The Day of Halloween Events

I love Halloween, I always have. Once my mom passed away, Halloween vaulted over Christmas to become my favorite holiday. Mom loved Christmas so now it’s really bittersweet for me.

When I was not a child but was single, Halloween did become a bit of a drag. I never had any Halloween parties to go to. When we moved into our house, I stayed home and handed out candy. We got maybe three kids each year.

Then I was blessed with my own October baby. She was two weeks old on her first Halloween so we didn’t do much that year. The first few years we would just go trick or treating, but the last few years have been filled with Halloween goodness. Last year, we went trick or treating twice and Emily had a Halloween themed birthday party.

This year we have done a lot more. We went to Disney World for her birthday and I went to the Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party by myself. Last week we went trick or treating with our church and last Saturday was two Halloween events.

I worked Saturday morning and then I started to get costumed up. Emily had requested I wear a costume but most of my costumes weren’t going to be warm enough. Todd had suggested I wear my Hogwarts student costume which is pretty warm. Emily was Periwinkle, though I put a layer of long sleeve shirt and pants underneath it.

The first event was the Fletcher Halloween Carnival. They had a bouncy castle, a bouncy slide, games and a costume contest. Emily bounced first then dragged me all over to play the games. When you won a game (which was pretty every time because the people running it let the kids play until they won) you got some candy. I didn’t think to bring a candy bucket, but luckily they were giving out little bags.

Emily also wanted to sign up for the costume contest. There were

lots of kids in costumes, but not a lot of other adults besides me. There was one four year old little girl dressed as what looked to be a Burlesque dancer, right down to the fishnets. I found that to be in poor taste, but the other kids were cute.

We played nearly all the games, Emily got her face painted like a kitty and she did a craft (a spooky necklace). Then it was time for the contest. Once she did her walk through, I didn’t make her stay over there. We did a few more games and then I let her do the bouncy castle one more time. At that point the carnival was over and they were shutting things down.

From there we headed over to Gerber Village in South Asheville. Gerber Village is just a shopping center but Todd had heard that they were doing a pumpkin wall. We weren’t sure what to expect, but when we got there we did see a pumpkin wall. They also had some games, a lady doing hula hooping (with extra hoops for the

kids) and there were snacks (popcorn and cider). We got there a little before five and they were just opening up.

We got a little treat bag when we came in since the games were giving out prizes. Emily played the games right off and then found the hula hoops. She hooped most of the time when we weren’t doing other things and she got pretty good at it.

Once the event really got going, they had a scavenger hunt where each kid got a prize at each station. They had a cake walk, which Emily was one of the winners. She got a prize bag and later a cupcake. Then there was a costume parade and then a costume contest which Emily participated in.

After she showed off her costume, she went back to hooping. Originally she had left her wings in the car, but got them back out for the contest. She was able to still hula hoop pretty well with her wings on. It was getting cold, though Emily kept saying she was fine (and she probably was because she was moving around a lot more than I was).

Finally it was the big moment and the lit up the great pumpkin wall. It was really cool to see, but I was sore, tired and cold at that point so we got out of there and headed home. I’m glad we went to both because Emily had a great time.