Candy Hangover

I don't know about your munchkins but after yesterday's Halloween fun Little Man had a hard time crawling out of bed this morning. He and husband went on a hayride through our 'hood to go "trick or treat"-ing last night while I stayed home to make sure the puppy wouldn't go insane over the night's happenings and to hand out candy to whoever made it over to my quadrant.

Much to my delight (and the puppy's horror) we had a whooping 46 ghoolies and ghosties (and princesses and ninjas and super heroes and, and, and) stop by the Ugly Duckling! Woot! I had a ball handing out candy to everybody who stopped by and while I don't mind handing out candy to teenagers without costume, I think for next year I'll reward the ones going all out and dressing up with better candy and some fun things (I had tossed in a few funky pencils into the bowl and, boy, those were a HOT item!).

A few days ago, though, I wasn't feeling Halloween-y at all.
Just not in the mood.
Maybe it was the sudden unexpected cold snap that put me into a grumpy, please let me hibernate mood.

We placed just a few Halloween paraphernalia inside the house and stuck mainly to the fireplace mantle, especially after we ended up chasing a cat and a dog running off with plastic fingers. Out of sight, out of mind and reach! I think my favorite were the orange lights on top of the mantle!

     [Little Man as Mini "Bane"]                                [The zombie-fied Husband]

Thanks to Little Man, though, I pulled myself together and wrangled the box of Halloween decorations from the attic so we could spookify the house a bit.

This year we were all about ghosts! They are spooky but not too spooky, especially for those littlest "Trick-or-Treaters" (plus, I don't care for scattered innards, half-rotten carcasses and moldy eyeballs in my front yard either, thank you very much.)

Those plastic pumpkin buckets are still one of my favorite inexpensive Halloween fixes. This year we didn't string them up lantern-style but instead filled them with a handful of sand and stuck a candle in. LOVE IT!

We really enjoyed the fluttering ghost and I'm thinking about running out and picking up a friend or two for him for next year. It ghosted beautifully in front of our house and I'd like to add more.

Florida weather, despite cold snap, is usually not a very healthy climate for carved pumpkins. They grow moldy within days and deteriorate so quickly, it's a shame and a big disappointment. Instead, we paint ours using either acrylic paint or sharpies. They keep much longer that way, you still have the option of using one (or two ..or more) for cooking and once you turn them around, they make pretty harvest and Thanksgiving decoration too. It's  a Twofer! Threefer! Either way, a no-brainer (for us)!

 

And I really loved how everything came together once the sun set