Fall Carnival...2012

Last night we had our annual fall carnival at Jantzen's school. Since I'm still a part of the PTO I got to help set up and run things at it. This year I was in charge of putting together the haunted house...all by myself! I kept some of the ideas from last years haunted house and added some more this year. I spent from 8am until 3pm (when the carnival started) setting it all up. I had a few people help me set things up, but I did most of it by myself. Luckily I had a friend that offered to take Jaedyn for me so I didn't have to worry about her...thank you Jessica! It was such a relief when I got it all done. 

Here's how it all turned out...

This was the entrance, with one of our lovely 4th grade teachers greeting everyone...

   There was a talking head that would say random things in a spooky voice as people walked by. We also used a blow up witch again that goes in and out of a cauldron. One of the new things we did this year was use some glow in the dark paint to write different messages on the walls. I thought they turned out so good (sorry, not all of the pictures turned out).       As everyone walked through the haunted house, there were spiders hanging from the ceiling. The best part was that you couldn't see them very well, so as you walked through they'd touch your face. That freaked some people out.    We had a mummy again this year and it was funny to watch the kids stand by it and wait for it to pop up at them, but it never did. Maybe next year we'll have to do it that way. One of the teachers dressed up as a mad scientist (I unfortunately didn't get a picture of her) and she had an awesome table set up. She had experiments for the kids to try and a brain floating in some water. The kids had fun touching it. We added a skeleton hanging from a web in one of the corners and I thought it looked pretty good.      We also had some tables set up with random Halloween things on them. I found some severed body parts and skulls at the dollar store and thought they made a nice addition to the haunted house.       I made a couple graveyards again this year. Last year our tree for our main graveyard was made out of boxes and it didn't stay up very well, so this year I made them differently. I used butcher paper and I think they turned out really good. I also recruited Josh to make some fences for the graveyard to keep the kids from stepping on everything. He did such an awesome job, they looked so good!       As people walked past the graveyard they came across Ghost Face times 3! First, there was the scarecrow looking Ghost Face in a corner, then there was a hanging Ghost Face...       ...and the one that scared people the most was this Ghost Face...      That was Jaron. He asked if he could be in the haunted house this year and I said yes. He stood next to the wall and he blended in really good. There were kids that thought he was just another statue, but when they got close to him he yell "BOO!" and they'd freak out. There were several kids that he scared so bad that they went running all the way back to the beginning of the haunted house. He thought it was so fun and the teachers working in there with him told me what an awesome job he was doing. Jaron informed me after the carnival was over that he wants to be in the haunted house again next year, he had that much fun.    At the end of the haunted house was another graveyard, a huge spider in a web, and a skeleton with boxes of body parts. I was told by a lot of people that this years haunted house was better and a lot scarier than last year. I was excited to hear that because I was so exhausted after putting it all together and I'm always worried that people won't like it.      Jaedyn went though the haunted house with Josh after we told her she could see "honey", aka Jaron, in it.  Josh said at first she was a little scared, but after touching some stuff at the mad scientist table, she was fine the rest of the way though.  She did like seeing her brother in there.   Josh was still at work when the carnival started and I had to run back and forth between the haunted house and the drink booth that I was in charge of working, so I had this cute 4th grader named Hailey offer to take Jaedyn around so she could play some games. Jaedyn kind of cheated on the "tin can toss" game (she walked up and put her ball in instead of tossing it from a distance), but that's okay, she's only 3...      After playing a few games, Jaedyn had to come show me her prizes. She got a lot of rings...her favorite!       Jantzen spent most of his time at this "fish bowl toss" game because he was trying to win an actual goldfish. Unfortunately for him he never won a fish. Jaedyn tried to, but she never won either...I'm okay with that.       I was able to grab Jantzen and a couple of his friends long enough to get a quick picture, then they all took off again. I didn't see much of Jantzen during the carnival because he was having a lot of fun playing random games. I really only saw him when he needed more tickets.       Josh finally got to the carnival and that's when the kids decided it was time to eat. They enjoyed hot dogs, chips, and drinks...      After eating their nutritious dinner, Josh took the kids to play some more games. They really wanted to do the cupcake walk, so Josh did it with them. Jaedyn and Jantzen both got a cupcake and were really happy about it...      This is how Jaedyn ate her cupcake, it made me laugh!       The carnival was over at 6pm and it took us (the PTO board and some spouses) until almost 9pm to get everything cleaned up. By the end of the night I was exhausted and my feet hurt so much that I was having a hard time walking on them. On a good note though, the carnival was a big success again this year. My kids had a lot of fun and we raised a lot of money for the kids at the school to have more activities and assemblies throughout the school year, so I guess a little pain is worth it.