween party that happened on Saturday, because that was my major seasonal event!

Every time one of us grandkids starts junior high, we get the best Halloween party thrown for us and our friends!  I still remember my Halloween party.  That was terrifying and hilarious.  This year we had a number of girls start junior high, so it was up to the rest of us to put together the spookiest of spook alleys.  I swear, it gets better every time!

It was a long, cold night, but so much fun.  Let me take you on a walk through our alley...

First you get on this "haunted bus"

It will drive you through the "warehouse" - Grandpa's shop.  Seiji will warn you not to go in there, but your crazy driver won't listen!

It will be so foggy inside, you won't be able to see anything... when all of a sudden the bus is ambushed!  All you hear are yells, things banging into the bus, and all sorts of ruckus.  It is actually really quite overwhelming.  Here are our boys in there, even though they wouldn't be seen by any partygoers.

Your crazy driver, trying to start back up the bus that "died" will then drive you right through the wall of the warehouse!  (Maybe he's not so crazy after all - he never missed the tarp over the opening!

Your next stop is the haunted forest.  This is the point where, if you are a 12 year old girl, you stop to take a bathroom break because you are too scared.

Grandpa and I are the opening act in the haunted forest.  All partygoers must pass through Grandpa's butcher shop.  My job was to be his "victim", covered in blood, dead on his table.  Well, people are supposed to think I'm dead.  Grandpa convinced one person from each group to hold my arm so he can cut it off.  But the second they touch my arm, I SCREAM!  Haha it scared them so bad every time!

Now you can meet some of the other friends from our little forest!  Some of these pictures we had to take before the party, when it was still light, so just imagine these characters in the dark!

Of course, right when you think you are done and and back to safety, this crazy guy will chase you with his chainsaw!

Oh my gosh we just had so much fun on Saturday night!  It is interesting how much satisfaction comes from scaring people.  Scaring junior high kids is fun enough, but when my in-laws came with their friends for a run through, and my father in law touched my arm...  I wish you could have seen that reaction!  When I moved, he jumped, screamed, and swore all at the same time!  It was probably the best scare of the night!

We are all feeling a little bit hesitant to call this our last Halloween party even though it really probably was our last group of junior high kids.  We are considering doing it again in the future maybe for some charity fundraising?  We don't have solid plans yet, but I do hope that my scaring times are not over!

Here are just a few more pictures from that fun night!

 We were trying to get some "in character" pictures, but I couldn't keep it together when I looked up at Grandpa and he had a "bloody nose".

And a shoutout to my grandma, who does ALL the work on the actual party side!  She makes the greatest party host, gypsy, and fortune teller.  I wish we had a better picture of her in her costume!