SCENES FROM OUR FIRST HALLOWEEN

Dearest Friends,

Our first Halloween on the company compound just blew us away.  We were to discover that, when it came to keeping the kids happy, there were no limits to how far this community would go.  Whether they had kids in the school or not, everyone participated and contributed.

One of the mom's helps with the pumpkin toss, dressed for the part.

My first hint at how far they would go came when they asked us which activity at the carnival we wished to help with.  The list of options was huge, considering how few kids were in the school.  We volunteered to help with the "spook house", expecting they would take one of the classrooms over, set out bowls of spaghetti guts and peeled-grape-eyeballs, and turn out all the lights.  Not even close.  It turns out we had a most amazing local asset at our disposal -- carpenters and painters who could build almost anything these engineer dads could design, for a nominal fee, and tailors who could sew any costume a kid desired, if given a picture.  The carpenters built a full-blown Haunted House, the painters decorated it, and John and I were hidden behind a wall of its black-light-lit hallway.  They had drilled a bunch of holes in this wall, at various heights, and some of them had fake arms poking through them while others had real ones (ours!), which could grab hold of a kid as they tried to get through the passageway, or grab the cap right off of Mr. Danny's head and keep it behind the wall!  My kids refused to set foot in it, after hearing reports from the first kids to walk through, and to tell you the truth, I couldn't blame them!

The kids got to parade their costumes at school the day before the carnival  (that's our Austin, the Ninja, and Alexis, the witch below).  By the time they came back for the carnival, this basketball court had been completely transformed with painted backdrops for each game, a Gypsy Wagon, and a free-standing Haunted House!

The little Chiquita Banana from next door came by to show us his costume.

Lex in the Gypsy Wagon, getting her fortune told.

There were so many cakes contributed for the cake-walk, that every family there brought home at least one or two!