Halloween 2011

This year, we decided to add another element to our annual Halloween Party - Haunted Woods!

The weekend before the party, Gerrit and David came over to scope out the woods and Zach and I got all of the Halloween goodies down from the attic. Meanwhile, we got the basement cleaned up and ready to go.

Fast forward a few days... My mom, sister and I all took Wednesday, Thursday and Friday off work to get things ready for the party.

Wednesday morning, mom and Sherri showed up bright and early and we headed out to the garage, where it was dubbed, "the Odden's Annual Garage Cleaning"! We had some good laughs! We swept out the garage and got things organized so that we could start building the haunted house.

First thing to go up were the outside walls.
 Here are a couple pics of us in the garage under the black lights!

Then the Haunted House started taking place:

"Orange lights illuminate the stairway as you make your way into the Haunted Maze with a scary creature with a sign to "BEWARE". Turn right but watch out for the big ghost floating in the aisle, then left, go straight - watch out for the bones hanging from the ceiling, turn right down a long dark aisle towards a pair of red eyes... Wait... where is the doorway? which way do i go? the aisle seems to get narrower, oh, phew... there is an opening. Now turn right and a big ghoul shining in the black light, the turn left down a row of corn shown off by strobe lights. Turn right, nothing... the anticipation builds for what might be on the other side of the wall. Turn the corner to the left and a GIANT GHOUL floats in the aisle and seems to come to life from the strobe lights. After the ghoul, take a left and find a blinking mad man in a cage! keep going straight to the glowing ghost at the end of the aisle. Take a left and your breath is taken away by the rows and rows of corn that are dancing in the lights... turn right, and now a quick left - and Moaning Myrtle (named by my sister) starts screaming and making an awful noise as her veil and eyes illuminate in the darkness. Hurry past Myrtle now take a quick left, then a quick right to an opening with a clown faced ghoul dancing in the blacklight with a pile of corn blinking behind him. Creepy writing seems to glow on the floor and the walls. Find the opening on the left and into a dark hallway lit up by a small glowing fire. This is it. The last dark aisle, the orange lights are glowing softly against the ceiling - whew... I made it - one last time."

The party began at 7pm and people slowly start trickling in! By the end of the night, we estimated that about 90 people, kids and adults, joined us for the festivities!

Cant wait until next year!

Click here to view these pictures larger

 (You'll notice towards the end of the pictures that Zach had a couple pranksters visit us in the middle of the night - our front step and sidewalk got "rubber banded", we got TP'd and Zac's friend Alex's truck got Saran Wrapped - All in Good Fun!)