This was the second year Chris and our neighbor Bill organized the Haunted Alley. This time, the maze was twice the size, our next door neighbors Shelly and Carol dressed as witches and handed out all sorts of drinks, and there were several high school students who helped out scaring folks in the smoke and flashing light and sheets. Anya and Bess, one of her neighborhood friends dressed up as the twins from The Shining and spooked many an adult. It was wildly successful with hundreds of people showing up. This time, we asked for cans of food or donations for Northwest Harvest and our neighbors were quite generous -- I have no idea how many cans we got, but we raised just shy of $600 - which was matched, for a total of about $1200. Not too shabby!
While Chris was in the alley scaring everyone and running the show, Amy hosted many of our school friends families for the evening. After Anya's haunted alley shift was over, she went trick-or-treating with her friends. It was a fun night!
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| Hello, Danny. Come play with us. |
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| Entrance to the Haunted Alley was often packed. |
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| The line to get into the maze was always dozens of people long. |
A few days later we officially celebrated Anya's birthday with a cupcake making class at Froglegs. She invited just the girls in her class (plus one former classmate who is still close with everyone). They made four different kinds of cupcakes and decorated them. They all seemed to have a good time.
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| Cupcake decorating |
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| Pizza and just settling into watching Dumb and Dumber. |
After a short downtime, Eva and Eloise came over to spend the night. The dynamic made for a very high energy, intense start to the evening. There were some arguments -- to the point where we very nearly called it all off. Fortunately, the girls managed to work everything out, settled down, and had fun the rest of the time. I think everyone agrees that we should wait a few years before trying another sleepover with all three of them.
Then Sunday evening, Grandma and Grandpa made Anya's meal choice to celebrate (cioppino and creme brulee). Lucky girl (and lucky us!).
