Halloween 2012- The Decorations part 2

Into the house we go...

the hallway

 

 and the bathroom

 Pennywise in the tub, with a red balloon, of course.

 back down the hallway towards the living room.

 where we had a ticket booth

 and a fortune teller.

 The kitchen/dining room

(how cool is this- a clown fruit head our friend Leanna made for the party)

 and into the family room - aka, the "Big Top" room.

 

 

 

 

 More later today.

Halloween 2012 - the Decorations part 1

And so it was that the Psycho Circus and CarnEvil of Carnage came to town - for one night only...and my, oh my, what a show it was.

It started months ago with the planning and preparations. Not everything went as planned. We had some grand ideas that, for one reason or another, just didn't pan out.

Take, for instance, our Ferris wheel.

The build was executed to perfection. The ONLY problem was that we couldn't get the motor to go at the speed we needed it to. It went too friggin fast! At this rate it would kill anyone who happened to get too close to it.

Nope, we couldn't let that happen, so after weeks of messing around with it, we decided it was best to make it non-operational. Major bummer - but better than a major lawsuit!

It wound up looking cool in the long run, decorated with the "riders" and some webbing.

We also had a vortex tunnel that was supposed to spin and didn't, and a couple of other minor issues, but all in all, I think that everyone would agree that in the end it came together very nicely.

I'll start off this first post with some daytime pictures of the decorations and then show more from the evening in later posts. Lighting really makes a cool difference.

Starting at the front of the house and working thru the house and into the front yard....here is start of the tour. 

The front yard-

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 And into the house we go...more pictures on the next post.

The Circus is Coming to Town - TOMORROW!

Tomorrow is our BIG day. The party we've been planning and working on for months will come together at last. 

We are excited. Very.  We are expecting 101 guests.

Holy Moly.

I have hundreds of pictures already that I wish I could share with you, but I don't want to ruin the surprises for my guests that read this. Half the fun of showing up is wondering what we've come up with.

It's been tougher than expected to get everything to come together as planned...but we've done the best we can.

Needless to say, it's been a balancing act sometimes.

Stay tuned and I'll start posting pictures as soon as I can after the party.

Wish us luck....and no matter what, as they say, the show must go on, right?

Strange Goings On....

Kona greeted me this morning with a fake rat in his mouth. The rat was accompanied by a giant rubber spider and both were nestled in a large fishing net.

Kona was tickled with his new "toys"....Momma was not.

Halloween is near my friends, and there are strange goings on at my house.

Strange indeed.

Married to a Saint

Sometimes I think I must really be married to a saint. My poor husband puts up with SO much of my craziness - especially at this time of year.

Today is our 22nd wedding anniversary, and what have we been doing all day? Relaxing? No. Spending quality time together? No. Enjoying each others company? No.

We've been digging thru boxes in the garage, hanging up skeletons, and fake body parts, and rats, and all sorts of creey stuff.  A delightful way to spend the day indeed! Ha ha! 

So, I wanted to drag myself away from our Hallowen party prep for a few minutes and tell him how much I appreciate his patience with me, and how much I love him.  Not many people would put up with what he does, I know that, and I am thankful.

 

55 Years

Happy Anniversary to my Mom and Dad. Today would have been their 55th Wedding anniversary. What a beautiful couple they made.

For their 50th anniversary they treated our entire family to a Hawaiian cruise.  It was the cruise of a lifetime.  The memories from that trip are some of my fondest. 

 

 Our family of 12 went on the cruise - it was fantastic.

 

 

 This has to be one of my favorite pictures of my Dad. We had just arrived in the Honolulu airport and we were all tired. We were waiting for our taxi and I was pushing Pops around in his walker (we'd rented a scooter for him to use on the cruise but hadn't picked it up yet).... he was being goofy, and tweaked his hat and flashed me his version of a gang sign. I don't remember why, I just remember laughing with him.   I miss him so much.

 My Mom and Dad were able to spend 54 years together. The rest of us should be so lucky.

 

Mom and I will go and visit Fort Roscrans Cemetery today.  We'll bring flowers and an orange. Dad loved both.

Furry Faces

Whenever I may be feeling a bit blue, I can count on these beautiful, furry faces to lift my spirits.

Harley in the back is trying to figure out a way to get to the front.

 Jack gets squeezed out a bit, and looks none to happy about it.

 "Hey, give a guy a little room, would ya?"

 "Ah, forget it...I don't like crowds"

Oh, how I love them!

"Seize the Sky"

This past weekend the Blue Angels came to town as they do every year for the Miramar Air Show. As always it was a spectacular site to see - all 6 of them taking to the air, doing their magnificent precision aerial tricks.

We are lucky enough to live very close to the base and are able to catch most of the show from our back yard.

Here are a few of the photos I was able to snap this year.

Some people complain about the noise that comes with the air show every year, but to me it just sounds like freedom.