Halloween 2025

I think we will have to tone it down a bit next Halloween.  Our animatronics had younger kids in tears.  Our jumping spider was the biggest culprit, because that's the first thing to get passed, and then everything else gets triggered, our swinging girl and our grave keeper.  

It was funny, but wasn't.  Trevor got a kick out of how many children and adults were frightened, but when kids didn't want to come to our door, I'd have to walk all the way out to the walkway to give them candy, triggering the animatronics once again.

The best surprise of all was that our godson Shawn came to visit and trick-or-treating in our neighborhood.  We stopped passing out candy, and let my sister take over, so we could find Shawn and his dad and walk with them on our first Halloween being godparents.  I had fun.  

It reminded me of when I used to take my own children Trick-or-Treating, when they were little.  

All that decorating, and it all comes down tomorrow as well prepare for Christmas.

Halloween Hike

Trevor and I went on a morning hike.  We have been in the Halloween spirit since back-to-school season was over and all the Halloween stuff in stores came back out.  

He has so many plans for Halloween this year.  We went on a hike in Norco, California called Pumpkin Rock Trail.  It was loaded with dog and horse waste, but it was an adventurous hike.  At some point I got tired of walking and then I saw the orange rock in the distance and knew we had to get to it.  

So many hikers and tourists were there taking turns taking pictures.  I offered to take a family's photo in hopes they would take ours and they did an amazing job.

After our hike, we stopped by the Spirit Halloween store in Norco and got a few scary toys for our front yard.

Happy Haunting!

Halloween 2024

Happy Halloween.  

Tonight has been great.  Most of the trick-or-treaters were frightened by our graveyard.  We did have two boys who didn't want to leave.  The first was a baby who was in awe of all the lights.  The second was some children from Africa and they had no costumes and no bags.  I gave them grocery bags to trick-or-treat with.  The older of the two boys wanted to come into our home and his mom pulled him back.  He has a tantrum.  

Many parents took pictures of their children or family pictures in front of our graveyard.  This made Trevor very happy at the success of our Halloween.

Next Halloween we will have more animatronics.

Sinister Sisters

I did a thing. I bought Trevor 2 feet tall, twin animatronic dolls for his graveyard. They move, light up, and talk...and are voice activated.

I hope he likes them. I will NEVER keep his Halloween props in our home. They are bad energy kinda creepy...and will stay in storage when not in use.

Review:  after receiving the Sinister Sisters, they fall over a lot.  They also are activated by touch.  So, they don't make noise or move with voice activation as it was advertised.  

Animatronic Shopping

I like Halloween. I always looked forward to it when I was a kid and when I had kids. It was the prelude to the Christmas season.

I tried to let my kids be scary if they wanted to be. My daughter ALWAYS wanted to be a scary or dead thing for Halloween. My son's were all kinds of characters from cute to scary. I wanted them to NOT believe in scary things and just have fun with it, because I was TERRIFIED of ghosts and goblins as a child. I didn't want that for my kids, so I let them dabble around with the creepiest of creepy when they were very young, but I started with cutesy decor like happy pumpkins and cute witches to spiders, skeletons and skulls, fake blood and fangs. And, for the most part, my kids were not scared and enjoyed the holiday.

I am hoping other parents are like I was with my kids...because Trevor is going all out with the scary stuff, and I'm afraid little kids won't want to trick-or-treat at our place...we will probably have to walk the candy out to them. To be honest, I have been looking at animatronic decor. I am enabling him and his thirst for gore.

Halloween 1973

I wasn't born yet, and my parents hadn't met yet. Here are my older half-siblings, April the Clown, Jeri the Princess, and my poor brother Tommy dressed like a witch. To get him to wear the witch outfit, they had to convince him he was a Warlock.

Halloween 2021

We passed out Candy. Trevor was a Devil 😈 and I just wore Halloween print leggings. We had 4 trick-or-treaters and a downstairs neighbor all evening. Trevor was super excited about passing out Candy. We had a bunch left over and it's all gone now. What the 🤬 Trevor? I need chocolate in my life. 😭

Trevor Carves with Kids

 When Trevor and I moved to Oregon, we didn't know anyone.  We made a friend and brother in Pedro.  Pedro brought his kids over for a special day of pumpkin carving with Trevor.  Trevor had a blast carving the pumpkins and sharing the joy with Pedro's keiki.  It was great watching Trevor interact with them.

Halloween Tree

We are ready for the Trick-or-Treaters.

Here are pictures of our Halloween Tree.  It's actually a little Dollar Tree Christmas tree, but we bought tiny decorations for it, and a Halloween Scarf for the tree skirt.  The topper is a tarantula.

Happy Halloween Thoughts

It's the month of Halloween and back in the day I could binge watch horror flicks. These days, not so much. I feel like it brings bad vibes in my home. It doesn't scare me, but just doesn't incite anything good.

I watched Nightmare on Elm Street with Trevor the other night and that was enough killing, gore, and screaming for me for the rest of the year. I'm just not into it. 

Now bring on the candy and the kids who missed out on Trick-or-treating last year, due to Covid-19 pandemic.

For the record, our home is decorated, but not scary. We have a happy witch, happy mummy, and a happy vampire...and a twinkling fake pumpkin as well as a real pumpkin (Trevor wants to carve).

Halloween Wedding

Valerie Moore and Danny Ingram Wedding

One of our friends in Oregon got married on Halloween.  I took a lot of photos, but will only share this, as this was their private moment.  I thought it was very cool.  If we had it our way, we would have gotten married on Halloween, but we are saving the date for 4/20.  Trevor is crazy.

Wind-Up Toys

These are a few of the things that make me happy. When I moved to Hawai‘i, Trevor bought me a wind-up pumpkin and skull from Longs Drugs in Waianae. 

 Over the years, we've bought a few wind-ups but we always end up giving them away to little kids who came over to our apartment. The chick is from last Easter. And the Frankenstein, Eyeball, Mummy, and pumpkin are for this Halloween. The teeth, I don't remember when we got that, but I've had it for quite awhile.

Missing My Kids

Everyone with kids are posting their babies in costume on Social Media, and I'm over here all sad. It's my first real holiday without mine. Halloween with my kids, especially my youngest, was a big deal for me. Happy Halloween to all of you. 🙂 Enjoy these moments. 🎃👻🎃👻

Also, some kids are extremely shy or scared. My mom used to dress me in what she thought was cute and I'd feel very self-conscious. Then, we would walk passed people dressed as demons, vampires and zombies and I'd be extremely frightened because I had an older brother who tormented me by scaring me all the time. 

I remember taking my kids trick-or-treating and a guy passing out candy, asked a little Vietnamese boy where his costume was. The kid shrugged and the guy said , "No costume, no candy." 

We don't know what financial issues the kid's parents had, or if there is a cultural issue (recent immigrants who are allowing their child to participate in a holiday they don't celebrate in their native country). 

If you are practicing a holiday for the kids...celebrate for ALL the kids.

Autumn is in the Air

This time of year for me... Scary and creepy things. It's the thrill of knowing it won't hurt me. I remember reading the psychology of it and that's why roller coasters, sky diving, and scary movies are fun for people. It's really not about Halloween for me so much as it is the season. It's about walking passed creepy things in the store and the colors of fall that I love. It's the smell of cinnamon, pumpkin spice, caramel, and warm vanilla. Its the scent of rain at the end of October. It's the joy in others celebrating holidays, how happy children are. It's the color of the earth changing. It's the acceptance of the color orange! It's my birthday. It's warm blankets and cool pillows. This is what I love of about Autumn. Now if I could remember to record the horror flicks...

Kids Are Too Old

I hate that my children are getting too old for Halloween. Kalib just stays on the computer in our dark house. Sienna, probably the same, if she's not trying to hit up some neighborhood house party, and Christopher is not as enthusiastic. I want to adopt a kid so bad...

— feeling sad they are all big and Mike doesn't want anymore.

Hi!

 

Happy Pumpkin Month! 

Halloween 2012

 

Chris and his loot

I took Christopher Trick-or-Treating.  I always take hi around the neighborhood.  I'm glad most of the neighborhood participates in passing out candy.  It makes it easier on us.  We don't have to walk as far!

When I was a kid, I remember having to walk long distances sometimes until my plastic mask was too hot for my face, and I was wearing it on my head instead, and my feet would hurt.

Chris dressed up as a pirate and got a lot of loot!  

Fountain Valley Pumpkin Patch

 

At the Fountain Valley pumpkin patch with my son Christopher and his dad, Mike.

Christopher is the youngest so we are making the best of the last moments of his young childhood.

I'm Sick

At around 8:30am I just suddenly got really violently sick to my stomach. I have no idea if it was something I ate (nothing weird or out of the ordinary), or just something my body rejected. I've no clue...I'm still really ill right now and don't want to take my son Trick-Or-Treating. 

 He's GI Joe for Halloween, and excited to go...and I feel AWFUL.